The brakes are a sore subject for me. I always have considered myself to be a
mechanic. During the brake rebuild I made a bunch of mistakes and do-overs and got discouraged and depressed. I bought parts from the shaman and got the wrong parts twice. He actually told me I was the first person to get mis-boxed from Toyota. He told me this twice in two weeks.
Being the kind of guy he is he made it right without question, and then some.
Eventually I got it sorted out, but my 'new' master cylinder now needs to be replaced to make them perfect. I cracked the front piston and it scratched the cylinder. It's good enough for the street, but I suspect it won't hold on a steep hill.
The jury's still out on DOT 5 silicone brake fluid. I've had the master apart and the seals seem normal. My last resto was a '69 Corvette 427 3x2 bbl L71 Convertible. No one ever hesitated to use DOT 5 in those, and I wasn't warned about it until it was in my Cruiser. I've heard it's very hard to get it cleaned out, so I'll be the guinea pig for it's use in a Cruiser.
I had the rear drums turned a tiny bit just to remove the rust. The shoes are original and 75%. I replaced the cylinders after this picture was taken, just so the whole system would be new.
The picture of the front rotor is the one that was damaged due to a completely worn out pad. It's still working pretty well. I replaced the soft brake hoses sometime after this picture was taken.
The booster originally worked, but went bad while I was working on the brakes. I got two used ones and ended up using the one from a '91 4 Runner. It barely fits, actually touching the hard brake lines on the right side of the picture.