That ol' bomb look very solid underneath. May I suggest oil spray followed by parking somewhere other than your driveway unless you have a bunch of cardboard all over the parking spot. Or you can do what farmers did, oil spray followed by a drive down a dusty road. Also no matter what you do with the brakes, replace ALL the rubber lines no matter how good they may appear. One blown hose and you have no brakes. I think your '61 is really cool, 3-speed, 261, patina and all.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
I would suggest Rust Check, Krown or similar light oil. Spray it down, let it soak to the base metal to slow down further corrosion. Might drip a little at first but it does clean up pretty well.
Ever since I heard the story of one of my friends who had a seal go in his single-chamber master cylinder, I'd suggest replacing everything that contains rubber or could fail, or just upgrade to dual chamber master cyl. That day he was out driving around in his '66 Coronet all day with his young son in the car. When he got home, he pulled the car into his garage and the brake pedal went all the way to the floor. Had it happened when he was out driving around it could have been tragic as he would have had absolutely no brakes (except the park brake which is marginal at best). Those single chamber units scare me...
I actually bought a front disc brake conversion kit from Speedway with a dual circuit master cylinder. I plan to drive it on some pretty decent mountain roads in AB and BC this summer.
Dave7
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Working on the front disc conversion. Once there was drums now there are discs. Still needs brake lines and master cylinder hooked up. Sadly the stock wheels don't fit anymore. Might with a spacer.
Looking good. And I'm sure it will be a large functional improvement.
For wheels, is the diameter the problem? If so, can you get a set of 15" steelies that will clear the calipers and install a set of base ('dog dish') hubcaps to maintain a stock appearance?
We bought a kit for the disc brake conversion that allowed up to run 14" disc brake rims (78 malibu, 80s cutlass, 80's S-10 etc) we did move it to a 15" setup with dog dish hubcaps since we had planned to do anyways to get the car back up to its original ride height on radials
Working on the front disc conversion. Once there was drums now there are discs. Still needs brake lines and master cylinder hooked up. Sadly the stock wheels don't fit anymore. Might with a spacer.
Very impressive. And smart thing to do. Most wouldn't ever go to the trouble on such a project, but you'll certainly be glad you did descending the mountains.
I love this great car and post, and have a little spark in the back of my own mind, that I would love to do the same if the right one came along. Cheers.
I drove it 1300 kms on my rally. Car did great until the end. Then some engine issues. If someone buys it great, if not I'll fix it and get it back on the road again.