Brake Troubles Options

[nwm5709]

I’ve read a lot of the how-tos and discussions on here about brake bleeding and caliper rebuilds, but I’m looking for some more guidance with brakes on my ’74 before taking everything apart. I set out this weekend to bleed my brakes to try and stiffen up the pedal which has been very soft since I got the car. I assume all the calipers will need a rebuild, but I wanted to see where bleeding the system would get me first. Well after fussing with it for 2 days, I am worse off than I was before. Most of the pads were dragging, so I took the front pads off and pushed the pistons back in to see if would free them up. They moved back against the rotor after pumping the pedal a few times, but now I have almost no braking power even after bleeding several times. I’m about to order 2 rebuild kits for the fronts (with plans to move onto the rears after), but I want to be sure it isn’t something else? I didn’t see any leaks in the system, but I was definitely having trouble getting a steady flow of fluid out of a few of the calipers.

Also, the bleeder nipple on the driver side front is in at an angle. I had very little brake fluid coming out of the end of that bleeder and fluid was actually coming out of the threads. Is there something I can do about this when rebuilding the caliper or should I look for another core to rebuild?