Technical 40' Ford brakes sucks balls.

Matching the shoes to the drums was how we did a brake job in high school shop (45 years ago). I had also forgot the lessons from that time with the advent of disc brakes that made the rear drums secondary in the complete braking system. I have matched the shoes to the drums on the front of my '34 and greatly improved the power of the system on that car. I did this by had sanding the shoes until the pattern looked good.
Quit bitching about drums unless you are going down a steep mountain road. I have had a problem with brake fade in that situation. That is why my '57 chevy now has front disc brakes.

 

^^^^^^^
Karp's power brake service. 66 N Central Ave, Upland, CA 91786 (909) 985-0800
Call him, he can do it through the mail. Great people and knowledgeable. They will do this job in a couple days.

 

Dredging this up once again to ask 1 simple and hopefully not-stupid question. this thread was focusing on a relative new build. I'm working with '40 brakes front and rear and am about to plumb it in. I finished the rear stuff in 3/16" line. I understand using 1/4" line like the factory, will achieve better, more responsive braking. Any merit to this? 1/4 line is a bit more dicking around for me. My roadster (different car) has SoCal disks. Front drums are new to me.

 

I doubt you will notice a difference. It will be fine. Master cylinder bore size will make a difference though. Keep with a 1" or 7/8' bore. I believe any larger and you will experience longer pedal stroke with less effort, which will feel like less braking ability.

I'm no expert though, this is just conclusions I've gathered from doing similar research on the HAMB.

 

This has been a very helpful post to me in setting up my 40 back brakes. Thanks everyone.

 

Thanks Dan - worth asking... you can never be too careful.
I wonder how dsiddons made out with his drum brake endeavor?

 

Rodomotive gave you the answer. Have the drums turned with the hubs attached. Geez

 

I couldn't get my '40 brakes adjusted on my '34, so I went with '53-'56 Ford F-100 brakes from backing plates out. They were self-energizing and simple to install. And, they are probably still affordable, plus they tend to just fade away(no pun intended) as far as looks go.

 

I wish I had learned how to properly adjust '40 brakes. Those lower adjusters took me to the ground.