Re: [Amc-list] breaks

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 13 May 2007, JOE FULTON wrote:

> As a pilot, I think that's one of the reason for a
> pre-flight inspection before every flight.  You want
> to make sure things that make power, actually make
> power, and it's good to be able to stop when and where
> you need to.
>
> Having said that, I would have approached that car the
> same way you have.  Clean it up, make it drivable.

I think pilots have it right. I try to look at things similarly.
Most failures have multiple causes. In this car, I knew the rear
brakes were dead, the brake resevoir was empty (leaking). Fronts
worked OK, stopped well with no side pull.

The setup for a crash would have been simple in this case:
no rear brakes to pick up the slack, that old rusty brake line
fails. Old hard rubber tires, lousy shocks, all contribute to
lack of control. A fist full of pennies add up to a buck. CRASH!

If the rears worked... if the parking brake worked better...

Whenever I find a problem anywhere in a system I assume there
are other masked problems, and I'm right half the time. A bad
Thing usually means deferred maintenance.

You or I or other old car nuts might do just the front, or rear,
brakes, s because we're on top of things and can gauge how long
the other end will last.

In cars like this (recently "just a car") when one thing is
worn out, usually everything else is!

I'm keeping the shoes, drums, springs and wheel cyls, but I've
inspected them all, wirebrushed them clean(er), peeled back
the boots to look for leaks. With all new hydraulics, I know
I can at least stop!



I think I'll go to the Bob's Big Boy meet in Toluca Lake and
park it next to a big shiny 55 Chevy or something and rev it
up in neutral.


> I bought it to protect it from the scrapper.  I'm glad
> you are continuing to appreciate the car.

The more I crawl under this thing the more I like it. It's
exactly the right car.

The roof is pretty rusty. I got some "rust dissolver" and
rust coat paint from Eastwood. I'll disc-sand the crud off,
but it will always be pitted. I'll absolutely stop the rust
though and get it coated with something paintable. It won't
look shiny but degradation will stop.

But crawl;in under the car, boy there's not a lot of chassis
stiffness visible, it's a tin cookie sheet with a couple of
side connectors, and a lot of air in big fluffy fenders. And an
L-head with auto trans, man would that be slow!  (I had a '59
American with that set up long ago, 70mph was quite a feat and
an adventure), and I did little highway driving back then, even.)




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