Brake work weekend

[H22A4]

Spent the weekend replacing the pads/shoes on both my cars.... one is modern (rear disk brakes, ABS on an independant suspension) while the other is old school (drums on solid rear axle). I bought the 8 1/4 loose knowing it came out of an A body but had no clue what year ('73 to '76). I resused the parking brake levers from the 8 1/4 but bought new shoes/internals as though I was replacing the brakes on my '75 Scamp (has a 7 1/4 but is large bolt pattern and there should be no difference, right?). So I was set to put the drum brakes together when I noticed that the brakes are different on a '76 rear end compared to '73 to '75. Different part numbers are listed for the shoes, brake levers, wheel kit, ect. So in a round about way, I now know that the 8 1/4 I picked up came out of the last year of the A bodies.

And here's modern technology:

 

[HemiPar]

nice work and glad you found out what year your rear is.

 

['64 Cuda]

I have a brake related question I'll ask here instead of starting a new thread. What are people using in the way of shoes & pads for stock systems? I've seen brake pad sets for around $20 to $30 & then I've seen sets for nearly $100. I understand that, to a point, you get what you pay for, & I also know that you don't want to go cheap with brakes, but is there an advantage to the $100 brake pads as opposed to a top of the line Raybestos set or similar brand?

 

[H22A4]

I have a brake related question I'll ask here instead of starting a new thread. What are people using in the way of shoes & pads for stock systems? I've seen brake pad sets for around $20 to $30 & then I've seen sets for nearly $100. I understand that, to a point, you get what you pay for, & I also know that you don't want to go cheap with brakes, but is there an advantage to the $100 brake pads as opposed to a top of the line Raybestos set or similar brand?

Something to keep in mind is that a drum brake is a drum brake. In other words, they are proven to not be the most effective and efficient type of brake. Why did the disc brake replace drum brakes? So is it worth spending another $40 on "superior" shoes when it's still a drum brake? In my mind it's not so I went with standard OEM Raybestos shoes.

I would think anyone would have a difficult time saying with a straight face "Yeah, I installed the premium shoes in my car and I can feel a difference". I'd would bet a lot of money that if you told anyone that the shoes in their rear end had been replaced, they wouldn't be able to tell you if they were OEM shoes or the premium one after going for a test drive.

If you're going to spend more on premium shoes, why not spend that extra money on converting the rear brakes over to disc brakes?

As for buying premium pads for disc brakes, if you do a lot of braking or take your car to a road course regularly, then the premium or semi metallic pads would be worth the cost. However, if your car is just a weekend cruiser, is it worth spending the extra $40 to say "Yeah, I don't need hit the brakes yet for the red light.... I can wait another 20ft before I need to think about braking since I've got the premium pads". There is a lot of marketing that goes into 'performance parts' and while in some cases the premium cost for that product might be worth it, in most cases, I think it's hardly noticeable.