[AT] brake lining adhesive

[James Peck]

I use a UPS Store to send and receive packages. Works great. As long as there is a reasonably priced source of the parts I need why do I care if they come from my local AutoZone or have to be shipped from a specialty rebuilder in Alaska? This allows me to take custody of packages versus finding them sitting in my driveway available to whomever comes by. They even have hand trucks to use for the heavier stuff. 

In the old car hobby there are many rebuild/repair services that are pretty much one source anyway. Same for tractors. 

Steve Offiler AT List member Mechanical Engineer (soffiler at gmail.com); This could become a rant on the current state of "plug & play" automotive repair.  I'll try to keep it down.  One of the early signs was engine rebuilding.  Decades ago, that moved from the garage down the street,  to specialist shops (that still exist for high-performance and racing builds), then to centralized production-line style rebuilding industry.  Next, brakes.  Every shop used to have a brake lathe to turn drums and rotors - they still do, collecting dust in the corner.  New parts got thinner for reduced weight so in many cases you couldn't cut them, and they also got cheaper, so the measuring and cutting tasks started to go away.  Just throw brand-new parts on - parts are cheap and labor is minimal.  As for re-lining friction material, that's a completely different animal.  I don't even know the history.  Not sure if it was ever a routine function of the garage down the street, except maybe way back.  I do recall core charges on shoes and pads, so somebody somewhere was apparently re-lining them.  Starters and alternators, that was once the domain of a local-ish specialist shop.  Losing out to cheap new replacement parts, but that battle isn't over.  I work in the Providence RI area, and according to Google, there are still multiple choices in "armature shops" within striking distance.