I was going through a box of old magazines at a garage sale when I found this cover of a 1969 trade magazine. Today the opposite is true, techs are more afraid of drums than discs due to springs and self adjusters.

Disc brakes had been around since the 1950s, but only on sports cars and some imports. In 1969, many domestic cars were starting to see disc brakes as a standard option. It was not until around 1974 that the disc-drum set-up became standard on all domestically produced vehicles.

So what were techs most afraid of during the summer of love? One of the greatest concerns was on the lathe and setting up the correct cross-feed speed. Noise was another issue.