Had a question related to a specific hardware details which made me think that I should post that picture and start a thread with other details related to the subject in the title. Some of these details relate to many years but will start here.
There were two suppliers of brake supplies to Sterling that made up the rear end assemblies that would, once completed, to the car assembly plants. The subassemblies provided by the suppliers came preassembled and basically were just attached to the ends of the rearend housing when the rest of the items to added. Subassemblies included backing plate, brake shoes, wheel cylinder and all the hardware to hold them in place.
The two suppliers were Kelsey Hayes and Bendix
Backing plates were painted with a heavy coat of semi-gloss black - typically glossier than the housing likely due to how they were painted and that they were painted by the supplier. Each supplier marked their backing plates differently. You will find company names and in one case FoMoCo in an oval.
Casting details for the wheel cylinders were different and so was the hardware. Below are a couple of 69 examples showing the bolt heads from Kelsey Hayes examples
There were date codes (ink stamped) applied to both suppliers subassembles for identification and tracking purposes.
In the brake show adjustment hole a rubber plug was suppose to be installed after the shoes were adjusted. The visible flat face of the plug would have had either a series of very fine diagonal lines that formed a cross hatch pattern slightly raised from the surface if supplied by Kelsey Hayes or a series, 8A-2092, if supplied by Bendix
