I need new brakes on the F-2. After a few long trips, including mountain driving, and normal driving I need new brakes. The last time I put brakes on the old girl I had to have the shoes relined because no one sold new shoes for the larger trucks. It's been a few years and if I remember correctly I paid something like $25 a shoe. In the Milwaukee area there used to be 3-4places that did this type of work. Now I can only find one. I took an extra set of worn shoe to the place and was told it would take an hour to do each shoe and they have a shop labor rate of $125/hr shop time. That's $1000 for all eight! on top of that the place asked what thickness padding I wanted. When having them done in the past I was never asked what thickness padding I wanted. I would assume a place that specializes in relining brake shoes would know. I guessing they just didn't want to do them.

Just by chance I searched for alternatives and found O'Reilly's has them for $40 an axle. I also found Rock Auto has them listed but I don't like Rock Auto. They have pictures of their brakes and they look nothing the correct parts. I had problems in the past with them sending me incorrect parts they made the mistake and I had to pay to have their mistake sent back. O'Reilly's website has the actual parts displayed on their website. Also, Rock lists the brakes as fitting F-1 and F-2. The brakes are completely different for the two models. I'll be ordering from O'Reilly's.

 

Yikes! I'm glad you found an alternative.

 

Yea, ordering from Rockauto.com is a crap shoot. It wasn’t like that 3+ years ago. I’ve found a lot of parts on Amazon, and with the Prime feature, have the ability to return them if necessary.

 

Yeah, when Rock first came on line it was my go to place for parts for my truck and daily drivers. The first time I had a problem was about five years ago. I ordered identical tune up parts for both old trucks, same exact parts. I got the parts and when I opened the points boxes I found one was a mirror of the other one. Both had the correct number on the box. I called Rock, at the time you could still talk to a live person, and the guy told me I could send the wrong part back and they would send the correct part back for free, all I had to do was pay for shipping both way. We had a bit of discussion about that. Considering they were the ones that screwed up the order I wasn't going to any shipping to or from. After a somewhat firm discussion he issued a shipping label and sent it to me. The last time was about a year ago. Bought a carb kit and a float. The image of the float wasn't the same as the float I needed but I though they were using a generic image so I bought it. I got the parts and the float was the one they had posted. It cost less for me to send it back than my total refund so I paid to send it back so I sent it back and lost some money on the deal. At about the same time I ordered an part from O'reilly's website with free shipping, after getting it I realized I didn't need and took it back to my near by O'reilly's and got my full refund, no hassle. With policies like O'reilly's and Amazon Rock has to revise their system or they're going to fail.

 

Felton's - Home (clutchboy.com) Call Feltons in Chattanooga, TN. They did the brake shoes on Missy Green and Blue Bell back many years ago. Brakes and clutches are what they do. Back then when you called them you spoke with someone who sounded like they knew what they were talking about. I was very pleased with the quality of the parts and the service, they came back looking like new. Price was in line.

 

Ray I would like to find a place close by so I wouldn't have to paid the additional cost of shipping. I really like dealing with local businesses but unfortunately, they seem to be disappearing. I have another service I am looking for for a completely different subject and the place I've gone to in the past was locally owned and had friendly people to deal with. They were recently bought by a big national company and their attitude has completely changed, but again they are the only local place I can find so far.

 

Agreed.
Same happened to me with radiator repair. Great local shop but they closed up, the owner told me too many cheap generic radiators out there now.
It’s gonna keep getting harder to find that kind of service.

 

Yeah, I forgot about radiator shops. I worked for an auto parts store in Milwaukee in the early '80s that offered radiator and gas tank repair. There were at least five other shops in and around the city. We were busy but now I think there might be one or two, in fact I drove pass the only one I know yesterday, it was across the street from the brake shop. I took a radiator there about ten years ago and he want something like $500 to recore an 8N tractor radiator. I was one of the cheap guys and bought from a on line tractor parts company for half the price. It turned out not to not be exactly perfect but it worked.

I was talking to a person yesterday about how all of the service companies are being bought out and consolidating and becoming very independent. He things after a while there will probably be some entrepreneurial people out there who will come forward and think they could offer the same services at a better price and start their own small businesses. I hope so.

 

I just did my brakes on my 55 F-100 shoes were fine use acetone and cleaned them rebuilt my master cylinder all my wheel cylinders were good used dot three fluid really need to replace my lines. I stay off my brakes they are expensive obsolete Ford in Ohio will reline my shoes, but I did not need that. I stay off my brakes use my gears. Little double clutching but watch my speed. Ya I hear ya sense that Covid stuff hit it’s been tough getting partsAJ

 

I like to stop when I need to. I don't worry about conserving my brakes. Acetone won't restore brake lining when it wears down. My standard thought is it's more important to stop than to go.

 

Ya I hear ya! The Acetone just really cleans the linings. Oil grease and brake dust will usually effect drums when they are applied. Newer brake systems are more efficient when stopping. So drivers go faster my 56 had a Volare front clip and a Lincoln differential disc brakes on all four. My 1955 F-100 has drums on all four you can sure tell the difference that 3 second rule just don't comply. I use that 10 second rule when I drive my 55. I hate tail gamers. See alot of cars and trucks with front end damage around here. AJ.