The blackhole to my paychecks =p

imstillonjava · 07-03-2010, 11:50 AM

It Brakes My Heart (rear brakes ed).....that this car is still not on the road yet. haha.

My brakes were in dire need of an upgrade, so I had AutoRnD set me up with a RacingBrake rear OE bbk, and then journeyed down to local Fullerton to willcall it.

First to go...is the OEM brake dust shield in the rears. They don't clear the RB rotors, and they don't serve any particular function enough for me to modify and keep them. I looked all over the car and in the Mazda factory manual, and there wasn't an indication of how to remove it at all. It looked like a pressed/interference fit of the metal shell. So I tried the "delicate" route of dremeling it out with a metal cutter first. That took way too much time, and there were way too many flying carbon discs as a result...so I busted out the tiny arm muscles, and used a pair of tin snips + some can opener type action to rip those buggers off.

Tried cleaning some dirt off....did it work?

Removed the calipers, cleaned then up - and gave them some fresh black caliper paint.

Also painted the center bolt and hub. All done! Easy pea-sie. If only I knew about the PITA that was yet to come for the fronts.

imstillonjava · 07-03-2010, 04:09 PM

At the end of 2009, I purchased a used set of N-Tech Engineering designed AP Racing brakes. Came with a couple sets of Ferodo pads, brackets, stainless steel brake lines, rotors with plenty of meat left, and CP5200 calipers. I kept them stored for months, and finally had the chance to break them out.

Just around that same time, someone was selling their used sets of N-Tech Engineering brake ducts. It came with the plastic ducts to match up to a 99 spec bumper, hosing, and the backing plates. I picked up the set, and ended up selling off the hosing and plastic ducts. I decided to use the backing plates, buy new hosing (that wasn't orange :/ ), and fabricate some new ducts to work with the FEED bumper (still need to get started on that part).

The toughest part of installing the backing plates? Getting the aluminum hub cap off, and then finding a long enough bar to extend my "not long enough" breaker bar, and rip off that big ol hub nut. The rotor was frozen on insanely well - the two rotor screws were stubborn...and the impact driver sucked! It was actually easier using the screw attachment and a breaker bar.

After that, and about $3.00 worth of hardware in the form of long screws and misc washers and nuts....I managed to pop off the rotor by this method:
Youtube link to someone with a brilliant ideahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtsTJCRljAs.

After that, it was cake! (or so I thought).

I masked off the rotors to repaint some of the edges.
I also thought to give a try and change the color of the AP logo. That wasn't fun to mask off.

07-03-2010, 04:09 PM	#2
imstillonjava Rotary Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 108 Rep Power: 18	At the end of 2009, I purchased a used set of N-Tech Engineering designed AP Racing brakes. Came with a couple sets of Ferodo pads, brackets, stainless steel brake lines, rotors with plenty of meat left, and CP5200 calipers. I kept them stored for months, and finally had the chance to break them out. Just around that same time, someone was selling their used sets of N-Tech Engineering brake ducts. It came with the plastic ducts to match up to a 99 spec bumper, hosing, and the backing plates. I picked up the set, and ended up selling off the hosing and plastic ducts. I decided to use the backing plates, buy new hosing (that wasn't orange :/ ), and fabricate some new ducts to work with the FEED bumper (still need to get started on that part). The toughest part of installing the backing plates? Getting the aluminum hub cap off, and then finding a long enough bar to extend my "not long enough" breaker bar, and rip off that big ol hub nut. The rotor was frozen on insanely well - the two rotor screws were stubborn...and the impact driver sucked! It was actually easier using the screw attachment and a breaker bar. After that, and about $3.00 worth of hardware in the form of long screws and misc washers and nuts....I managed to pop off the rotor by this method: Youtube link to someone with a brilliant ideahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtsTJCRljAs. After that, it was cake! (or so I thought). I masked off the rotors to repaint some of the edges. I also thought to give a try and change the color of the AP logo. That wasn't fun to mask off. Last edited by imstillonjava; 07-03-2010 at 07:15 PM.

07-03-2010, 11:50 AM	#1
imstillonjava Rotary Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 108 Rep Power: 18	It Brakes My Heart (rear brakes ed).....that this car is still not on the road yet. haha. My brakes were in dire need of an upgrade, so I had AutoRnD set me up with a RacingBrake rear OE bbk, and then journeyed down to local Fullerton to willcall it. First to go...is the OEM brake dust shield in the rears. They don't clear the RB rotors, and they don't serve any particular function enough for me to modify and keep them. I looked all over the car and in the Mazda factory manual, and there wasn't an indication of how to remove it at all. It looked like a pressed/interference fit of the metal shell. So I tried the "delicate" route of dremeling it out with a metal cutter first. That took way too much time, and there were way too many flying carbon discs as a result...so I busted out the tiny arm muscles, and used a pair of tin snips + some can opener type action to rip those buggers off. Tried cleaning some dirt off....did it work? Removed the calipers, cleaned then up - and gave them some fresh black caliper paint. Also painted the center bolt and hub. All done! Easy pea-sie. If only I knew about the PITA that was yet to come for the fronts.