Hey,
It has been a while since I wanted to make a post about some of the work on the car. It's a 2003 Touring.
Due to the quarantine, I decided to go ahead with the brakes change / upgrade. I had these calipers for almost a year, but didn’t have the time or courage to tackle it.
So here are the before and after pictures.




These calipers are not real Brembos. They are pretty much the same visually, 4 pistons and everything, and are not Reman. They are new. It seems the same thing, time will tell.
First step was to paint them. And I had the great idea of grinding one of them to make it smoother on the edges. My suggestion: don’t waste your time. Lot of work, spent >50 bucks on Dremel bits, grinder, etc. And you can’t say the difference. And the final result doesn’t look that good either. Forget it.
Now, to the paint process. Step 1, masking.




Step 2, primer.





Step 3, the color. Step 4, add Brembo labels, you can find them on e-bay.



Step 5, clear coat. Here are the results.



Here are the cans I’ve used for paint.





Since I wanted to give it a good cleaning, here are some pictures of the cleaning process.





Even the brake brackets got some love.






Below, some pictures of the old and new parts. Changed wheel hub and brake lines. Bought Z1 SS brake lines and Z1 Brembo brake rotors (slotted only).
Reused the brake line bracket, but gave it some anti rust paint.





The wheel hubs are Nissan advantage, 78 bucks each. Brake pads are EBC yellow stuff.
Dust shields were sand blasted and painted (with high heat primer, black caliper paint and caliper clear coat). For the front brakes conversion, no need to change the heat shields. The rear ones you need to, though.




The caliper paint is very easy to nick. Maybe it’s because you supposed to cook them for 1h at 200 degrees. I wouldn’t do that with the new calipers. I did it with the dust shields, though.
The brake feeling is pretty much the same. It looks nicer, yes, but maybe I would get that nicer bite on the track, not sure.
The SS brake lines, not really to my taste; I think it's better to use the OEM or a similar one with the correct bracket (for Brembo brakes, mine is still the single piston one, re-purposed). It came with 2 brakets, but if you use both, I’m afraid you don’t have enough slack for both turning and suspension travel. So I only used one, and tied both together with a zip tie.








Now, since I was going to change the brake lines and calipers, I let all brake fluid drain out, dry, to a bucket. It then took me a while to flush, bleed, then flush, then bleed, then recirculate, then flush, then bleed, then test drive, then bleed again. Not recommended. I still think there are some tiny bubbles in there, I've dreaming about it.
I have the rear calipers, and bought one used dust shield, one new. That is going to be a long one, and I’m thinking on changing the wheel hub / bearing too. Will come back with it in due time.
Thanks for reading!
Br, Al.
For further and great info: https://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-...bo-brakes.html

 

Nice post and glad you used high-temp primer and paint. Let us know how it holds up when you get some heat in those brakes.

 

Agreed. ^^

So, my question..... if they're not "real Brembos", what are they?

I know that a number of factory Brembo calipers are very similar/same, e.g., Subaru versions, but how were these sourced? Didju find "new 350Z Brembo copies" somewhere?

 

This is a picture from the box. I bought them last year from Stockwise Auto.com. But I think you can find them at Rockauto too.
No Brembo branding on them but they look exactly the same. Also, they don't look Reman, they look brand new.





Br, Al.

 

Thanks, Al, but ya, Cardone does "mostly" remanufacturing. I sold a lot of their parts when I ran a store 8 years ago.

Oh, and read the label on the box. Heh heh......

But yeah, good to know. Might not be actual Brembo brand but they're essentially the same thing, fitwise; but probably not lightweight like true monoblocks. But if they work....

 

Hey, no complaints here, they work great.
About the weight, it would be nice to compare them, but my guess is that they are pretty much the same.

Br, Al.

 

Good job with the prep & paint.

From the photos, they're not monoblock & probably the same as what we had on a 97 Tacoma PreRunner. I *think* they're cast iron replacements for the Brembos. I bet $1 they're heavier, but if they work for you, that's all that matters.

 

Hey, thanks.
They are made of aluminum, not iron.

Br.,
Al