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If the drums are not heat checked, cracked, or scored, I would probably not have them cut. You should measure them though, to see of they are already beyond usable limit. If you do have them cut, the proper thing to do is have the shoes "arced" to fit the drum, so when they are adjusted up you have proper shoe to drum contact. You might have some difficulty finding a shop that can "arc" the shoes. Only us old bastards used to do that.
Also, "primary brake shoe" (short) goes to the front, or the main rotation of the wheel. If the main rotation was reverse, the "primary", or short shoe would go to the rear. Unless, of course, you are working on a Chrysler with upper and lower wheel cylinders, then both shoes would be the same. Good luck.PB

p.s. check your upper and lower pins and bushings as well as kingpins and bushings, while you have the wheels off.

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What and how should I check on these? I know some description is in the steering section.

For what it's worth the steering wheel spins over fine and there is little play in the steering system. Gotta wrestle the tire back and forth to feel the play.

Obviously planning on greasing everything.

When I asked shops around me about arcing the shoes, they looked at me like I was from outer space. Nobody had a clue of what I was asking for. So I put the shoes and drums on and left it at that. As far as I know they are working fine.

I'm also curious about how to check kingpins. Bushings I would assume look for wear or cracking in the rubber. But these old cars are different from newer ones that I'm used to.

-Kevin

For me if you jack up the car on that side with the tire still on, grab the tire and try to rock it side to side. Also in and out from top to bottom. That will help show any play in the front suspension parts. It it rock in and out, that is usually kingpins. It it rocks side to side, that's probably top or bottom support pins.

Thanks. Will heed that advice.

I assume it is correct to use a copper washer between the brake hose and wheel cylinder?

I did on all mine. The hoses I bought came with new ones.

Here is a short vid about brake shoe arcing. That's how we did drum brake jobs through the 70's. You got full shoe contact with the drum and didn't have to wait for the shoes to wear in. It was most important when cutting the drum oversized. With the advent of disc brakes on the front axle and drums on the rear, it became less important, mostly because braking imbalance would be felt more in the steering wheel and sometimes you could not adjust it out. You would have to wait for the shoes to wear in.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ZF200ZSVs

What is this garbage in my wheel cylinder?

I'm replacing them anyway; I'm just curious.

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Dried up fluid and corrosion of the aluminum pistons which happens when the system isn’t flushed annually.

That's why I went silicone.