Brake help! Exhausted ideas...

[Ride The Snake!]

I hit the shoes with some brake cleaner, then later on a propane torch for a couple minutes. The mild stain that was on there seemed to disappear.

I could probably stand to fiddle with the pre-adjustment on the shoes on both sides of the front. Although it's pulling to the right, yet the front left drum is the one that feels a little snug--go figure. As you said, perhaps driving a bit will diminish the imbalance as the assembly seats more. I could also try to grease the backing plate on the left; I had only done the right since that's the only one I wanted to disassemble.