Here's the component parts of the offside front brake pipe. You can see the section of pipe that I managed to twist. I have cut off the two end fittings and you can see the flared ends of the old pipe. The larger union is brass and connects to a union on the chassis inboard of the wheel. The smaller steel union fits into a multi-way junction fitting mounted on the chassis close to the master cylinder.
I now need to source some copper brake pipe and avail myself of a flaring tool.
Thanks Ian. Good to see that both unions have remained serviceable. It's scary how easy it is to twist a brake line like that.
The flares look like 'simple' single type, rather than double or bubble that may be seen today?
Here we are - the new pipe ready to fit. I managed to source some 1/4" copper pipe and a neat flaring tool yesterday - yes our hardware stores are still open here.
Next job will be to reinstall it, together with all five new cylinders and three new flexible hoses. Plus the re-lined brake shoes. Hopefully that little lot will improve the efficiency from the approximately 10% when it arrived!
Continuing the brake union thread, these can become seized. I've recently had great success with this handy tool (see picture) which clamps securely around a Flare Nut, even better than a conventional flare nut spanner. A standard spanner, even a full ring type, can struggle on a seized nut as by definition its surfaces may be coroded to a point that it is over-size and thus the correct spanner doesn't fit.
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Interesting tool Paul, haven't seen one of these before.
The Maddox is 10' 4" long, 4' 2" wide and weighs about 12 cwt. But don't forget the ground clearance which means you need fairly long ramps so the car doesn't ground when putting the car on or off the trailer. Can be mitigated by cranking up the front jockey wheel of course.
The Maddox is still here at VMR HQ Seattle but the plan is to ship it back to the UK next spring and get it to Paul Maddox.
One complication just sorted is the title for the car. It was sold from the Ellingson Motor Museum, Minnesota to Ian Samuel in Ontario, Canada in 2011 but he never registered the car in Canada. I need to have a title (think American V5c) for the car in order to ship it back to the UK. I have a scan of the original Ellingson title, but not the original. So I contacted the Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles who confirmed that the car is still registered to the museum. So I then contacted the museum and they are going to apply for a replacement for the lost title and then they will sign the car over to me and I will then be able to obtain a Washington state title in my name, enabling me to ship the car.
Once it is the UK, I will be applying through Margaret Goding of the Bullnose Morris Club (DVLA rep. for Morrrises) to recover the original UK registration number.
It will be super to see this unique car finally repatriated to the UK after decades in the New World.
Paul Maddox is planning to collect the car at the Ludlow Rally in July.
