I enjoy supporting the national by being a member.
We have a very active local chapter (#16 Michigan Widetrackers) which I also enjoy.
But best of all, they have a great monthly magazine (Smoke Signals). Tim Dye is the editor, and curator of the Pontiac Oakland Museum and Resource Center (POMARC) in Pontiac, IL (and he's also involved in a recently announced Transportation Museum here in Pontiac, MI)...he'd love you're car!
And to address your original question, if you can get that one off whole, a local company (InLineTube) can duplicate it.
"Inline Tube can duplicate brake lines, fuel lines, transmission lines, parking brake cables, hoses, rubber to hard line fuel injection assemblies and many other factory fluid transfer parts. If you do not see your application among our thousands of items, we can use your originals as patterns to custom duplicate new components. Before sending in any parts, check our online catalog or call us at (800) 385-9452 to make sure your car or truck is not already listed."
I browsed the website earlier. I'll be sure to let them know you sent me. I guess i need to update my profile though. I'm down in MD so the Central East region would be my home. I did see that the convention is in PA next year. I'm going to try and get her in shape to make it out there. I've been meaning to take it to Carlisle for years now but never make it. I love to see peoples face when they see it like in the picture
As for the brake line, doubt it comes out in 1 piece. Luckily, my 91 nissan pickup has a blown line too....yay!...not.
that one is along the rear axle so at least it's easy to get to at least. I'll practice with that one and hopefully it will make give me a little more confidence to tackle the van.
Last edited by Moliva1568; November 25th 2018 10:56 pm.
If it's nice and level where you're going to be working, assuming you have the tall 6 ton stands, you can set the stand under the bottoms of the spring buckets on the lower control arms. Set them so the inside rounded part of the bucket sits in the center of the saddle on the stand. The release handle on the stands will be on the side when you set it. If you have smaller stands, stack some pieces of 2x8 or 2x10 underneath them so you don't have to extend them so far. Make sure the boards are not split or have any rot. I have used cap block under stands but I don't advise it. Cinder blocks, even solid ones are notoriously fragile when loaded unevenly. I highly recommend the bigger stands if there's a Harbor Freight or Northern Tools nearby, they aren't very expensive and it's good piece of mind.
'85 GMC Shorty '98 Suburban K2500 '98 Pontiac G8 GT '77 Pontiac Astre '95 Jeep Wrangler "I thought you weren't allowed to talk to guys with vans??"
These blown out brake lines are proving more difficult than i initially thought. For me anyway
I've attached some pics of the undercarriage. Hopefully they're clear enough to see. I want to get the van back on the road and cleaned up. I also want to explore the possibility of a 4x4 conversion. Based on what you can see in the pics, should I look to get another van for that project? Time is not a concern but I don't want to waste time (and money of course) if the integrity of the van is too far gone to begin with.
I've been looking at vans for sale and I'd probably have to spend 2-3k just to pick one up to start with. If that same money can get my van right, it would be nice to continue memories with it. Van is mechanically good (brakes aside) with only 125k miles. The underside seems to have been undercoated by original owners.
Last edited by Moliva1568; January 13th 2019 12:02 am.
Well, she's gone....The buyer plans to make it a road trip van for his family. That's exactly why we bought it so it's good that it will be used for that again. Better than someone just scrapping or stripping it. It has served us well and now it's on to something else.