small winter victories on an old MrkI

[the shadow]

with he retreat of the polar vortex here in PA I was able to finally continue my vintage Mark I revival. I install a modified "manual" brake pedal in place of the "power brake" pedal that was incorrectly installed 20 years ago. Wow what a difference it went from rock a hard pedal to 3/4-1" of actual brake travel (thanks to all the members who suggested fixing it correctly) put some new AC pedal's in to. Now I just need to replace a water temp gauge in the dash, a new turn signal light & install new seat belts and a set of adjustable sliders under the drivers seat. Hope the weather stays above 32!

[AC Bill]

I ended up using the Russ Thompson pedal set, as they were a simple install, but I always liked the look of the AC pedals. Attaching them to the donor pedal arms always looked like a bit of a challenge. Could you explain how you did them?

[JohnnyB]

I always liked the look of the AC pedals. Attaching them to the donor pedal arms always looked like a bit of a challenge. Could you explain how you did them?
I milled a slot into them with cutting wheel on a bench grinder. I'm sure there are more elegant ways to do it but these have been hanging in there for 25 years with no issues.
And thumbs up on your Mark 1 restoration Shadow. It's nice to see the old ones getting some love.
225776

[the shadow]

I ended up using the Russ Thompson pedal set, as they were a simple install, but I always liked the look of the AC pedals. Attaching them to the donor pedal arms always looked like a bit of a challenge. Could you explain how you did them?

Since I was planning on doing a brake pedal upgrade to one with the proper leverage for manual brakes, I decided to get rid of the stock ford square pads. I bought the ac pedals off ebay and painted them black, after drying I sanded the surface with 220 paper then scotch brite to get the shadow accents. while the pedals where out I decided to bend the clutch and brake arms more to the left to give me needed foot room (still tight but not on top of each other now). I cut off the ford pads and marked the shafts for pedal location, drilled for 5/16" bolts and installed them. later I may put a maximum motorsports clutch position bracket on to drop the clutch closer in line with the brake pedal but for now its fine.

[the shadow]

I milled a slot into them with cutting wheel on a bench grinder. I'm sure there are more elegant ways to do it but these have been hanging in there for 25 years with no issues.
And thumbs up on your Mark 1 restoration Shadow. It's nice to see the old ones getting some love.
225776

thanks john, I wanted a cobra that was sorted out and looked good that I could still make my own with updating. I also didn't want to spend months and years building it (already did that with corvettes and street rods) and lastly I didn't want to break the bank buying one in case it wasn't the car of my dreams!

[AC Bill]

Since I was planning on doing a brake pedal upgrade to one with the proper leverage for manual brakes, I decided to get rid of the stock ford square pads. I bought the ac pedals off ebay and painted them black, after drying I sanded the surface with 220 paper then scotch brite to get the shadow accents. while the pedals where out I decided to bend the clutch and brake arms more to the left to give me needed foot room (still tight but not on top of each other now). I cut off the ford pads and marked the shafts for pedal location, drilled for 5/16" bolts and installed them. later I may put a maximum motorsports clutch position bracket on to drop the clutch closer in line with the brake pedal but for now its fine.

I like the addition of the black paint. The pads you used look like the attachment point for the cross bolt is much better than the AC pedal pads that were available back when I was building mine. They didn't have as much meat to them, and looked challenging to fasten to the arm.
I see one fellow on the FFCars forum, who welded a flat piece of steel on to the arm above the donor arm's square pad, and attached the AC pads with screws and nuts. I guess he ground off the tabs at the back of the AC pads.