Got Brakes?
(Written on 2/06/2022) Test driving Penny before purchase had one little wrinkle: no brakes. The owner did make me aware that the brake pedal would have no effect. However, the parking brake did work, and allowed for a low-speed test drive around a flat yard. Once I got Penny to my house, I wanted to video the engine and transmission in operation. Going fast enough to use fourth gear requires brakes, so I decided to start with them as my first Penny project. The previous owner included new front brake calipers and rear brake cylinders with the car, but I opted not to use them yet. I am going to remove the body from the chassis, and completely redo everything including the brake lines. Connecting dirty, probably rusty, brake lines to the new calipers and cylinders would introduce dirt into them. Instead, I decided to pull the old calipers, rear cylinders, and master cylinder apart and clean them thoroughly to see if I could restore function. With a curb weight of only 1,821 l