After 28 years, I think I'd replace all the rubber brake lines on general principle and flush the brake system thoroughly.

 

Yes -- I was just going to flush the system since everything was working fine, but now that I am having trouble I am going to go through the entire system and assess whether I need to consider more extensive work to make sure the brakes perform as they should.

 

Bad wheel bearing maybe?

 

So I took Monday and Tuesday off this week to finally play around with this thing and try to get the car back to being road worthy! Took it on a short (4-5 mile) road test and found that the seized caliper seemed to have relaxed and the car could be driven normally even after repetitive application of the brakes. I was half expecting the caliper to seize-up again once I started applying pressure on the rotor.

Got it to the garage and pulled the front wheels off to inspect the rotors and calipers on both sides of the car. To be honest, I was kind of surprised that there was no real damage visible on the driver's side of the car where the problem seemed to be. There was no visible scoring of the rotors or glazing of the pads, although the driver's side rotor was SLIGHTLY discolored from the heat that was built up. However, at the end of the day I could see no reason to replace either the rotors or the pads and am going to continue running with the factory ones.

So, at this point, here is what I have done:

- Completely flushed and re-filled the brake fluid.
- Replaced the calipers on both sides of the car.
- Replaced the brakes hoses -- front and rear.
- Pulled the rear drums and just cleaned everything up.

At this point I am going to call it "good" and keep my fingers crossed that everything is back to proper operating condition. Once I am confident the brakes are solid I will start going through and replacing all the other fluids in the vehicle (coolant, transmission, power steering, and maybe the differential?) and change out the fuel filter and both belts.

At that point the car should be mechanically sound again and I will get the AC system functioning properly and put new shocks on all four corners.

Once everything is complete, I'm hoping I will have a pretty unique, low-budget collectible to take for an occasional Sunday afternoon cruise or maybe even compete in some local car shows. With everything bone stock and only 4300 miles on the odometer, I'm thinking it will fare pretty well in the "Survivor" category of most shows!

 

On a whim, I took the car in to a local shop that I do business with to have the AC system diagnosed, just so I would be prepared for what I'd eventually have to do with it. Turned out to be nothing more than a bad low-pressure switch -- cheap, easy fix and now I'm back to blowing cold air again! Sure glad I didn't wait to do that last.....