My name is Paul Carroll and the time has come to tell my story.

 

I’ve been a Hot Rodder / Street Rodder for as long as I can remember and like a whole lot of others I’ve always favored the ‘28 to ‘34 Fords.  The first time I saw a pair of 45 Fin Buick Brake Drums on a ‘32 Hi Boy roadster I was hooked and fascinated by the look.  In the early 70’s when guys started adapting O.E.M. disc brake setups to their early Ford spindles, there was no doubt that the time had come for something better than the conventional drum brakes most people were still using.  Soon front disc brake kits were the norm and most kits used O.E.M. cast iron rotors and calipers with various brackets and adapters to fit an individual’s need.  To a guy like me, even though I knew disc brakes were the safer way to go, I just couldn’t get beyond the look, which in most cases wasn’t that pretty, especially on the front of a traditional looking Hi Boy.

 

During the build of my own first real street rod, I started collecting Buick brake drums and learned a lot about them—even though that car had fenders, it was going to have Buick brakes.  The late Dave Enmark of Super Bell Axle fame had given me lots of tips along with various other Buick brake guys.  Through lots of trial, and some error, I eventually discovered that a mid 50’s Bendix backing plate that used the same 12” Lincoln style brake shoes and hardware, along with a modified early Ford hub worked best for me.  Good used Buick brake drums were never easy and getting harder to find mainly because the most common problem with used Buick drums is that the cast iron liners are cast off center.  

 

When the drums were machined by GM back then, this would cause the liner to be thinner on one side than the other.  The thin side would get much hotter and eventually lead to hot spots and fracturing.  The hot spots are what usually cause the vehicle to pull to one side or the other during heavy braking—not fun, especially on a light Hi Boy.  Also, the off centered liner caused a balancing problem, so GM added weight to the top outer face off the finished drum assembly.  So if you are looking at used Buick drums, you want the ones with the least amount of weight attached, which simply means that the liner is closer to center and the thickness is more consistent all the way around.

 

In early 1995 I completed a new ‘29 Roadster on Deuce rails with Buick brakes for a customer from back East.  He flew out to California with a friend and wanted to drive the car to Las Vegas on its first run and then have it transported home from there.  All went well on their run to Vegas.  But while touring the area he was forced to make a panic stop in traffic at highway speed and fearfully experienced the down side of drum brakes when the car felt like it wanted to change lanes!  Although there was no harm done, it was an eye opener.  I decided that if I was going to continue building street rods as a hobby for customers, it was time to get away from offering used Buick brake setups and accept the facts and advantages of disc brakes, even though it was going to be hard for me to accept that “look” on a traditionally built Hi Boy.  At that time I had a lot of used Buick drums and I wasn’t totally ready to let the “look” go, so I decided to try a mock-up of a disc brake that might fit inside of a Buick brake drum.  I took one of my worst drums, machined the cast iron liner out and removed as much aluminum as possible, since it was only going to be a cover, I would need all the clearance I could get.  I then machined an early Ford hub to accept an O.E.M. non-vented rotor and caliper and used a heavily modified ‘40 Ford style backing plate to cover the backside and conceal the whole inside workings.   The idea was good but I wasn’t happy with the overall proportioning and the drum cover would have to be wider which meant manufacturing one from scratch.  So, if I was going to build a drum cover from scratch my next idea was to see if I could fit it over an existing Wilwood Engineering front brake kit.  Another mock up was created, but it wasn’t going to meet my criteria either.  I wanted to maintain a very authentic look.  It was very important to me to have the brake flex hose exit the backing plate in a similar location to a ‘40 Ford backing plate at the top center.  That meant the caliper would have to be relocated and the offset on the Wilwood hub wasn’t suitable either.  This mock-up looked better than my first attempt and I now knew it was possible.  I also knew I would have to build the whole package from scratch if I was going to pursue this any further.  I was excited and I wanted to get started with my plan to produce an innovative brake system that would satisfy myself and hopefully a whole lot of other people who shared the thought that an exposed rotor and caliper on a Hi Boy was down right ugly! 

 

At the time I was working full-time as a manufacturing engineer for a Navy nuclear defense contractor.  I was very fortunate to be in the accompaniment of some great design engineers and close friends.  When I revealed my pet project it didn’t take long before they started offering their spare time and brainstorming ideas.  Guidelines and priorities had to be set, and because of my expertise in welding and manufacturing, my first priority was material control.  I wanted all of the components for this new system I was about to manufacture to be “American Made” and that all the aluminum pieces be produced from virgin aluminum ingots with certifications provided by the foundry, otherwise how do you know what you are getting?

Design and functionality were next.  The whole idea was to come up with a safe, functional and improved way to stop your ride and also offer an alternate to the exposed disc brake kits. I knew there was no way to improve on the look of the Buick drum, so it was a no brainer.  Although it would have to be totally re-designed, CAD guru Gary Grant set about and designed the first part of its kind in full dimensions.  What was now just a cover would only have to be widened a mere half inch (I still have those old original drawings signed by Gary).  Since I was going to be encasing a cast iron rotor between a cover and a backing plate, heat was going to be a major factor; so material, ventilation and heat dissipation would be of utmost importance.  After all, I wanted to improve the stopping ability over a drum brake system that suffers from what is known as brake fade, which is something that occurs when the drum gets so hot that it actually causes the brake shoes to glaze and lose their ability to be the least bit abrasive.

