Old girl is freezing outside while I work on calipers inside



OEM seal kit



Just a couple decades of dirt and brake dust built up





I don't think the last owner bled them very much



Pistons and hardware cleaned up and hit with a dremel and metal polish to get crud and a little surface rust off









True color starting to show through



Currently hanging out while the primer/base coat dries



To be continued

 

Color coat applied. We'll see if they need another coat in the morning. The paint is supposed to be self-leveling so the brush marks should even out...

 

The brush marks in fact did not even out. Sanded them and added another coat:




But I just wasn't really happy with the final texture. I also wasn't 100% on the shade of silver and thought it may clash with the finish on the LS wheels. I decided to take the spray route this time. Back to more sanding, then primer, then 2k black gloss. They're currently drying but I think the end result will be solid.

 

Nice work. Those piston dust boots were in rough shape. Nice final product. I love the way the LS400 brakes feel. I'm using EBC "yellow stuff" pads. The car stops like a big brake kit.

 

Thanks!

The black is fully dried and definitely turned out better than the paint-on stuff.

Raybetos rotors, Akebono pads, and stainless lines await as well.

 

Yaaaaasss that new rubber feeling. I ended up going with Pirelli P7s. They ride really nice and there's almost zero road noise up to about 60mph (haven't gone over that yet). New center caps are in the mail. I might add a small spacer to the rear...I'll need to see what thickness I can get away with without having to swap out the studs.

 

How's the road noise compared to your old Kumho Ecstas on 17s?

 

Pretty much non-existent! On my short drive, the only real noise was a light wind roar around the windshield and A-pillars. Granted, the Kumhos were pretty much at their end of life and starting to hit the wear bars. They started to make a soft howling sound that I thought might have been a wheel bearing going bad until I put these on and it went away.

I was originally looking at the DWS06+ but in pricing them out, I found Pirelli was doing a $100 rebate and the tire shop I went to doesn't charge an install fee for Pirellis either. So saving about $200 over the Contis and reading this review solidified my desicion to go with the P7: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...tid=336#charts

 

Good to know, thanks! I hope I have similar results with new tires in the next couple of months. Putting ResoNix CLD and Fiber Mat on the doors is still on my to-do list, but I can report that putting them on the wheel well liners as the first step in sound deadening only made a small difference. It did very little with resonance from driving over worn concrete on the Interstate. I see why door skins are a preferred starting point since there is more surface area to cover and those surfaces are positioned closer to your ears.

 

I hope so too! The deadening should all start coming together once more is applied throughout the vehicle. I think the difference was more prevalent for me since I had already done just about everything else.

 

Ok that was a lie.

I meant it at the time, and I was happy with the Tein/RSR combo, but then I saw these guys for sale locally. I was kind of mad at myself for selling the Sportivo springs before and, given I'm going for the OEM+TRD goodies combo, I had to jump on them. They came off an imported Aristo with only about 40k miles on it. Bottom bushings are still in good shape as are the silencer cushions and mounts. I got a straight strut swap down to about 2.5 hours now. I forgot to take pics of them on the car but the ride height is about the same and ride quality/handling are similar to the Teins with 1-2 less clicks of damping than what I was running them at. So now I think I have the complete Sportivo suspension...

 

Knocked out a couple things this weekend. First up was replacing the amp powering my front stage. I don't know what it's issue has been but it would randomly drop out a channel or two then suddenly come back the next day. This started last year and I read that the switches in it can get dirty due to all of the openings in the case for ventilation. I sprayed it out with contact cleaner which solved that. Then it started acting up again but I didn't want to continue dealing with it so I continued with the Hertz theme:



Next up was finally installing my big boy brakes and stainless lines:



I'm glad I ended up switching the color to black. I think that other silver would have definitely clashed with the wheels



But of course something with the virtual machine on my laptop had to act up so it wouldn't load which means I couldn't use Tech Stream to give them a proper bleeding. I did it the old school way which works ok but I'll revisit that whenever I address the rear calipers.

The car is riding and driving real nice so I'm pretty happy with where it's at for now. Next big project this summer will be dealing with the rest of the oil leaks. Then I think I'll tackle a repaint next year.

Bonus shot from hitting the trails this morning now that warm weather is back: