C30 dually project goes patina

[flatbed67]

Thank you, Orange67, that's very kind of you.
Getter-Done: Yes, using the old distributor makes it look period. I huge HEI would look out of place behind that little carb.

Now that the engine is in, it's time to turn to the attention to the wheel brakes. All tubes and hoses had been done, and I took a deep breath and dived into the task of making the breaks work.
When I removed the first drum, an awesome surprise waited.
The breaks are all brand new! Some previous owner had been working on the truck, buying and mounting all new brake parts!



This is not the way drum brakes look inside on a fifty year old truck. All brand new, the brake shoes had never touched the surface of the brand new drums. Gotta hit gold sometimes, huh?
Taking my geographical situation into account, I easily saved two weeks and a nice bunch of greenbacks.
I beleive that the PO had given up at some point. Maybe when he had poured brake fluid into the master reservoir, and it had just leaked in on the floor of the cab. Who knows...
So I just connected the new hoses, and bled the brakes. Of course a T-junction leaked, so I had to get a new one, but other than that the brakes were pretty straight forward from here.

I bench bled the master cylinder. I once tried to do without bemch bleeding a new maser cylinder, but it was definitely a no go.



I had used up all my 1/4" brake tube, so I used a piece of rubber hose to extend my last piece of tube.



The new version of the offending T-joint. I had never realized these could wear out. Apparently they do, because it was no way it was going to hold any break fluid. I made three new tubes, and failed miserably to get any of them tight, and had to give in and buy a new T.
It's not like it was expensive, but it was yet another trip to the almost-local speed shop.