Hey everyone. I'm new here but I have a 1960 LeSabre that I bought last summer. It came with receipts from a local resto shop for about $12k spent in 1995 but spent the last 10 years outside, uncovered. Mechanically it is great. I converted it to a dual pot master cylinder for a little piece of mind. The floors and trunk are solid but it is pretty crispy in a few areas. If I run across 2 dorrs for cheap I will pick them up since mine have some weird rust but the part I am really looking for are lower quarters. Someone told me that 1959 Impala lower quarter skins are the same. Can anyone conform that? Anyone have a solid one they want to cut up (if so I'd like the tail panel too)? I'm not looking to make the car perfect as I just picked it up for a cool cruiser. I am figuring I will have to fab patch panels or just use fiberglass but I'd like to know my options. Thanks!
Welcome to the board Matt. Source for replacement floor/toe pans and rocker panels -> http://www.classicfabrication.com/ I've not found a source for trunk pans.... yet. lol Rear quarters?!? From your lips to God's ears! ray: I'm *still* trying to find a gas tank! :rant: What dual master cylinder did you use? Modifications? Have you posted pics of your car yet?
I had found the replacement floors and rockers but those panels were replaced during the last restoration. The shop that did it smothered both sides with some kind of undercoating. When I found the car the floors had 4 inches of water standing on them and still no rot. Whatever they used worked great. The dual pot brakes were relatively easy and something everyone should do. Safety beats originality any day. Go to your favorite parts store and order a reman master cylinder with booster for a 1969 Caprice with 4 wheel drum brakes. Mine came in just under $100. It bolts right to the firewall (at least it did on my original power brake car.) From under the dash you will see the brake pushrod extends beyond the pedal arm. To connect them I welded a small tab onto the stock pedal arm and used a 3/8 inch hiem joint (actually a tie rod end for a lawn tractor as my local John Deere dealer did not have hiem joints that small.) Back under the hood hook up the front piston to the rear brakes and the rear piston to the front tee plugging the hole in the tee that the rear line came out of. I used another tee to couple the front piston to the rear line as that gave me a convenient spot to put the brake light switch. Bleed em and you're done! Great upgrade that shouldn't take longer than a weekend. On a side note if anyone wants an original core-quality booster and master for 60 Buick I have them as well as the original vacuum reserve tank.
Mine is a 2 door hardtop. I will get to you about the tail panel as soon as I have a minute. I think Dayvd wants that tank bad, though.
In 2005, I replaced my 1960 LeSabre coupe's booster and master with those from a 1968 LeSabre. It was a direct bolt-in operation. The booster and master were $93 + $25 core from Rock Auto. The booster+master is A1 CARDONE part #501104. Under the hood, my mods were pretty much exactly as you described. regards, WillySwan
