They were daily drivers when they were new, and for a few decades afterwards. Just do whatever it takes to make it go, stop, and handle as well as it did for a lot of years- - - -no need to re-invent the wheel! I'm always amused at the people who think they have to gut a stovebolt down to bare bones and start over so it can be driven on a routine basis. I distinctly remember 216's and 235's getting up and down the road every day when I was growing up, and people didn't have any problem at all heading from Nashville to Chicago, Detroit, Miami or San Francisco in one. No reason it can't happen now!
My grandparents owned a couple of 1934 Chevrolet tractor-trailer rigs that routinely hauled beer from Milwaukee and St. Louis to Nashville- - - -with vacuum-boosted mechanical brakes on the tractors, and NO brakes on the trailers, traveling on 2-lane roads. Some of them up through Kentucky were still gravel, or "tar and chip" paved.
Jerry