 

As I show here in the photos of my first design, I used the kidney bean style on the outer face of the drum cover (like on my prototype) to ensure plenty of airflow around the rotor.  That would prove to be unnecessary later on.

Now with all of the critical dimensions taken care of on the drum cover, next would be the backside, the “backing plate/heat sink.”  “Heat sink” meaning that there had to be a way to pull heat away from the hot rotor and make sure it would continue to dissipate the heat as the rotor got hotter otherwise there wouldn’t be much of an improvement over the “drum brake” glazing problem.

My first thought back then was to stamp the backing plate from stainless steel for the bright look and ease of polishing.  That suggestion was shot down because of the fact that stainless steel does not dissipate heat very well. Instead, by it’s natural composition, it is best known to retain heat, making it one of the reasons it is so popular with frying pan and cookware manufacturers.  With a frying pan, a cook wants the pan to heat up fast and remain hot even after the heat source has been turned off, not the kind of material you would want next to a hot rotor that’s getting hotter by the second.  Think about it, a heat source that continues to heat the caliper and brake fluid even while the vehicle is parked.  This too was a no brainer.

 

NOTE:     For a more detailed explanation on why and how stainless steel retains heat so well, please refer to an excellent article written by the experts in this field, BURNS Stainless LLC at www.burnsstainless.com.

 

To make sure that this wouldn’t happen, the backing plate had to be made from aluminum so it could serve double duty as a cosmetic item but most importantly as a “heat sink” to draw that damaging heat away from the rotor and allow it to cool faster.

 

That was the big improvement the Buick aluminum drum had over the conventional cast iron bake drum of that era.  The aluminum cast around the cast iron liner cooled so much faster, and continued to cool well even when the vehicle was parked.

 

I added an air scoop to the backing plate when I decided to discontinue the kidney bean style cover.  The scoop would give the system a new way to breathe and also that famous nostalgia look of that era, but the backing plate still served as the major source of heat dissipation.

So now with the two most visible and important components designed and proofed, I went on to design the rest of the components to complete the system and the rest is Hot Rod history.

 

Now that I have given you the “Originality” of my product, follow along and let me tell and show you how we manufacture our product and why we are so proud to use key words like “Original” and “American.”

 

Once all the drawings were done back then, my first step was to secure capable sources to manufacture the items.  Since Southern California is a major manufacturing area for defense and aerospace products, I chose a local foundry that had been serving the industry since 1948 that was family and employee owned.  What could be more American?  The type of quality control I insisted on was second nature to them and they had an excellent Quality Control program in place and could supply Certifications for materials used.

 

Next came the process by which these major aluminum components would be produced and Permanent Mold would be the only choice for the drum, backing plate and that important hub.

 

For those of you not familiar with this process, Permanent Mold in short, is the process of cast iron molds machined to the image of the desired part to be produced, in this case, a clamshell style where two halves come together and lock.  With Permanent Mold the aluminum is poured into the pre-heated mold and allowed to solidify with the mold closed, then released from the mold and allowed to cool.  This process produces a very stable and dimensionally correct part with great detail and repeatability.  This process is totally different from the sand cast method.  Permanent Mold is just that, the part/item is molded not cast and since I only specify virgin A-356 aluminum these components polish to a very high, long lasting luster because of its purity.  That too is Material Control.

 

The hub to my brake system was an important item to me because it plays the important duty of having the rotating brake rotor mounted to it and housing the bearings that allow the whole assembly to rotate.  I insisted it be produced from A-356 aluminum then heat-treated to the T-6 condition.  This process was contracted to Coast Heat Treating Company of Los Angeles, CA.  At the point of completion, I am provided with certifications of heat treatment by a Quality Control Manager certifying that these parts have been heat treated and Rockwell tested to the requirements of QQ-A-596 and ASTM B 917/B917M.  This too was second nature to me because of my history and past in the defense and aerospace industry, again “Material Control.”

The Company

 

I was committed and I was scared, I had never taken on anything of this magnitude.  This venture made buying my first home feel like a walk in the park.

 

It was going to take a whole lot of time and money along with many sleepless nights since there were still a lot of “what ifs.”  During the early part of the process I was dealing with pattern makers, permanent mold shops, machine shops and various others.  Since no one had ever attempted anything like this in the past, a lot of the people were having a problem understanding the whole concept because in most cases that individual was only responsible for one item and couldn’t visualize the big picture.  They would ask why I wanted to make a disc brake set up look like a drum brake setup.  So, during one of my sleepless nights the name for the product came to me, “Functional Fakes.”  Up until then the product had no name.

