Another 1958 Caballero

Does look like brake lines but won't be able to see where they go until I can get it on the lift. Neighbor is the local old car guru and he's who initially spotted/questioned what it was. Trailer brake makes more sense but thought curious enough to ask here. Regardless, the car still has "poise!"

 

It’s got it in spades. Lol

 

Another thing that came to mind is a type of "line lock," that prevents the car from rolling with a loaded trailer attached. Does the actuator 'snap' between positions, or does it move smoothly but not lock in either position? As I recall, while you have your foot squarely on the brake pedal, you set the line lock, and it traps the pressure. Then to release, you press on the brake pedal, and unlock it.

 

Mechanism/cable is frozen so can't move it.

 

"Well, unfreeze it!" Haha, just kidding. Can you get a really close look at the unit, maybe find a builder's plate or hanging tag?

 

No plate/tag that I can see but I think your probably right and it's some sort of "line lock." Some of the lines have been cut/crimped so it's certainly not functional. Won't know where the others go until I can get it on the lift. New distributor cap, rotor, points and condenser tomorrow and hopefully try to star her up.

 

Looking at that makes me think it's a line lock.

 

It's alive!!!



Cranked right up after new dist cap/rotor/points/condenser. Water pump is seized so didn't run long, missing on at least one cylinder and some noise probably from stuck lifters. All in all, not bad for not having not been cranked in probably 40+ years!

Also had rear axle up on jack stands and got forward/reverse wheel turn. And I found a set of fender mount mirrors I believe like on Joe's '58?

 

So change the oil, put in 10w-30, but sub in one pint ATF for 1 pint oil, and once the pump's replaced, fill the cooling system, fire it up and run it for about 1 hour, cycling eight minutes idle with two minutes at 2000 RPM. Doing so has a good chance of freeing stuck lifters. But if they're collapsed, you won't have spent a bunch of money finding out.

 

Congrats on getting it running!
Your mirrors are in great condition; nice score!!!

 

Mystery solved - it's the manual override valve/pull handle for the Air Poise system. Received copy of Chassis, Body, and Dynaflow manual today and it's shown clearly in there. Compressor/tank have been removed.

Also found what look like a couple of bullet holes in the floor. Maybe, given the air poise leveling system, she was running moonshine in a previous life!

 

Is Air Poise GM-ese for the level air suspension found in the other '58 GM cars?

Man if that was a moonshine runner, it did it in style!

 

Or a previous owner was a fumble-fingered doofus. After all, the bullet holes were in the floorboard.

 

Pulled the water pump to find a good bit of rust/crud so it needed a good flushing. Well there's flushing and then there's redneck flushing! Been working on a wildland firefighting engine for a private land mgmt org so figured I'd put it to use.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention. Looks like it should have flushed a bunch of gunk out of there.