Greetings,
I recently purchased a 1977 Spitfire and drove it around for about week.
One day after parking it in the garage after a short jaunt around town, I
noticed brake fluid drippings along the tire down to the ground. Since my
goal is to restore this car, I decided to replace the wheel cylinders and
brake lines, if needed. Well, my unsuccessful attempts to separate the
existing wheel cylinder from the steel brake line forced me to replace the
line to rubber one. My unsuccessful attempts to remove the rubber line from
the frame forced me to replace that one, etc. I don't remember where it
stopped. These connections seemed to be rusted closed. The emergency brake
cable/hinge assembly is quite rusted also.
Question: How does one get beyond these rusted or otherwise hard to crack
connections? Is this just a sign of an old car and should I just expect to
replace all these parts after having to demolishing them to pieces or the
sign of an inexperienced "mechanic" or what?
So now, I've replaced the wheel cylinders, virtually all the brake lines in
the rear, and given it a new pair of shoes. The driver side drum was harder
than I expected to get over the shoes, but I figure I might have to wear them
in? A little smoke at first after braking hard to test the new brakes, but it
subsides. All seems well. I might have an "actual" mechanic have look.
I'm relatively satisfied with the brakes and park the car in the garage again
only to notice a radiator leak. A small one, but a leak is leak. The previous
owner had plopped a Honda radiator into the Spitfire. Obviously that one was
not quite new. He said Spitfire radiators were a bit "under powered" for
North American weather.
Question: Since I'm looking to restore (long range) but will be using it for
summer driving (in the city), would you recommend repairing the leak in the
Honda radiator or replacing it with a Spitfire radiator? The bonnet, etc will
be needing work when I get to this stage of restoration, so should I wait for
the new radiator until then? Is the Spitfire radiator large enough?
Sorry for the long winded email, but it's helping me vent my frustrations.
And thanks in advance for any replies!
Victor Michael
Rachael Silvers
Chicago, IL
1977 Spitfire (in need of some TLC and spare parts, but has "potential"!)
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