1950 Chrysler body

[1966 Calais]

Would anyone know, why Chrysler on its 1950 2 door cars, has a large metal dome, under the front Driver's  seat. I have seen it on a 1950 imperial and a 1950 Town and Country 2 door.

 

currently restoring the Town and Country

 

thanks Bob

[Rusty_OToole]

That is where they put the power brake booster. Power brakes were standard equipment on New Yorker and Imperial, optional on other models. They used a booster separate from the master cylinder, in other words, they used the same master cylinder as the non power brake cars with a booster bolted to the chassis under the floor behind the master cylinder.

 

You can still buy a modern version of this booster, they are widely used on hot rods. Jaguar had a similar booster separate from the master cylinder. Here is some info on how they work, if you are thinking of adding one.

 

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/hidden-remote-vacuum-brake-booster.7693/

Edited January 6, 2019 by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)

[c49er]

The dome is there on all the eight cylinder and long wheel base Chrysler cars for 1949-52.

Under the dome is the frame mounedt "Vacu-Ease" brake booster.

On some early 1949-50 cars the dome was screwed down to the floor... later cars it is spot welded to the floor.

This booster applied boost and was only used on only the long wheel base 8 passenger sedans, 6 cylinder station wagons and all eight cylinder cars except the low production 145" WB Crown Imperial Limo/ 8 pass sedans and the 1950 Town and Country hard top woodie.

These low production cars  used Ausco- Lambert 4 wheel disc brakes.

The 1950 T&C you are working on has or originally had these 4 wheel disc brakes and no booster was used with these rare brakes even though a booster dome is still there.

[c49er]

[1966 Calais]

Thank you for the great, very helpful  information!