Hi Folks.
(This is worse than classic Hugh stuff. It is very, very long)
The Achilles heel of most cars from the 50's is their brakes. In a "Car
Life" magazine from May of 1957, kindly given to me by Mike Trettin, there
is an article dedicated to this "deadly" subject. It points out that while
cars were getting ever bigger and more powerful, braking technology had not
kept pace. To quote specifically, from the article written by Jerry Titus,
'Some automobile manufacturers are producing cars with braking systems that
could only be considered adequate on units of half their gross weight.' The
three page article, four if you include diagrams, goes into harrowing
detail. Harrowing, if, like me, you have just smashed up you rather lovely
58 Imperial in a 4 MPH collision.
This has been a tumultuous year for me, to say the least. While I will
stick only to Imperial travails, suffice it to say they were the least of my
worries. To give just a hint, I should have been working on the Imperial
this week and, hopefully, bringing it back to earth, as it has been up on
jack stands at a friend's house for over six weeks, or ever since it came
out of the body repair shop. Unfortunately I sustained some second degree
burns on the sides of my index fingers while working on another vehicle and,
though I am healing nicely, I have been advised that working with brake
fluid and 90 weight grease would be considerably detrimental to continued
healthy progress.
Backtracking with another related aspect, I almost gave up Imperialling
altogether. I was heartily sick of the 1958 once I had to start using it as
a daily driver. All the quirks I found so endearing in a magnificently
absurd weekend toy became hated liabilities in every day use. Mechanical
reliability aside, how folks deal with big iron like Town Cars on a daily
basis is beyond me. I missed my little VW convertible desperately. The
accident just capped the climax. The brakes failed just as I was leaving
work. I was only going at 4 MPH, up a slight incline. The 58's bumper is
so low that it just ran underneath the bumper of the unfortunate modern
Dodge truck waiting at the traffic light. The truck sustained next to no
damage but the Imperial was a real mess. So much for their ballyhooed
indestructibility.
I was dealing with so much other nonsense at that point I simply wanted to
back burner the car. Take it out to the museum, throw a tarp over it and
worry about it later. In addition, my wife stated unequivocally that our
daughter would not be allowed to ride in it again until the brakes were
fixed, and I agreed without reservation. Frankly. I didn't want to be in
it, either.
Which brings me back to the article. My experiences with the car's brakes
since 1994 have been on the poor to extremely poor side. I had to conclude
that despite an almost overwhelming desire to keep the car all original, the
brakes on the car could never be any better than adequate, and extremely
high maintenance into the bargain. Checking fluid level in the master
cylinder is hard enough but getting under the car pretty frequently to
closely inspect all six cylinders, plus the steel and flexible lines is
required as well. No fun on such a low car.
Fate intervened unexpectedly, from my own insurance company no less, which
is not the insurance on the Imperial. As the car had been involved in an
accident with another vehicle which had been repaired at the expense of the
museum's insurance, my own insurance was obliged to pick up the tab for the
Imperial. The museum only has third party liability coverage and through a
quirk of Texas Law the drivers insurance must kick in, as secondary
insurance, to cover damage to the vehicle he was driving, if the primary
insurance had to pay for another vehicle. Go figure. All I knew was that
good old State Farm was on the hook and absolutely insisted I bring the 58
in to a collision evaluation center. And I drove away with a check for
$2,500, made payable to the museum. So, knowing those bums would be quite
keen to use the money for other purposes given half a chance, I took the car
immediately to the same repair shop that had done such a magnificent job
rebuilding my 1992 Chrysler Le Baron convertible. This was a double
benefit, since the shop is closely allied with State Farm and any
recommendation from them with regards to needed repairs would therefore be
handled quite easily.
The shop is good but incredibly slow. One of the reasons I had to use the
Imperial for so long is that it took them almost two months to repair the
1992. However, I was in no hurry to get the Imperial back, so I decided to
use their tortoise like speed to my advantage. To save time and effort, it
was decided a replacement hood would be the best way to go, if possible.
Through a circuitous set of circumstances I was able to acquire a good one,
locally, for only $50.00. Time crept by. I was hopeful that I might get
the car back in better condition than even before the accident, judging by
the results of their craft on the 1992. I was sadly mistaken. When I was
able to collect it, I was devastated to see their had simply shot automotive
paint over my own hand applied paint. No stripping, sanding, or preparation
of any kind. Now I have car with one third of it painted in shiny modern
paint which manages to look worse than the other two thirds of grubby hand
applied paint. And, its the wrong colour as well. I don't know what blue
it is but it isn't Ballet Blue, that's for sure.
So now, instead of being able to be bold about how bad the car looks all I
can be is extraordinarily embarrassed. I was furious, as you can imagine.
Guess what? I was on the bell for the 1992 and had told them to take the
high road and get everything just right. As a result, the job took longer
and cost a lot more. With State Farm holding the tab, no such luck. I
think the shop should have called me to discuss the situation. I would have
been willing to pay for the prep work the insurance company would not cover,
but that is to be part of more negotiation, once I get the car back to
running condition.
