Well told tale.
Reminds me of a story shared by my high school machineshop teacher. A student had a Chevette which required a brake job, being a HS student and tight for cash he did the job himself. The drums were pretty rusty and a struggle to remove but after bringing them to school and turning the drums everything was now nice and shinny.
Now this boy felf being smarter than the average bear he could come up with a solution to prevent the drum brakes getting all rusty. After a bit of thought he came up with a solution so simple it never crossed his mind to wonder why no one else had thought of it.
The solution... pack the brakes with grease, not only would it prevent rusting but it would eliminate future brake squeking.
He made it out of his drive way and down the street to the first intersection at which point the issue became apperant. He only hit two cars but the second one was a police car which sent him glancing off a hydro pole and getting stuck in the ditch.
It seems the first words out of his mouth to the police office was" I don't know what happend, I just did the brakes and even greased them so they wouldn't rust"