I'll admit I haven't done much Googling on this yet, though I have dug through my Muir and Bentley manuals.
Here's the scoop. A month or so ago, I replaced the trailing arms on the '69 (thanks to Aircooled.net). Of course, removing and replacing the brake drums was the order of the day. I had adjusted the star wheels to get the drums off and hadn't gotten around to fully adjusting them correctly once put back together.
Starting from that point, the car would pull initially to the right when brakes were applied. Also, the first long application of the brakes in the morning (I live at the top of a hill) usually had the brake pedal slowly creeping to the floor. If I would release and reapply the brakes, the pedal was back up towards normal.
I've driven the Bug off and on since then (mostly not, though). However, my daughter has occasionally driven the Bug here and there and complained of no problems. A little more than a week ago, I took the Bug for a short spin around the block and nothing much had changed. I decided to make a mental note to adjust the star wheels soon.
Yesterday, my daughter's normal car decided to act up at a friend's house, so her friend drove her to work. My wife and I went to take the Bug to her at work so she could drive home. The wife drove my truck and I followed in the Bug. First thing I noticed was that when I stepped on the brake pedal, it immediately traveled about 3 inches before *anything* happened. In other words there is three inches of play in the pedal. I really had to stand on the brakes to get it to stop at the bottom of the hill.
I stopped at a nearby gas station and saw that the brake fluid resevoir was pretty empty (in a dark parking lot, it was hard to tell, but I stuck my finger way down into the resevoir before I felt any wetness. I went in, bought a small container of brake fluid and topped it off. Pumping the brakes did no good. Still, you could stop the car, given enough room, so I took the car on to my daughter and warned her about the brakes. Her reply was that she had noticed that the last couple of times she drove it but forgot to tell me.
When she got home last night, I brought the car into the garage, put the front up on jackstands to adjust the stars and noticed that the left-hand brake line was wet. It also had a bubbled up spot under the top layer of rubber and was soft. There were small cracks in the outer casing. The right-hand one was cracked and dry. Mental note to replace the front brake hoses post-haste (yes, I know, go ahead with stainless steel lines). I went ahead and adjusted the star wheels according to specs. Still three inches of play in the brake pedal, though. In checking the rear hoses, they both look fairly new (like the PO had replaced them soon before selling the car to me).
Besides a brake hose that is obviously about to fail and another not far behind it, what would possibly be causing the drop of the pedal so far before brake application occurs? It is important to note that even with both front brakes adjusted, the car still slightly swerves to the right when the brakes are first applied. Applying the parking brake while rolling slows the car evenly (no pulling).
Have I toasted a master cylinder, too? Or possibly just have a lot of air in the system from the bad hose? Sorry for the long post - just wanted to get all the pertinent details in.