My '59 woes, Thank you list!

Wow! I am really overwhelmed with the responses to my Imperial's problems, and thank everyone on the list for writing. Even people at work were telling me I was very quiet today, and I think it was because of the thought of having to depart with the pleasure I get from my '59 Imperial. Even when it is just sitting out in the parking lot all week till I can drive it on my day off, I make a point to walk the dog by it so I can pat it on the hood and tell it what a great car it is. The thought of storing it somewhere where I can only go see it a couple of times a week is not very satisfactory, and its only been gone for one week now, and I miss it intensely. Most of the comments I got back sound absolutely correct, since it didn't start running poorly until the brakes started feeling very weak. The car also has only less than 65,000 original miles on it, and has never had any blue smoke coming out of it, and is in fact better on oil than my newer Nissan. I made the mistake of saying combustion test rather than compression, but I still don't have the car back, so I don't know which cylinders are bad. It was running like a charm last summer, and I even took it on a long road trip almost up to San Francisco without any problems. My mechanic has also just changed his location to the smaller garage next door and told me he did it to save $3,000.00 a month on rent, which made me think he is also hurting for cash. He is good at what he does, but also charges a premium for it. It really goes against my grain to store the car and not be able to enjoy it, so when I get it back on Monday after paying a hefty bill for a tune up and radiator routing out, I will talk to the mechanic I bring my Nissan to, who is very reasonable. Once again I want to thank all of those on the list for responding, and cheering me up a bit. After all, to be without my Imperial would make me feel just like one of the common people!