Brake question on the '70 Country Squire

How many 44 year old cars have you had brake work done to?



A few comments:

1. Never mess with brakes. If you doubt what they're telling you about the condition of various parts of the system, have them show you in person.

2. Rust like they're describing is quite reasonable given the age of the car. I had a much newer car ('98 Olds Cutlass) that had only 35,000 miles on it, but when I had the brakes looked at earlier this year, they told me the system was so rusted it was not safe to drive. I no longer own that car.

3. Given all the work they're doing, the price is reasonable. Parts may be not that expensive, but there's a lot of labor involved.


If you plan to keep and drive this car, get the brakes renewed.

 

Exactly. I had to rebuild the rears on both my bro's '83 Country Squire and my '79 Ranchero GT due to rust, leaks, age and, well, maybe not treachery.

 

I've owned several old cars in the past. Some have needed various components to be replaced. This is the first one that has required a more-or-less total overhaul.

"Go" is optional, but "stop" is not optional, so the brakes will be fixed.

I'm wondering if I should keep some of the old components, in case I need to have them rebuilt down the line? Obviously the proportioning valve is getting hard to find. I wonder if the calipers will be hard to find someday, and how hard they would be to rebuild, if necessary.

 

You can do that, with the following: calipers, slave cylinders, master cylinder, hardware and the proportioning valve. Everything else you can still get and will be able to for a very long time.

 

Supposedly the shop is waiting on parts, and has the wagon back together to move it around.

I have a car show I was invited to attend with it tomorrow, and I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt to borrow it from the shop to show it, and then return it to them on Friday.

Guess I can ask them if they think it is safe to drive in its current condition? If they say yes, then I could give it a try.

 

When I got the 68 CP, the brakes kept binding up when hot due to failing brake hoses. The rear passenger drum had corrosion and had to be unseized from the shoes by whacking and rocking. Since I did not know the brake history on the wagon, I ended up having everything except the hard lines and booster replaced/ rebuilt. The rotors were wasted by the locking brakes and the drums were either below minimum or rusted. It was not cheap at all. I guess I could have tried to do it myself except it would have taken quite to have the car on jacks without the room to work on it. I also had negative experiences with brake bleeding (one man no help) and no experience with disc brakes.

The last main reason I didn't do it myself was for liability. If something happened (some idiot pulling in front) or if passengers are injured inside, the question of adequate braking would come up. What I know about cars I learned myself through tearing things apart and asking. If something happens, I could show the receipt to prove everything was functioning as it should. This is especially important if towing a trailer since my wagon has a receiver hitch.

At least my brakes work great now. I've had to slam the brakes one time due to an idiot pulling right in front of me (probably on purpose). Car stopped as good as any pre-ABS 80's car should. In the future, I'll swap out the pads/ shoes as needed myself. Wayne

 

I'm going to investigate one-man bleeder tools, and perhaps do my own brake fluid flush and fill periodically, which should extend the life of the brakes, after I get this overhaul done.

 

Look, the way I see it, doing a full overhaul on the braking system is something that needs to be done every so often. It's great piece-of-mind to know everything is new again and feeling that firm brake pedal is a reassuring feeling. What I don't like is a person paying a whole lot of money for some pretty basic work. I'm not saying the your repair shop is taking advantage of you or is over priced but there are alternatives.


Doing the brake job really only requires a few basic hand tools, a service manual and some time. In lieu of time, there are many, many mechanics and very proficient hobbyist that will do the job competently for a fraction of the cost. I would really suggest you speak with some local car guys and get their recommendations on which mechanics may take side-jobs at their house after their regular day job ends. If you want to tackle a portion of the job yourself than I think you'll surprise yourself with how capable you may be. Just read the manual, do some Google searches, take photos of whatever you are going to take apart and go into it knowing it will take some time. If you screw up something, there are always folks willing to lend a voice and guidance. Taking photos and sharing is a great way to validate your doing things right or wrong. Finally, as a safety net, you can always take the wagon to a repair shop to finish, correct or even inspect your work.

Anyway, this hobby isn't very fun when you can't drive your car AND you have to pay a whole lot of moolah on some basic services.

Just my two cents.

Chris