When I picked the car up, it had to be hauled on a wrecker, since what
vestiges of braking that had allowed me to drive it to the shop were
completely gone. Again, I was just going to through a tarp over it when
fate stepped in again. A very good friend of mine would not hear of this
course of inaction. He decided, without equivocation, that the car was to
be removed to his house where we would tackle its braking issues once and
for all. He is a meticulous car guy and his own cars are regular show
winners. He ran a car shop for many years and knows his Mopars. But not
Imperials. He was about to be inducted into our world, of hard to find
parts and tough application situations. He has come to conclude he has
never worked on a better, worse car.
Space to work is at a premium on the 1958 Imperial. Huge as it, there just
doesn't seem to be enough room under the hood for getting to anything
easily.
And here's how things stand. A plethora of might as well projects have been
completed. My exhaust leak has been fixed, with a replacement gasket at the
joint between pipe and manifold. Many of the freeze plugs have been
replaced, using brass inserts. The two lines to the inlets to the top of
the drivers side valve cover have been replaced. I had not known what they
were for but it turns out they are return lines for oil that it directed to
two gizmos away from the engine. One is inside the car, behind the A/C
outlet, under the dash. Another is beside the hood hinge bracket. Who
knew? Both rubber lines were in very poor shape and were capable of leaking
furiously.
Our main task has been to replace the original master cylinder with a dual
pot set up from a 1969 Dodge Charger. We wanted to use a more modern type
with the spring clip to hold the top in place but none would fit in the
limited space available under the booster, which is being kept original.
The 1969 MC has a bolt to hold on the top, but it does not go through fluid
but rather the wall between the two pots, a considerable improvement over
the original "design." What has been done is that the original line has
been kept but now only serves the front wheels. The original four way
connector has been capped to the rear and a new line added to connect the
original rear line to the MC directly. With each line attached to one pot
apiece what we are trying to do is add a margin of safety. Should one line
go out, either front or rear, I will still have another intact line to rely
on.
I had a challenging phone call with the good people at Karpps, in
California, while ordering a replacement bellows unit for the booster
arrangement. They offered to rebuild my original MC for $100, using
stainless steel. It was their opinion, one which I share, that the MCs I
had acquired so far were simply poorly done rebuilds. Karpps said they
would guarantee their work for ten years. They have a justifiably high
reputation so I really was forced to think long and hard about making a
change to a dual pot set up. In the end, I decided the extra margin of
safety from having two separate lines was irresistible. In addition, the
change was relatively low impact on originality, if I could keep to all
MOPAR parts, which would have several benefits. The fitting plate of 1969
Charger MC that attaches to the fire wall is identical, so no modifications
were required. In addition, should I or anyone else want to back to a
single pot MC, it will be very easy to accomplish. Reconnect the line to
the rear to the original connector. Remove the new line to the substitute
MC and install a 'correct' single pot MC. No big deal.
Theory and practice are proving to be a little divergent again, and creating
the lines and establishing full pressure has been quite a headache. What we
have found about the old set up is that it was broken in three places, all
of them unexpected. The MC itself was failing as the piston was not running
true within the cylinder. Rather it was working just a little to one side,
scarring that side and leaving an opportunity for flow by on the other. The
MC was less than two years old and may have been improperly fitted. Since I
got that done "professionally" I don't have to feel so bad about that. In
addition I had two small, hard to detect, leaks. One was where the line ran
into the MC. Last year, the line was reflared at that point, after I broke
it during the engine rebuild, last year's unexpected summer chore. The old
steel line had split, just a hair, and just a little fluid would weep out
every time the brakes were applied. The drivers side rear wheel cylinder,
fitted only last year also had a very small leak. I have the procedure
chronicled on my own web site. Removing a hub from a tapered axle can be
challenging, so I took step by step pictures in case it might be of benefit
to others.
Where things stand right now is we have decided to replace the bearings on
the other side at the rear. This will entail removing the axle itself. We
already have the hub off and I have borrowed an axle puller, which is like a
hub puller in reverse. A hub puller holds at the center and pulls the hub
off. The axle puller holds at the lugs and pulls the center. I have never
done this before, so I intend to take pictures of the procedure and add it
to my site later. Getting new bearings, a race and the seal proved
relatively easy and inexpensive. I got them from a company in San Antonio
that specializes in bearings and related items. No generalist parts store
had them.
Once the car is back in drivable condition, I intend to take it back to the
paint shop. I have discussed the situation with them. They, of course,
know how atrocious the car looks. Getting the situation improved to our
mutual satisfaction will involve more tricky negotiations. I will have to
find a perspective and scenario that involves some benefit to them over and
above taking huge amounts of money from me that I simply don't have.
If you made it this far, you must be as crazy as me!
Hugh
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