bigmal

My father was one of those who died from asbestos exposure in the shipyard.  He lived about 16 months after his diagnosis.  He kept huge posters of all the ships and submarines he had worked on in a hall closet when I was growing up.  As a child I would occasionally sneak them out and look at them.  My understanding is that it was everywhere on the ships - walls, pipes, etc wrapped in sheets of asbestos.  

The industry defensive argument is that the heat generated from braking causes asbestos to be converted to forsterite, a non-carcinogenic mineral.  Most "experts" that have not been paid by the automotive industry don't put quite the same faith in the total conversion, nor do I, but there is some evidence to support it.  
I generally look at the arguments about asbestos exposure the same way as cigarette smoking; we all know people who smoked like chimneys their entire lives and didn't die from lung cancer and yet we accept that smoking is dangerous.  I don't smoke.  I also try to avoid inhaling asbestos.  Statistically, I will likely die from something else and yet I don't feel like rolling the dice on this one.  
Speaking of brakes, I'll leave this little nugget right here... 1966 Bendix memo (brake manufacturer).  

Industry knowledge of the hazards of asbestos dates back to the 1930s.  Also, to put it in perspective, the Nazis placed restrictions on asbestos in the 1930s to protect workers (of course conveniently excluding slave labor) while the American shipbuilding and military industrial complex grew extremely rich building the fleet to fight the Nazis out of pretty much steel and asbestos (maritime vessels through the mid 1970s relied heavily on asbestos insulation, gaskets, packing, and phenolic materials - ultimately causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Navy veterans).  

I'm sorry to hear that Moodster.  My condolences.  
You are correct, asbestos insulation was used extensively as pipe covering, equipment insulation (valves, pumps, turbines, boilers, etc.) as well as asbestos containing gaskets and packing, asbestos insulation on bulkheads, asbestos containing paints and coatings, electrical components, etc etc.  
 

Yep

That's what happens when you think in gallons and measure in liters.  *G*

I had the exact same thing happen to me Bigmal.  I went through a few senders . Checked all the wiring and eventually purchased an adjustable voltage reg that sits behind the dash. That did the trick for me and i can fine tune it.

I did what Reaper69 advised when I put my 69 back together Bigmal.  I just came from dropping my focus off for a service at my local Ford dealership and was talking to one of the guys . He was telling me about the new mustangs and how many are going straight to panel shops to get the panels aligned . Some panels are up to 10mm out from the factory.  You would expect that back in the 60s but not with brand new cars coming straight of the ship. Now thats shit!!!.

When I had my brackets out I found the threads to be pretty average probably due to being aluminium and overtightened at some stage. I ended up putting helicoils in all the brackets. Those things work great. 

That sounds like a plan. Thanks.

Car is in primer and looks good, paint next week then home for reassembly and buy more parts again.

For what it's worth. I grew up in a three bay garage owned by my Dad in the 70s. Any time we'd pull a drum off a car, we'd grab an air hose and make this huge black cloud of brake dust, then just walk through it.
My Dad did have two "spots" on his lungs when he was in his late 80s. That's after 50+ years of doing the same thing.
Sure, I'd avoid asbestos but there's quite a few of us that are still around.

I started working in the service department of new car dealerships in the late 70's & all the tech's would do that all the time to clean the drum brakes. I worked in the automotive business for 24 years all out in the service department, I have inhaled my share of asbestos dust.

I've been told I can't refer to my wife as 'my current wife'. I think she reads too much into it.

I've been told I can't refer to my wife as 'my current wife'. I think she reads too much into it.

You gotta love these cars to do what we do.

I feel your pain when paying for an inspection that misses major issues. Good luck with the recovery. Keep the photos coming.

If your car had a lot of underbody coating then it was probably put on after 1969.  I'm only aware that Ford undercoated the wheel wells.  
david

Not sure why Ford bolted the door here ,may have been hard to spot weld or somthing . I have 2 early 69s that have bolts ,my CJ is spot welded here and so are the doors i picked from a 70 coupe .the spot welded ones are tough to twist ,but the bolted together ones are simple just by loosening the bolt and tightening it back once you have twisted it 

In the appliance industry asbestos wasn't removed from products until the mid 80s as I recall. We were in lock step with other American industries at the time.

I used to run Environmental Health and Safety for a large company, and this is a huge issue when working on any "vintage" equipment that may have used materials for fire retardant purposes, or insulation.  There was wide spread use of a material called "mastic" which was used in a paste, or adhesive form. There were some non-US companies that actually applied mastic to car body parts.   Jaguar is one of them.
Fortunately, there are many products available for "encapsulation" of asbestos areas.  These of course, need to be applied by professional and certified individuals.
Lots of info here in the US on this topic.  Just one resource here:   https://www.asbestos.com/
 
 

The black gunk is likely mostly the tar base, still not great to breathe in but not as bad as asbestos.  The problem is the minuscule fibers that create the dust we can see in the air (and that we can't see) which get lodged in the lining of the lung and cause problems down the line.  That being said, the general rate of cancer is slightly less than 2/100 of persons with regular and proximate exposure to asbestos  at levels above background.  Not something to lose sleep over.  

Now you tell me.  I removed all of my undercoating by rubbing it with a rag soaked in gasoline.
I hereby bequeath any residual scrap wiring and Mustang schematics and catalogs to 1869stang.com and any debts to RPM.
May I Rest In Peace.

Thanks for the heads up Bigmal.
A Bit late for the mustang but my 56 F-100 has a lot of this stuff under it so I will need to be careful when getting it off. 

This is a good reminder that asbestos remains deadly and absestos related cancers generally have a latency period of 10-15 years at the minimum, so we can all be lulled into a false sense of safety. Be careful when removing old brake linings, clutches, and gasket material. Also, be aware that some old mufflers contained asbestos as well.