Anyway, they arrived and there's a reason - they are two different pad sets - the pads on one side are a different brand and material than the pads on the other side.

I know it won't matter about the outboard pad for one side having that lip or edge - but the mis-match bugs me as far as having two different pad pairs - braking unevenly if the frictions and types are different. (even the look and color is different between the pads in the left caliper compared to the pads in the right caliper but BOY are those brakes HEAVY!!!!!!)

I can't find anyone who lists pads for those brakes - NAPA doesn't even list disk pads for 73 Javelin and O'Reilly only shows one type of pad and they don't totally look like the heavy duty brake pads.

I had a thought as far as still using those new pads with these brakes......... see if you can guess what I mean.

Expect you need to increase pedal ratio or fit a smaller bore master to reduce pedal effort and increase travel. Softer pads would tend to be lower CoF and require more brake effort, and have lower temperature capabilities but may increase travel.

Parts store pads, not surprisingly, are meant to match or exceed OEM specs, so typically have similar CoF. Temperature range and amount of brake dust are typically biggest differences. 

Performance street pads tend to have a bit higher CoF and higher temperature range that those who drive a bit harder may appreciate.   They may lose a bit of CoF at low temperatures and require more effort for those first few stops.

There are lots of pad options for racing, some with high CoF and extreme temperature capabilities, but they are typically not suited for street use.  

For your light car and spirited warm-weather driving, EBC Yellowstuff may give a noticeable improvement if available for your calipers, but they have a long break-in period compared to most. Porterfield R4S would be good, but not as high CoF as the EBC. Their R41 would be a good autocross/limited track pad, but expensive and likely dusty, noisy and wear the rotors in street use.  

Addressing your master cylinder size and/or pedal ratio is first step as may then work well with regular parts store good pads.   

Hope this helps, RD

Thanks!

Tom

Know what you mean about bending steering arms and I have no intention of doing so.

Tomorrow (Weds) I plan to tow-dolly the ol' girl home and examine the front steering setup vs. what's in the Scarebird photos for discs.

Here's my new baby!

Fasteners are used to clamp machine components together and the strength is in the clamping force between the machine faces.

Washers - maybe, one thickness, but not nuts as those are then individual parts and don't have a large FACE to press against. At least a washer has some surface area - more than a nut has. 

I have to agree with Lyle - you smack those brakes and are on sand a bit or wet pavement and the wheel slides a bit and then suddenly GRABS hard, you have three thousand pounds hitting those spindles. 

 There's not a lot of space to flip the caliper to the rear of the steering axis. 

Take a look at this left side shot of the rear part of the parts - I question the clearance.

AMC put the calipers on the fronts of these cars, Concord, etc. - and to the rear on Eagle but then the steering arm and other parts are down low to clear the axle.