The brake fix actually worked, so that’s something. Above is an exciting photo of the cylinder in the car, which now actually has “brakes” for skinny Morgan drums values of “brakes”.
Above, the parts after the cylinder face was flattened, the copper washer annealed (and flattened, it’s definitely a “lightweight” version now), and the cap cleaned up.
I bled the brakes using a Mighty Vac hand pump, which worked well except the bleed nipples on the wheel cylinders are awful–so loose in their threads that air is pulled by them rather than fluid from the cylinder. I worked around that by grabbing a hunk of clay and packing it around the base of the nipple once it was loose enough to let fluid out. To mimic an idiot: “Sad.”
I painted the door frames, though this particular can of Rustoleum is super-thick and more than a day later it’s not yet completely dry. It will get there.
I made new panels for the under-door area on the front of the wood frame–here the primer is drying, thankfully a much quicker process!