 

“Functional Fakes” was perfect since my original goal was to create a safer more functional system, yet retain the finned Buick brake drum look which by now was a fake since it was only a cover.  The name caught on fast and soon all my venders could now relate to the concept.

 

It was now late 1996 and around this same timeframe Pete Chapouris formally of Pete & Jakes Hot Rod Parts in Temple City, CA, had put together a very talented group of craftsmen under the business name of PC3G.  The group was credited with designing a new traditional style front end with everything from hairpins to F-1 style upper shock mounts.  It had the perfect traditional look for a modern day traditional build—nostalgia cars were hot at the time.

 

I knew a few of the guys in the group and one evening while at one of our get-togethers I mentioned what I was doing for the first time to anyone and suggested they mention it to Pete since I felt it was the missing link to their front end.  Soon afterwards Pete contacted me and asked if he could see what I had, which by then was a very refined and detailed working model.  (I still have it)  Pete was very impressed and the picture was clear, their new traditional front end and my “Functional Fakes.”  The package was complete.

 

Like I said earlier, this project was going to take time, so another year goes by and things are happening for me, but at the same time, PC3G seemed to be having problems with the company name recognition.  Pete realized that a new business name was necessary.  Soon afterward he was able to acquire the use of the SoCal Speed Shop name and by March of 1998 it was official.  By then all of the new and first pieces were coming together for me and I was working out the “inevitable” bugs from the system.  The original SoCal Speed Shop roadster was nearing completion.  The plan was to debut the roadster with their new chassis, their traditional front end and my “Functional Fakes” at the first annual SoCal Speed Shop open house on Father’s Day weekend prior to the 1998 LA Roadster Show.  The debut was a total success for SoCal Speed Shop and my “Functional Fakes” were a home run clear out of the park!  Pete and I immediately agreed on a deal where they, SoCal Speed Shop, would be my sole distributor and I would concentrate on the manufacturing full-time which meant leaving the defense industry and a company I had been with for 16 years to pursue this dream.

 

My distribution agreement with SoCal lasted until 2000 when I decided I wanted to make my product available to all dealers and Rod Shops at wholesale prices and I would have SoCal continue to do the retail side and they would also continue to feature the product in their catalogs and magazine ads.   Near the middle of 2002 I was very involved in numerous projects and once again Pete at SoCal approached me and wanted to do sole distribution again.  A new deal was made between him and I.  All was well until January of 2006 when a close friend of mine who worked for SoCal at the time invited me to lunch and broke the news to me that a couple of Pete’s associates were copying my brake system with the intention that, from ten feet away, you wouldn’t know the difference from my “Functional Fakes.”  I was devastated and immediately pulled my entire inventory from their store in Pomona, CA.

 

At this same time my wife and I had just formed Deuce Manufacturing Inc.  This would be the company we would manufacture all our future products through.  We let the word out to all dealers and immediately opened a web site and EBay Store, and by the first of March we were back in business doing both retail and wholesale.  We displayed our products at the LA Roadster Show on Father’s Day in 2006 under our new Deuce Manufacturing name for the first time and it was a great success.  By then the rumors were out, but the new SoCal exclusive wouldn’t appear for another year at the 2007 Father’s Day Roadster Show.

 

There was more to come for us though.  The foundry that produced all of our aluminum parts since 1998 sold without any notice to their customers and since it was family and employee owned a lot of the senior workers retired and now their experienced Permanent Mold guys were gone.  The drum cover was always the most difficult piece to produce and the new owners and crew just couldn’t do it and the rejection rate was too high to be profitable for them.  They suggested changes be made to the mold which didn’t seem to make any difference and we were worried since there were no drum covers being made and our product had to go on hold.  Next the mold was severely damaged and I knew it was time to find a new foundry.  I chose Magparts in Azusa, CA. www.magparts.com due to their background and capabilities along with their quality control program.  With the repairs made, it would be another seven months before the new foundry (Magparts) would be able to proof the mold and familiarize themselves with it.  When the time came they could not get the mold to produce with repeatability and again it was not profitable for them either.  At this point the foundry suggested that a new mold was necessary.  Fortunately, Magparts had the capability and the engineering staff along with engineering students from Cal-Poly Pomona, CA. to design the new mold with the help of SolidWorks™.  A new mold would give me the opportunity to totally redesign the drum cover which is the most visible part of the system and also correct any past issues. A lot had changed with design software from the time I designed the first drum cover and I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity to create the highest quality part possible.  The new drum cover would again be made from A356 aluminum through the Permanent Mold process (no cheap die cast like the other guys).  After months of design and modeling the project was sent to Rock Pattern in Simi Valley CA. www.rockpattern.com where the cast iron patterns were made and machined to reality.  Rock Pattern and owner Paul Rock are very well known in the automotive and marine industry for their super “high end” permanent molds.  After a lot more time, the mold was finished and shipped back to the foundry and readied for the production run.  The first sample pieces would prove that all the time and money were well spent, the quality is unbelievable.  Now go to our Home page and click on Products and check out the features of our new drum cover.  Thank you for taking the time to read my story.  Sincerely,  Paul Carroll.

 

 

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