Add Vintage Brake Pedal to Drifter

- Bill E63 (Delphi Drifter Riders Forum)

- CT (Delphi Drifter Riders Forum)

- JoBear (Delphi Drifter Riders Forum)

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BILL E63

First you need to take out the screw holding the stock rubber pad on and remove the pad. It's not glued on or anything.

Second I used the pedal as a pattern, and laying it on the chrome base of the brake arm, I traced it with a sharpie pen. I took some care to minimize the amount of cutting on the side closest to the engine, as I didn't have the right grinding wheel for the dremel that would hold up to the tough metal used for the brake pedal.

I took a clean tarp and covered the bike and using a few shopping bags wrapped the floorboard.

Now, if you have the cut off/grinding wheel, you're in the home stretch but if you're like me, it's time for a bit of elbow grease and the trusty hack saw and file. After a bit of cutting and shaping it was time to drill the hole for the bolt of the pedal.

The '47-'48 Ford brake pedals are a round piece of steel with an embedded 1/2" 18 tpi bolt in the center. The rubber bullseye is bonded to this.

Using a 2x4 as a support between the brake pedal arm and the foot rest I marked and drilled for the center bolt. Now because of the oddball thread on my particular pedal I found I had to use a metric 14 x1.50 hex jam nut with a 1/2" stainless lock washer to keep it snug. The nut isn't the truest of fits for the thread but it is the best that I could fit at the hardware store.

Before I finshed it all off, I masked off the vertical brake pedal arm and the surrounding area and sprayed the area that I had reshaped with a few coats of satin black rustoleum to minimize the look of the mounting plate. It all blends together now and the brake arm sweeps up under the pedal in it's original chrome.

Ok all of that aside here's where you can find these:

You can google the Ford Round brake pedal or go to:

Check sources below.

Of course, if you have all of the required tools you could remove the brake arm assembly from the bike and cut and shape the base plate so that you could have a more centered pedal than I do. I really like how mine turned out as it is off to the left and out of the way... no more scuffed toe.

Good luck to all and good riding to all.

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From CT

I did replace my stock brake pad with a round version and it was a relatively simple. I purchased a remake of a 1940's Ford round brake/clutch pad thru a Ford restoration store located in Lockport, NY. I don't recall the name and they do sell online. The actual  part was less than $6.00.

I removed the stock brake lever form the Drifter then removed the stock pad from the lever.  The outline of the new round pad was traced over the original in the position I wanted it and cut to size with a hand held grinder. Finished the cut with a finer grit to smooth out the edges.

A hole was then drilled thru the remains of the stock pedal. Originally I threaded the hole. Unfortunately it was not as straight as needed so I drilled it out and used a nut on the underside.

Prior to mountig the new pad I painted the area under the new pad and the freshly cut sides with flat black rustolium to help blend the chrome into the black of the rubber.  The whole job took around 90 minutes or so. I thought it was a nice addition to the vintage look of the drifter.

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FROM JOBEAR

I marked the brake pedal with a sharpie and cut off the excess with a cutting wheel. I marked and drilled the hole for the brake pad stud and tapped it to the correct threading. Then I just simply threaded the pad onto the brake lever.

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SOURCES:

here's the chrome rimmed one for you bling kings:

Rodworx

Another:

Parts 123

Carolin-Classics

And one last one for good measure:

Three different styles here.

BobDrake.com