Close call

I was leaving work last nite in my wagon when all of a sudden the traffic just stopped in front of me. I jabbed the brakes hard (no skidding) and I was headed to the right to avoid nailing the car in front. I had plenty of room and wouldn't have hit that car but when I looked in the mirror the Ford Expedition behind me was hard on the brakes and heading left. Lucky for me there was no oncoming traffic.

Close call. My wagon is home today...that spooked me a bit to think it would have been rear ended.

One thing I'm glad for is anti-lock brakes on Expeditions and the fact that I have disk brakes, shoulder harnesses and new tires. That was close.

So, you all with pre-1967 wagons out there, do a brake upgrade and install power disk brakes if you use your cars regularly. I'm glad mine is equipped that way from the factory.

 

Shew. Glad you came through unscathed.

My 67 has manual drum brakes. I do plan to upgrade to power.

 

Heck my '78 has manual brakes. I rebuilt them though, shortly after purchasing the car.

They failed where the hard line in the wheel well goes to the rubber one. Rusted out.

So if anything, check them there especially, give 'em a good hands-on to check for pinholes and cracks.

 

That's right, they are manual on yours. With front disc brakes? I never noticed. Sure stop nice.

 

It takes a while for that lump in your throat to stop swelling. Glad you both made it.

 

I'm glad this didn't have a bad outcome.

 

I am glad and that you and your wagon are ok.

I still have manual drum brakes all around. Plans are to upgrade to power discs in the front leaving the drums in the back unless there are some extra funds to be found in my pockets.

 

Very glad to hear that you and your car are safe!

 

Yeah - I've been driving the Focus since it had around 20k miles and never had the brakes done. It's up to 55k now, so I took it in to my local dealer. Was costly, but I feel a lot safer now.

 

yeah thank god you escaped. would be sad to have an injured member
or lost another rare wagon

 

It was relatively low speeds but I would have got it from both ends if the gal behind me didn't get wow'd fast enough.

 

any close call is one too many...Also,there may still be Lincoln Versailles's and comparably equipped Monarchs and Granadas out there,with that rear axle disk brake set up too...For those of you with the right size wagons for that sort of thing...There are also after-market kits for getting you that kind of rear axle,for a lot of cars... It never hurts to get bigger better brakes...

 

My two daughters were getting into driving age when I bought a 55 Chevy some 20 yrs ago. The VERY first thing I did to that car was install disk brakes on the front end. ( 50 dollar Danchuck brackets and 50 bucks worth of junkyard parts)
They have never had the pleasure of having brake fade due to heat or water on the linings and I didn't want the to start then.
Think about it. The high speed tail gating we see on the roads today isn't because of better highways. It's because of better brakes. Who in their right mind would run up on someone's rear bumper at 60 -70 mph, 30-40 yrs ago. Unfortunately it's pretty common today.

 

what were they thinking?

I've witnessed multi-car pile-ups on the LA Freeway System,that resulted from that very activity ...One even ended up killing somebody ... And no,when I was the kid in the back-backseat watching everybody else on the road,I wasn't seeing the tailgater convoys like I do today. I'm sure it happened back then,just not as much. It's also something I chalk up to cars that are safer to be in,when they crash. :banghead3: Or are supposed to be safer to be in when they crash. People think the cars newer are safe enough, that they can drive more dangerously in them...

 

My pads are completely shot. The thing screeches like a cat with its nuts in a vice right now. Putting new ones in next week.