VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions What should be modified for safety?

Working on a 41 Master Deluxe. Has the 216, 3 speed, drums etc. I plan on my kids driving it when they turn 16. This is a car for cruising around and just enjoying, not a show vehicle. With this said what features / upgrades should I be considering regarding safety? I am installing blinkers. I am also strongly considering lap belts. Since the speed should not go to high an it is only going to be a good weather car I believe the drums should be fine but should I consider a dual master cylinder?

I know as a hobby the car will never truly be done but I am more comfortable with a plan to move ahead with.

I added a third brake light on both my 38 and 53. The 53 is shown.

Outside turn signals and seat belts, simply maintain it in an original condition factory configruation and it will be fine.

The brake system will need no upgrade outside of keeping the pistons in the wheel cylinders free by exercising them often.

Don't over think this notion of maximum safety or else you will soon have something that on balance is not really a 41 Chevrolet anymore.

Best,

Charlie

Thanks for the replies. Not looking to change the personality of the car. I know a 41 will never be safe per say. Just looking at the while you are at it items that can be done and not change how it feels to drive.

I have lap belts and turn signals in my ”˜37. The headlights had been converted to sealed beams. If I remember correctly your ”˜41 already has those.

Split master cylinders came into production in the late 60’s. Your current brake system will work great as long as you exercise the wheel cylinders like Charlie said and keep the shoes adjusted along with the parking brake.

I put radial tires on my 38 along with lap belts. It already had signal when I bought it.

Just be aware that split or dual master cylinders can fail!!!

Modern cars have a split system that is partitioned in a diagonal manner. That makes for a very complicated valve arrangement but is safer than a front and back split. I have read many posts of people retrofitting trucks with a split system. They seem to have trouble initially bleeding and getting a useable pedal height. I have not seen where anyone has actually tested the arrangement with one half open to see if it still gives useable braking. I am guessing that in many cases it would not:

While the single line brakes work well I do prefer a dual system (front / rear). With front rear split if the front fails you have both rears still working but with the diagonal split 1 front and opposite rear work work which can cause an unintentional hard turn depending on which side is working then with the diagonal rear working only serves to aggravate the situation. I wont go into details of how I know but lets say the laundry had extra work that day.
Tony

Thanks for all of the replies. I think I will stick to my original plan or blinkers and lap belts. If the break system ever needs major work then I may put a split system in, for now I will let it be.

I am thinking about some type of additional light in the rear incase I get stuck out at night. I might do something in the rear window. What ever it is it would be so I could unplug it and remove it if I wanted.

Seat belts, rear center stop lamp and blinkers are good options for safety. So are additional or larger mirrors. Radial tires can dramatically reduce wonder on uneven road surfaces.

FWIW I made my center brake light out of an old implement light. Cut the shaft to the correct length, welded a plate on the end, screwed it to a piece of plywood & covered the plywood with upholstery material then wired it to the brake light feed off of the BL switch. I made the mount spring loaded so I can get to the housing when it's time to replace the bulb. The lens was clear so I used stained glass spray to color the inside of the lens red.

I have all of the above mentioned an am glad for it but the split master cylinder. I will say that I now need brighter lights and am looking for LED recommendations for my stock 38 6volt configuration. Any thoughts?

I was thinking of making it a similar way. Only using a magnetic base and a trailer harness plug for the wiring. Make it so the wire could be tucked out of view and the light removed if I did not want it there.

Are there LED 6 volt bulbs that can be directly changed out in the sockets? I have seen them like this for 12 volt. A twist and turn change out would be easy. Also if something failed in the future they could be swapped to trouble shoot.

You can go crazy with research on LED bulbs. Yes, you can find 6 volt bulbs that physically fit.

The caveat is that the layout of the array is critical to make it work with the existing housing and lens. Just because a bulb is brighter with respect to light intensity does not mean it is more visible or provides more light where you need it.

The exiting bulb emits light is a fairly large spherical shaped pattern. That is reflected within the housing and also covers almost the whole area of the lens. A concentrated LED will simply show as a small spot in the lens.

I followed Tony’s advice and painted the interior of my housings white. Like Tiny I also installed the higher candle power bulb of the same size and shape as the original. My tail and brake lights are very visible.

When you do all of the above the car will still be lacking 90% of the safety features sch as crsh zones of a modern car.

White for the front only i assume? Where did you get the higher candle power bulb? Not seeing Tony's advice perhaps another thread? Ive only seen the Chev 40's bulb. Did you do something to the tail/brakes that have made them so visible?

My fumble fingers. I meant Tony’s advice ( not Tony). Tiny has posted about this numerous times over the years.

The original taillight and brake light bulbs are #63. A #81 bulb is the same size and about double the candle power. It makes a noticeable difference. A #87 bulb is too large to fit into the housing.

Bulbtown has very good technical data on their website to help you select bulbs and their pricing is reasonable.

Remember to paint the interior of the housing gloss white. And use plastic lenses, not glass. The plastic lenses pass a lot more light.

For my third brake light I used an 1133, 32cp bulb. It's far too large to fit most tail lights but fits the implement housing well. As Rusty noted, gloss white inside the housing and brighter bulbs make a ton of difference.

Did not realize the glass was not as goo as the plastic. I have glass in mine. The inside is gloss black if I remember right. I have some chrome paint, wonder if that would work better than gloss white.

"Chrome" paint is just a shade of black. Short of silvering the highest reflectivity will come from gloss white.

Just to confirm stock headlight bulb but with the gloss white interior. Step up the taillight bulb to a #81. Where are you buying plastic glass? Looks correct? thanks

Hurlbird: Sorry for the confusion on my part. My comments have been about tail lights and brake lights. I have a sealeed beam conversion on my car so I cannot offer any guidance about headlight bulbs.

I do not know the year and model of you car. Does it have 2 bulbs in each tail light housing or does it use a double filament bulb?

My ”˜37 has 2 bulbs in each housing and I put #81 bulbs in both sockets.

1938.. so you are saying paint the taillights white then? thanks

Inside the housing. Also use an 1129 bulb for the brake light. You might have to bend the bracket just a bit to get it to clear the lens since it's a larger bulb. In the pics below I have the larger bulb in the top socket which isn't the best way. You should put the tail light bulb on top since it'll be lit the most so your license plate is properly lit. The last pic below shows a comparison in brightness between my 6v tail light on the left with the #81 bulb and my modern 12v pickup on the right. As you can see, other than the size of the housing, the 6v is every bit as bright. Plastic lens.