I just bought the car in December and, because of work, have spent exactly one afternoon working on it. A friend and I pulled the brake drums and found that the right side brakes looked good, but the left drums both were a bear to get off and the top third of one shoe in each looked like it had been wet. There was rust on the drum and the material on the shoe had broken down. My buddy found the control arm problem. I just went out and looked at the other control arms and they all seem pretty solid. There is a lot of dirt sitting down in the valley in that part of the control arm so maybe that was the culprit. All in all, I think it's a pretty solid car for its age, but I'm just getting back into cars after a 25 year layoff so what do I know? :-) The odometer only shows 12k+ miles, but who knows if that is original or not. The car allegedly sat in a garage for the last eight years so I need to replace all the belts and hoses and go through the braking system before I let my wife take it out. I'd like to get it done this summer, but at the rate of one afternoon every six months, it's going to be a while.
