I am intending on using the truck as somewhat of a car hauler and just a general work horse between my extended family and I(anyone who needs it).
Oh man, this is such a long-winded and tough explanation!
Here's the thing, I used Raybestos website as a starting point. As an example we'll discuss wheel cylinders because that's what I did the most homework on when finding parts. Many different manufacturers make the identical wheel cylinders for our truck. Raybestos website can find me their part number, and from there I would scour the internet, using everything from ebay to a place called
http://www.yoyopart.com/
only to cross reference part numbers.
So I would start with Raybestos' part number, and end up with alternative part numbers
for the same exact part from let's say, BENDIX, WAGNER, and NAPA brand.
Once I had these part numbers, I would go onto a website called
https://www.rockauto.com/, and use their parts-number search engine to track these parts down.
I found that I could save between $5-$30 on EACH part just buy finding other manufacturers that had parts on closeout, or were just plain cheaper. All of my wheel cylinders--all 6 of them--were on closeout, and got them for reasonable prices.
Another example was my front brake shoes. Raybestos' brake shoes found on Rockauto were over $100, but I found part numbers for the same exact riveted shoes from WAGNER on closeout for $65.
That's how I found every part for my brakes except the Master(ebay), some parts were better deals than others--All flex hoses were bought at retail price...couldn't find a deal. But my spring kits--front and back--both only cost me $5
combined(closeout comes to the rescue!)!
Sorry for my rambling. This was a stressful project, but I did save myself probably about $200 by the end of the day compared to if I just bought the first thing I saw, and probably saved even more compared to making a one-stop-shot at NAPA.
NAPA easy? Yes. Cheap? No.