I chose the RR two piece floating front/rear rotors, Ferodo front pads, backing plates, and some Castrol React SRF brake fluid from Bruce at Full Tilt Boogie Racing. Everything was shipped promptly and packaged to perfection.
I decided to start at the rear. The 13" rear kit comes with side specific, unidirectional rotors, brackets and hardware. The rotors are a sight to be seen...
A bracket for each side...
And bolts (nice hardware Bruce!)...
I started by disassembling the driver side rear. I pulled the wheel, caliper, and rotor off. You then have to remove the caliper bracket from the caliper. No need to touch the caliper bracket that mounts to the axle end (phew!).
You need to remove a small amount of material from the factory caliper bracket in order for the FTBR supplied adapter plate to be able to be bolted to the caliper bracket at the axle.Note the small 'hump' that blocks your view of the bottom portion of thread...
I could have removed the material with a 4" grinder, a die grinder with a carbide bit, or otherwise. I chose to try a simple belt sander with a coarse belt. It did the job without a problem.
The flat surface of the sander spanned across both humps. I simply eyeballed the bracket to ensure it was square with the sander and hit it with a few 5 to 7 second bursts.
I placed the bolts in their respective holes in order to keep any fine metal particles from mucking up the threads. I then bolted the adapter into place to verify that the bolts cleared all the way through. I also taped up the sliding mechanism area in order to keep debris out of there as well.
Once I had enough clearance at each hole, I then carefully placed the bracket into a table vice and torqued the supplied bolts in place using blue Loctite. I also hit the freshly sanded area with a quick shot of high temperature clear.
I then went and reassembled everything but found that I couldn't get the caliper onto the thicker than stock rotor. I needed to compress the caliper piston but I couldn't get it in utilizing a simple tool I had used many times before. I needed a spanner wrench or something close to it. I ended up using the wrench for a 4" grinder that I had laying around. Worked perfectly.
I was now able to reinstall everything.
From atop the inside of the wheelwell looking down, you can see how Bruce's adapter plate relocates the caliper to allow the 13" rotors to fit...
As Bruce mentions in FTBR's excellent instructions, I'll keep my ears open for any noise that may indicate some rotor to caliper bracket interference as well as periodic visual inspections. I'm happy with what I see right now though.
I then slipped my 2013 GT500 base wheel/tires back on and torqued the lugs to spec...
Note that I'm using Gorilla's open ended locking nuts..
I took the supplied Gorilla 'key' and Tig welded it to a socket so that it would clear the FRPP/ARP studs I'm using...
I'm leaving the factory backing plates off for now. If the dust gets to be an issue I'll add them at a later date.
Very easy on the eyes, I look forward to the installation of the entire kit being completed. The wheels/studs/brakes make a pretty bold statement on my '09. The rear brakes are a simple enough mod that most anyone can accomplish with some skill and the proper tools. They definitely bump the cool factor up a notch.
I'll try to get to the fronts as soon as I can.
I decided to start at the rear. The 13" rear kit comes with side specific, unidirectional rotors, brackets and hardware. The rotors are a sight to be seen...
A bracket for each side...
And bolts (nice hardware Bruce!)...
I started by disassembling the driver side rear. I pulled the wheel, caliper, and rotor off. You then have to remove the caliper bracket from the caliper. No need to touch the caliper bracket that mounts to the axle end (phew!).
You need to remove a small amount of material from the factory caliper bracket in order for the FTBR supplied adapter plate to be able to be bolted to the caliper bracket at the axle.Note the small 'hump' that blocks your view of the bottom portion of thread...
I could have removed the material with a 4" grinder, a die grinder with a carbide bit, or otherwise. I chose to try a simple belt sander with a coarse belt. It did the job without a problem.
The flat surface of the sander spanned across both humps. I simply eyeballed the bracket to ensure it was square with the sander and hit it with a few 5 to 7 second bursts.
I placed the bolts in their respective holes in order to keep any fine metal particles from mucking up the threads. I then bolted the adapter into place to verify that the bolts cleared all the way through. I also taped up the sliding mechanism area in order to keep debris out of there as well.
Once I had enough clearance at each hole, I then carefully placed the bracket into a table vice and torqued the supplied bolts in place using blue Loctite. I also hit the freshly sanded area with a quick shot of high temperature clear.
I then went and reassembled everything but found that I couldn't get the caliper onto the thicker than stock rotor. I needed to compress the caliper piston but I couldn't get it in utilizing a simple tool I had used many times before. I needed a spanner wrench or something close to it. I ended up using the wrench for a 4" grinder that I had laying around. Worked perfectly.
I was now able to reinstall everything.
From atop the inside of the wheelwell looking down, you can see how Bruce's adapter plate relocates the caliper to allow the 13" rotors to fit...
As Bruce mentions in FTBR's excellent instructions, I'll keep my ears open for any noise that may indicate some rotor to caliper bracket interference as well as periodic visual inspections. I'm happy with what I see right now though.
I then slipped my 2013 GT500 base wheel/tires back on and torqued the lugs to spec...
Note that I'm using Gorilla's open ended locking nuts..
I took the supplied Gorilla 'key' and Tig welded it to a socket so that it would clear the FRPP/ARP studs I'm using...
I'm leaving the factory backing plates off for now. If the dust gets to be an issue I'll add them at a later date.
Very easy on the eyes, I look forward to the installation of the entire kit being completed. The wheels/studs/brakes make a pretty bold statement on my '09. The rear brakes are a simple enough mod that most anyone can accomplish with some skill and the proper tools. They definitely bump the cool factor up a notch.
I'll try to get to the fronts as soon as I can.