Since I'm the only one seeming to claim this position,
will I be the only one defending this logic?
If you can replace one part in a system and still have
confidence that the other interdependent parts are
still strongly viable, that's maintenance.
Your 12-year old car's soft lines and wheel-area items
are fine but your MC needs repair, right?
MC replacement = maintenance
When the car gets to the point where the soft lines
are suspect, why would the wheel cylinders/master
cylinder (also containing rubber) not be equally
suspect?
Entire system replacement = restoration
That's when you (or at least I) toss everything out
and start from scratch just to be certain.
-4 years from now, a failed component on your now
4-year old 19xx car's brakes would be replaced as part
of maintenance, since the other stuff's good, riiight?
While other stuff can be allowed to fail and be
replaced sequentially without risk to your life,
brakes & steering are in a special category.
Or are they? Engine component fails, engine stops,
power steering disappears, brake vacuum good for 1-2
pumps. What if it fails on a twisty road with no
shoulder and cliffs on one side? Hmmm.
Why someone would want to skip doing the regulator
when they did the alternator (since they are
interdependent) beats me, but saving $19 is a thrill
for some.
The $100+ tow that happens 9 months later when the
regulator gives up tips the scale back to restoration
for me, but there has been dissent here in the past on
that, and it's my personal opinion that there are some
awfully frugal people buying Imperials mainly because
they're so horribly depressed in value, and they see
them as cheap, "cool" transportation without thinking
through the "restoration vs maintenance" question,
only to get a surprise when their decades-old parts
fail one after another after sitting for years.
Why people are surprised that old parts fail beats me.
If the cars lasted forever and were easy to
"maintain" in perpetuity, I would expect to see far
more of them driving around. Walk out your door and
count the number of cars with chrome bumpers on your
street or on your way to the store. Taurus came out
in '86 and had painted bumpers and it was all downhill
from there for the "old" cars. Chrome bumpers: 1 in
20? 1 in 50? 1 in 100? They sure aren't frequently
spotted in the general population around here....
Just my own philosophy after seeing patterns in the
IML and in the 20 old cars I've owned and done as much
of my own work on as possible.
By the way, the fellow that wrote in about just his
soft lines? He didn't write back, and I sure hope
that nobody feels like they've been hung out to dry or
embarrased. That's certainly not the intent of the
message. Hopefully getting a heads-up here helps?
-Kenyon
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