After the Not a Good Day things seemed to be improving. In Tanks A Lot it even looked like the gas gauge was working!
I called Power Brake Booster Exchange who had rebuilt the (wait for it…) power brake booster and described what I was seeing with the brakes. Their verdict was “sounds like something inside the booster isn’t right; send it back and we will take a look”.
So I did and they did.
And then I got the email. With pictures. The main hub is broken, not repairable, they don’t have any of these boosters and they don’t have any parts.
The main hub is a plastic piece. A 60 year old plastic piece. That is fairly easy to break in shipping unless the brake booster is packed very carefully. Now I learn this…
OK, time to find a replacement. I went through my list of usual suspects for Imperial parts and got the same response across the board. “No, I don’t have any. These are really popular and hard to come by. They go really fast when I do get one.”
Krud. On a stick. With a side of rancid krud! Brakes are kind of necessary on a car. I’m rapidly moving back to a not so good day.
I posted a note asking for help on the Online Imperial Club mailing list. Someone suggested trying Murray B. Park, so I gave him a call.
He said that he didn’t have a ready to install booster, but he did have a rebuildable core. I grabbed that while I had the chance and asked him to ship it directly to Power Brake Booster Exchange. Apparently this isn’t the first time he has done this. He claims to know how to pack things so that UPS can’t break them. I pointed out that this is a rather bold claim. He acknowledged that I had a point…
Things are looking better than they did yesterday. This is a half step forward. As soon as I have a working booster installed in the car it will be a full step forward.
In the meantime I’m sitting here muttering under my breath “It’s only money. It’s only money. It’s only money. “
While waiting for (hopefully) good news on the brake booster let’s take some time for Yet More Workshoppery Storage. Or go straight to the next restoration article Chilling?.