Stucky, you probably just didn't read far enough to get to the rod part of the discussion
I remember you asking about yours a while back and glad to hear you got it figured out.
Yes the rod length is important and maybe something we should come back to. When I was debugging mine I found the rod was actually too long so that the M/C was not returning all the way, and I could not even get the system to bleed. It was after addressing this that I eventually found the bad wheel cylinders.
I think we decided the rod length was probably not the problem for Jimbro because his pedal is stopping before it reached the floor. Which brings two questions to mind-
Jimbro, is your pedal reaching a hard stop before it gets to the floor?
If so does that mean the M/C is definitely reaching the end of the stroke, or is there a stop in the booster that would prevent further travel? If there is a stop in the booster then the rod could still be too short.
As for bleeding, I always have used the "wife in the car pumping the brakes" method, similar to Ed. Always worked for me. Given my experience with sucking air in past the seals on the wheel cylinders I personally would not trust vacuum bleeding very much.
And I agree that finding a shop that can fix yours quickly may be a challenge in itself. The brake shops that work on newer cars will probably be just as lost. And most resto shops probably don't have that much brake system expertise. Now if you can find an "old school" brake shop then you might have a shot.
Walt