The Boxes of parts have been flooding in this week! Coil Springs, wheel cylinders, Brake Shoes, Spring Kits,star wheel adjusters & Brake hoses are all here.
I sandblasted the backing plates & spindles and coated them with Eastwood’s Rust Capsulator. After a 24 hour drying period, I then sprayed them with Eastwood’s Chassis Black Gloss early this morning before work, which gave them a mirror like finish. It got to 90 degrees here today, so the heat was good for baking that paint on real nice by the time I got home.
I then began assembling everything by attaching the backing plates to the spindles. Followed by the wheel cylinders, Brake shoes, star wheel adjusters, brake adjuster spring, and finally the return springs. I had an expensive set of brake spring removal/installation tool. It actually was such a pain in the butt to use, I went back to my trusty old $3.00 spring tool I bought 20 years ago when I worked on my old Datsun pickup. It was so easy, and fast. I think I’ll give my brother the expensive/complicated brake tool. One less contraption to have to store.
One problem I did come across is that the brake shoes I ordered were about 1/2 in too wide. I actually think they sent me rear shoes. The ’58 wagons have wider brake shoes for the back, and the drums are wider also. This is unfortunate, as I don’t have time to send them back and exchange them for new ones.
Oh well. Now I have a set of rear shoes. I inspected the old shoes, and they looked fine. The pad surface was very thick, not cracked, and looks like they had been replaced before it was parked in the late 1980’s. I will purchase new pads at another time, but for the meanwhile these will suffice for driving it in and out of the garage.
Ranchwagon's Blog 
That’s a bummer about the brake shoes but the spindles and backing plates look great! Keep up the awesome work.
Are you using stock springs, or the oft used Aerostar springs to lower the nose a bit ?
Hey Zapato! Glad to hear from you.
Yes. The springs I ordered are the Aerostar springs, which will lower the front end by about 2″. They fit right in and look great. Here is a HAMB link about using these springs on your ’49-’59 Fords :
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260795&highlight=aerostar
Yeah Chris, it is frustrating but this is the only problem to happen during the whole front end rebuild, process so I can’t feel so bad. Just counting my blessings because It could have been worse. Thanks for the encouragement! I see you are really making progress on your’ 57 bird. Keep it up and you’ll be cruising around seeing those beautiful California sunsets from inside your Thunderbird instead of crawling around underneath it!