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I would use Tiger Treadle Vac (Andy Mylin). He apprenticed with Ross in the past and I have no reason to believe he does not do high quality work.

Kev - I bled everything twice (all four, then all four again) and confirmed no air at all through the bleeder valves. The pedal feels nice and stiff, just very poor braking performance. I'm not sure I would get anything different doing it again. I haven't heard that about DOT 5, but it wouldn't surprise me. I kind of wish the car just had normal DOT 4....easier to work with and way less expensive.

Howard - Either Ross or Andy Mylin would be who I would use for the rebuild. Good call on checking for vacuum after the engine is off. I haven't done that. I may need to check all the vacuum hoses as well. Wouldn't be too surprised if I need to replace them all, judging by how stiff the heater hoses were. As for the leaks, it is definitely wet at the brake switch. It is also wet around the mastery cylinder. I can't tell if it's leaking from the junction block at the end or between the master and vacuum cylinder. Either way, both the brake switch area and master are causing brake fluid to drip down the frame and onto the floor. It's not enough to cause the reservoir to drain much at all.

RH - that makes sense. And if that's the case I wonder if the threads in the junction block are all messed up now. That's going to be a lot of fun to remove all that and clean it up.

PGH - yeah, it's worth it to me to pay someone to do it. If my core from Rusty is rebuildable then I'll have that one done while I continue to drive the 400. When it's back I'll swap them out. Then I can use the one from the 400 and learn to rebuild it myself. I'd rather not try to rebuild a BTV on a car that needs it done to be able to drive. I'd rather rebuild a spare and keep the downtime on the car to a minimum.

The brakes on my 1954 stop the car on a dime with the lightest touch of the pedal so clearly something is wrong on yours. That’s the way I’ve always experienced the Treadle-Vac systems on any of my Packards so have your rebuilt! I do I’ve myself and it’s quite easy actually.

The brass fitting at the of the master cylinder has a soft copper crush washer as its seal. Gitting the fitting aligned to allow it to connect to the steel brake lines with enough force to crush the washer and seal the connection is not an easy task and may be the cause of the leak.
Happy

Happy - that makes sense. And it does look like that's where much of the fluid is coming from. Getting the brass fitting lined up with the brake lines is going to be a real challenge. The lines are stainless steel and are very difficult to bend.

I would advise making a scribe mark between the V block and casting with the bolt slightly loose to show where the lines are happiest, then tighten trying to keep that alignment. Second option is that, but disconnect the lines first and reconnect after.

Trying to get stainless lines to bend to that space and not strip the brass V block with the fittings using a flare nut wrench will really be an exercise in frustration.

Have you quantified the fluid loss from the leak(s)?

Looks like the next things to check are the vacuum and the hydraulic pressure output.

Pull the vacuum line off the reserve tank under the fender and adapt a vacuum gage to it with a little hose. It would be good to know what sort of vac. you are getting in the system, especially during a brake application.

At this great age the check valve at the back at the carb can be acting as more of a pressure regulator than a check valve.

Oh, and I hate stainless steel lines.

Oh, and I do rebuild Tvacs.