Ross wrote:
If you replace all of your brake tubing and install new hoses and cylinders, the risk of instantaneous brake failure is small to the point of nearly vanishing. That is unless you plan to run the car in the salt.

In 52 years of screwing around with old cars the only instantaneous failures I have seen were due to corroded brake lines. Sure I have seen diminished performance for a host of reasons--all due to lack of maintenance and wishful thinking, but instantaneous failure was always from corroded lines.

I have seen poorly engineered dual cylinder retrofits where the pedal stroke was not sufficient to operate the second half of the dual cylinder if one half failed. The very picture of a fool's paradise.