Brake upgrade for a DD, spirited driving.
 

I'll come right out and say the OEM brakes perform pretty well for the cars use, but my girlfriends birthday is coming up and she wants red calipers. I was going to paint the stock calipers, but after inspecting them the stockers just look boring and probably wouldn't look much better anyways

What is the lowest cost caliper upgrade (and rotors/pads if necessary) to have that full face look like brembos, wilwoods, etc.

I was going to just buy caliper covers but I honestly think those are pretty lame. Better braking would be great, but its not the main goal here. Even if it had the same braking capabilities but would shed some weight that would be enough for me to justify a cheap brake upgrade for her.

I'm thinking cheap as in $500 or less if possible. Not trying to buy some brembos or wilwoods. I'd possibly go a little higher if it was a big upgrade.

Thanks, please don't troll me for trying make the brakes look nicer for her. She don't really care about added brake performance and I want her to have the full face painted caliper look instead of the OEM ones painted. She has no idea I'm considering doing this.

Paint, stainless lines, properly bleed and consider a pad upgrade (DS2500 or something?) in the front and rear.

Never cheap on brakes. Doubly so when stock are quite decent. I don't even think any of the "not recommended if you plan to use them" oddball upgrades like the STI stuff can meet your price.

300zx brake swap would work.

What year on the 300zx brakes, and what are the benefits to them/where do I get them?

The urge to go off on you....is too much but,
For under $500 nope. Maybe if you find something off eBay.
But really,
Paint them. If you want a good look take them off, give it 3 or 4 coats.
If you want to kick it up a notch powder coat them.
If you truly want to be a baller stencil in Brembo, STI, TRD, or even her name on them.

Good luck

If you're looking for a budget bbk than this is an option

http://www.racingbrake.com/322x25mm-...m-p/2127-k.htm

Just add SS lines, bracket, change fluid - paint the things and call it a day.

If you want the look, caliper covers are really your only option at your price range.

Cheaping out on a fundamental safety item on the car is not a good idea, so if your goal is really just the look, then go for the look with a cover, or painting the caliper.

Agree. I think the covers are really dumb but if you really want the look, they are your best option at this point.

Of course, when others see it they will also think it's dumb and that she's a ricer but.... :shrug:

I hate painted calipers too but I'd rather see that than a ghetto BBK with questionable parts.

Otherwise, the 300zx setup mentioned above (search for it) would be your best bet. It has decent OEM parts but it still pretty obviously an OEM setup transplanted over. For more you could do STI brakes but I'd probably go 300z before the STI ones.

Wrx 4pots are cheap. Direct bolt on. Completely safe. And come in red.

And functionally worst than OEM. There's a reason I didn't suggest them. They provide less clamping force than the sliding 2 pots.

Sounds like he isn't really concerned with performance, that's why I mentioned them. But yea this is just another case of you have to pay to play.

Well I wouldn't want worse performance. The reason I don't want to paint the calipers is that they aren't full face, the hole in the middle of the face is ugly lol. I'm surprised sti breaks are worse than the FRS... 40k car vs 25k car

the STI brakes are brembos, which are better than our stock ones. he was referring to the WRX brakes.

however, there has been quite a long discussion on whether or not the STI brakes would be safe in the long run for our cars since you have to do some modifying to properly convert them for the 86. you be the judge on whether or not you want to do it. there's quite a few threads on this forum about it