As long as there is enough room for the lower notch in picture 3 I don't see what it would hurt to shorten the ends. You may have to elongate that notch for the shoes to work properly.

Yepper the brake shoes come in a box and look to me to be symmetrical, so no right or left or up or down. Just looked at mine.

Whew, If I had the cd's to show how to do the brakes and rotors on this SEC it would have been a whole lot easier. Right front took about 2 hours to get figured out and disassembled. Left side took less then 20 minutes. Yes I do learn quickly and better yet at my advanced(LOL) age I still remember.

However If I'd have realized that I had to remove the hubs to disassemble the hubs from the rotors I'd have probably just taken it to my Indy. I don't have the tools to split the hub and rotor , so I took them to a local shop to do that. The price was very reasonable and he didn't care that I had my own parts. He even volunteered to put the new rotors on the hubs for the same money..... Needless to say, they'll get more of my business when I need them. Not specifically a MB mechanic, but they do a lot of foreign cars...and old Mopar's(my kinda shop!)

I'll do the rear when I get the front back together. Those should be a lot easier. Luckily the Calibers were in great shape. And the fluid was clean when I cracked the bleeder to force the pistons back into the calibers.
Then the baby will have new shoes (Pads, rotors) all around.

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1986 Euro 500SEC "RUF" 9:1CR, "Rose"
1985 Euro 500SEC Cabriolet AMG Widebody
1982 Euro 500SEL "Blue"
2001 Texas Heeler (Aussie/Queensland X) "Sulphie",
2012 Queensland Red Heeler "Squeak"
Best dogs I've ever had.