‘64 TBird

[kjredwine]

New to the forum. Just bought the TBird as a father/son project. The car has been sitting in a garage in the midwest for 20 years. Interior and paint are excellent, but does not start and no brakes... and so it begins.

[64ZCODE]

Hi redwine. As long a it won't start you don't really need brakes...

Welcome to the forum. Where are you located and how old is your son?

[kjredwine]

Austin, TX; son 17.

[RAVEN]

Good day and Welcome.
Check out your local area, there are a few Birds in your back yard so to speak, who's owners will give you some help.
Glad you joined us, and be aware there is an up coming event next year in New Orleans. A time and place to improve your car experience.
Please post any questions and we will try to help.

[sseebart]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new car!

Love the color of your t-bird. Bodywork and paint is incredibly expensive, so a bird that looks nice and just has mechanical issues is a quality find.

Keep us posted on your progress!

~Steve

[64ZCODE]

Hey redwine. I was thinking about your son and that it might be a good exercise for the lad to put him in charge of the "to do" list for the car, with your oversight of course. That could involve prioritizing the tasks into a logical order and groupings (i.e. while we're doing this we really should do these other two things at the same time), tracking total expenditures against a budget, etc. Could be as valuable as learning how to balance a checkbook

Doug

[kjredwine]

Thanks for the welcomes and advice. Got the new stater in tonight and finally got consistent crank. What we drained from fuel tank looked bad. Next step... drop tank, inspect, clean; and clean fuel lines.

Attempt to bleed brakes failed. Master cylinder full, but no fluid at any wheels. How dependent is this on operational vacuum?

[sseebart]

Attempt to bleed brakes failed. Master cylinder full, but no fluid at any wheels. How dependent is this on operational vacuum?

The brake system only uses vacuum as an assist, so you should be able to bleed the brakes without the motor running just fine.

You might have worn/non-existent seals in the master, which would lead to fluid leaking into the booster (which is bad), but if the fluid level is not dropping when you pump the pedals, there might be a blockage somewhere. (If you can't move the pedal, the plunger in the master could be frozen.) I would seem too coincidental that all the lines are blocked, so I'd start by pulling the master, rebuilding it (kits are cheap) and bench bleeding it. It's something you'll need to do anyhow (especially on a single circuit system) and you can move downstream from there if it doesn't solve the issue.

~Steve

[kjredwine]

with master cylinder off, booster appears to be functioning properly, but it does have gunk/corrosion of some sort that needs to be cleaned out. New master cylinder received, but wrong one (no brake light switch port).

In the mean time dropped fuel tank emptied 10 gallons of 20 year old gas and more rust than hoped for. Replace or try to clean?

Also, where do you dispose of old gas?

[RAVEN]

Contact your local waste management system. They can best direct you. Be it recyclers, hazard waste, dump, municipal infrastructure system.

[sseebart]

In the mean time dropped fuel tank emptied 10 gallons of 20 year old gas and more rust than hoped for. Replace or try to clean?

If there's rust inside the tank, time for a new one, methinks.

~Steve

[stubbie]

Add a tee piece to the master and you have a port for brake switch.

[RandyBird]

I wasted a lot of time trying to clean out and re-coat the inside of my rusted gas tank. In the end, I bought a new tank and would recommend that to you, too. It can save a lot of time and headache. Rusted debris can keep coming out of the tank, and you never know when you are going to rust through.
Good luck!
Randy
‘65 Special Edition

[Cliff Rankin]

KJ , I live around Dripping Springs. I have a freind in north Austin , who should still have a gas tank he recently purchased and did not use. I also found that Dallas at
Advanced in Oak Hill is great on finding parts like master cylinders etc. Sometimes it’s who you deal with at the store. My 63 and 64 has Been switched to newer style master cylinders. Feel free to PM me. Or Dallas will give
You my phone number.
Cliff

[kjredwine]

Posting a couple of updates... the levels of rust called for new tank, sending unit and filler tube along with rubber hoses. New starter, points, plugs, condenser, and rotor and the engine starts, runs, and feeds gas. Now, I have a running TBird, but no good way to stop it. Still working some electrical issues in the car, but we did replace the window safety regulator on the firewall and got 2 out of 4 windows to work.

Currently in the process of replacing all wheel cylinders after replacing the master cylinder. No clogged lines. while replacing the front wheel cylinder, greasing bearings, etc, we torqued the driver side brake line at the wheel.

Not thinking we want to buy tube and flare ourselves, does anyone have recommendations on where to purchase new, pre-bent driver’s side front brake line?