I have several questions about my brakes (bear with me). I consider myself mechanically inclined and I've done the brakes before, so I plan on doing this work myself. When applying the brakes, the pedal is hard. It almost goes to the floor before stopping completely. It's manual drum brakes with a single master cylinder. It's been 10 years since any brake work has been done. The car is driven on a limited basis, but I'd like to drive it more often.

I'm going to replace the wheel cylinders, shoes, hardware, hoses/lines, and master cylinder (moisture/rust/old fluid). Should I replace the drums or just have them turned? Considering my limited budget, should I upgrade to disc brakes, power brakes, or a dual master cylinder? What is the best method to bleed the brakes using 1 person? What is bench bleeding and when is it required? Should I get stainless steel brake lines? What brand and supplier(s) should I look at for all these items? Any advice is welcome. Thanks.  

You can get a ssbc front disc brake kit for a grand with a dual master cylinder.  Thats the path I am headed the single bowl master scares the crap out of me.  From what I have seen the ssbc kit is pretty complete.  Good luck  

I would not replace the drums if they are thick enough after turning.  The shop that turns them should take  measurements and tell you if they cannot be safely turned.  Bench bleeding is done to a master cylinder (MC) to ensure that fluid fills the cylinder before you put it in the car.  The proper way to do it is to screw fittings into the MC that you can connect short rubber hose(s) (one for a single cylinder MC, two for a dual) to, which you do and run them around and submerge the other end into the fluid reservoir.  Fill the MC 1/2 way or so and pump the piston slowly until air bubbles no longer come out of the hose(s).  The teenager method is to fill the MC, aim toward something you care very little about and pump away until it acts like a Super Soaker.  Brake fluid is poisonous to plants, animals and paint so catching it in a bucket is better than spraying the neighborhood.  

If you can afford it, upgrade to disc brakes and a dual master cylinder.  The dual MC is more important for safety's sake.  Do not use copper or cheap steel tubing to make the new connections at the new dual MC.  Brakes operate with very high fluid pressure and these will fail.  

Additionally, at the wheels, if you put a container that's partially filled with fluid at each wheel, and then run hoses from the opened bleeder ports on the wheel cyls into the container and submerged in the fluid, you can 1-man bleed the system.  

Instead of upgrading to disk brakes on my 65, I decided to get a dual MC for a 67 Mustang, bench bleed it and put it in place of the old jelly jar.  If you want to know how I did it, email or PM me.  It's a long story.  

Thanks for the info/advice. I have some photos at: http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee82/steel3rivers/66%20Mustang/  

Hi Bandit66 - I have the GT with front disks and rear drums that were manual.  My dad had a power booster installed and I find that they work very well for a Friday and week end driver.  The front disks would be good with the power booster.  Master Breaks has some good equipment.  

Here's what I'm thinking... convert from manual to power brakes, convert from single MC to dual MC, replace the wheel cylinders, clean up/use the existing shoes, have drums turned. I'm still looking around for new brake hardware/lines/hoses. Converting to disc brakes (front) is out of my $ range for now.  

bandit if you wanna upgrade to disc without the high expense. shop around in salvage yards for older cars. i found a set of front disc spindles with discs and calapers and all off a 69 rancharo they cost me 85 bucks and fit perfect on my 65 coupe.only thing i bought new was the flex lines and the daulbowl master cylinder. after much thought i decided to get new disc and they were only 35 bucks a piece from a local mustang shop. you can  use almost any ford disc set up all the way up to 1973 models.just find one without power assist. theyre out there just takes a bit of searching. if your in the tampa area i can tell you where to find these earlier models. good luck  

There is a company called Direct fit Brakes that you can get four wheel disc brakes from foar around $1000 bucks comes with every thing you need.