So "they" ask, Sheldon why do drive those old cars? Wouldn't you rather have a more modern hot rod? Surely it's not practical to drive that stuff on a regular basis! Well, that usually opens up a whole can of conversation....and often ends up with me saying "if you gotta ask, then you won't understand"! Today, I go out to the shop to do a brake job on the roadster. I've got 65,000 miles on it since I put it together. Just figured it was time and it deserved a new pair of shoes (not because it felt like it needed them)....just was feeling guilty with neglect. I pulled it apart, now not sure why? In the pic, the old shoe is on the right and new on the left. I haven't EVER gotten that many miles out of my modern stuff with this much life left! I'm going to change them anyway, however this is one example of why "simple" ain't so bad.
The less you brake, the faster you go, don´t you? You are right, if they have to ask , they just won´t understand... I have an NOS set of brake shoes for my daily driver 55 Chevy on the shelf, just in case the old ones wear out... watching at yours, I´d leave them in for another 65000 miles and check them again.
You must never stop (my wife bought a new truck in 1998, my son has it now, over a quarter of a million miles, still on the original front brake pads...we did have to change the rears last year)
We (like most people) drive a modern car day-to-day. It's reliable, comfortable, quiet, fast, economical and very easy to drive, but it has no soul. My hot rods have always been loud, relatively uncomfortable, fast, uneconomical and required a start-up procedure only rivalled by the space-shuttle. But the smile on my face when I was driving them, the friends I made because of them, the looks on the faces of people I passed, and the photo's that adorn my walls at home is why I will always strive to have an 'older' hot rod. They are involving. Rather than a mode of transport they are an extension of your soul. You sense how they run and how they feel, and you know instantly if one of the tyres has lost a couple of psi or the front carb is running a bit off tune. All of those hours in the garage, the money, the skinned knuckles, the days searching swap meets and the internet for that particular axle, light or wheel. The things you make and then throw away as they're not good enough, it's all worth it when you eventually turn the key and hit the road.
65K is 65K. Pat yourself on the back because you properly arched your shoes to the drum. A lost art in my opinion. nice job.
That's an amazing amount of miles on those shoes, and they still look pretty fresh. I would've probably changed them too, considering you had them right there, but it's almost not necessary.
I thought that I had magic rear shoes that never wore out on a car once until I tried turning the drum by hand while someone stood on the brake pedal. Turned out that the flexible line was plugged and the front discs were doing all the work.
just changed the brakes on my 2011 silverado, 164,000 miles on the original shoes. They still had life in them but I ran out of guts.
The Jalopy Journal
