Shoptalkforums.com

I ordered brake shoes for my '73 Beetle from http://www.aircooled.net/ .
They sent me semi-metallic Chinese brake shoes.
Will these be acceptable?
If not where can I get some good old asbestos brake shoes?
TIA!

You might still be able to find "good old asbestos" in Canada, but they aren't legal in the USA and haven't been made here for years. I've never seen or tried Chinese brake shoes, but John has a good reputation built up over the years and I don't think it likely that aircooled.net would sell you anything that was junk.

Do check to see how closely the radius of the linings matches that of the brake drums - ideally the shoes should have a slightly smaller arc, so that if you pinch one end up against the drum the other end pulls away just a tad (say, ~.030"). If they're far off, it'll take a while for them to wear in and make full contact when you brake.

I consider it good practice to chamfer the ends of the lining material at 45° to remove the sharp corner and the pocket where dust accumulates. Clamp the shoe into the vise (by the steel web) and use a coarse bastard file, or carefully bevel them on a grinding wheel. Not sure that I'd trust China to not be using asbestos, so you'd better wear a dust mask and ventilate the room when done.

FULL-metallic lining is known for having a low friction coefficient when cold, but "semi" metallics, not so much. They should last longer and have less heat fade than "organic" (non-metallic), the only downside is that the drums will wear a little faster.

If you own a new vehicle, odds are very good many critical parts were made in China.

But as noted, China is perfectly capable of making quality parts...

China has the equipment to produce just about anything you can imagine - they've spent decades copying and reverse-engineering industrial machinery from the West, in many cases with the help of misguided companies eager to outsource manufacturing to them and benefit from their cheap labor, lack of environmental restrictions, and favorable currency exchange rate.These short-sighted folks didn't think about the inevitable consequences (or they did, but were just greedy bastards who planned to get theirs and get out before the repurcussions came along). Once there's a whole factory set up and running to make quality name-brand items, it takes the Chinese about two weeks to build another one just like it to make counterfeits...sometimes they don't even bother to do that, they just make the "legit" stuff on the day shift and the copies at night, right there on the equipment that was paid for by the company they intend to undercut. Their government doesn't control this sort of activity, in many cases they actively encourage it.
They're also very good at making look-a-like merchandise for a fraction of the cost of the genuine article.
I once had a customer with an import-export business, he said that he could send a sample of a $10 item to China and request a faithful copy of comparable quality and they'd come through for say, $5.00. OR he could say that all he wanted was a copy made as cheaply as possible and they could comply for $.75.
So, they can make decent stuff or they can make cheap crap, whichever they're asked to do. The problem for the consumer is, we have no way of knowing which it is. The same thing goes on in India. Several international corporations built factories to build wheel bearings, and now there're probably more counterfeits being exported than the real thing - you've probably got better odds of getting a quality part if it comes in the box of a recognized Chinese/Indian brand than in one that says it's German.
My son put a dashboard grab-handle in his baja which looked almost exactly like the original German part...but it was 100% plastic, with no metal strap inside, and snapped off the very first time it was used for its intended purpose. Fine for a trailer-queen show car I suppose, and very inexpensive, but basically useless. Caveat emptor.

Jim Ed wrote:I ordered brake shoes for my '73 Beetle from http://www.aircooled.net/ .
They sent me semi-metallic Chinese brake shoes.
Will these be acceptable?
If not where can I get some good old asbestos brake shoes?
TIA!

What do they stop like? Years ago Claude's Buggies (CB Performance now) sold a "racing brake shoe" that I used on my autocross Beetle. Looking at the linings on the shoe you could see chunks and slivers of metal mixed in. Looked like brass or bronze. I called it "lathe sweepings". They braked so well you could get a nosebleed. Do those Chinese shoes look like that?

Mike T

<<What do they stop like?>>
Since I did not use new drums or have the old ones resurfaced but, only cleaned and scuffed
them up with coarse sandpaper like I had done in the past for over 23 years, at first they stopped like it had ABS brakes. I allowed a little more stopping distance to compensate for this.
Eventually the drums broke in and the car began to stop as it should. But still I do not race over a hill and expect to stop at the signal light below so, I go kind of slow in that case.
But it does stop like it should now.
<< Do those Chinese shoes look like that?>>
Here are the shoes I bought and installed:
Front Brake Shoes, 1965-78 Standard Beetle, and THING, 131-609-237C
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Front-Brak ... bs-269.htm

Rear Brake Shoes, 1968+ Type 1, 113-609-537C
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Rear-Brake ... bs-315.htm

They are made in China but, they work really well.
They might be less expensive at CB Performance. CB’s shoes are probably made in China also. You could e-mail and ask them.

Note: Since I did not use new drums or have the old ones resurfaced but, only cleaned and scuffed
them up with coarse sandpaper like I had done in the past for over 23 years, .. .
This is a good example of what not to do although it worked for me.