Well, the Jeep was in dire need of new brakes. Just bought it 2 weeks ago and the previous owner had left the stock rotors on for all 78k miles. ](*,) I went with R1 Concepts OEQ stock replacement rotors, zinc-coated, and Stoptech street/track pads. Ordered up a G2 caliper paint kit to repaint the Brembos since the paint and decals had all put peeled off some of the calipers. Member on Cherokeesrt8.com hooked me up with some new red Brembo stickers.
While I had the wheels off I decided to Plastidip the them for the winter here in Buffalo. The stockers are a little beat up, but I wanted to save them from any more abuse and I will probably have them refinished next summer and either black-chromed or painted gunmetal. I had leftover plastidip, so I tapped off all the trim and de-chromed everything but the two Jeep emblems.
Since I know everyone on here are picture whores…enjoy!
Bedded the brakes with ten 60 to 10-15 MPH stops and one 80-5 MPH stop and drove for a good 10 minutes to cool 'em down. (Read Instructions for bedding in your brakes for guidance on proper bedding). What a difference now! The way Brembo’s should feel. No squeaks, just lots of G-forces on hard stops.
Installing the new brakes took a couple hours on Friday night, never done Brembos before, but much easier to do than other cars.
Took me about 2 hours to prep and paint the Brembos. I taped them off, used 00 Steel wool, 320 grit sand paper and the G2 caliper cleaner, did three passes of sanding. Two coats of paint. Per the instructions, the G2 paint did bubble on the 1st coat, but the 2nd coat helped smooth it out. I’m very impressed with the product and there was enough paint to even do a 3rd coat if I had wanted to. The G2 instructions say to give the paint 24 hours to harden. So I bedded the brakes right around 24 hrs on the dot and the caliper paint and decals held up just fine to the heat.
The Plastidip took about 4 hours Saturday. Each wheel got about 4-5 coats on the back and 6 coats on the front, plus touchups after. The trim was done in-between coats on the wheels to give the wheels time to dry. I let it all sit until Sunday morning and put the wheels back on.
Haha, that woulda lasted one hard stop, then a sloppy mess of molten Plastidip rubber.
Could have, but it was a last second decision due to extra Plastidip and I didn’t have trim removal tools at the house. Didn’t want to risk breaking any trim. There are vinyl black-out kits available, but this will hold me over for now.
To each his own, but the wheels were pitting in spots and I wanted to save them for when they get properly done up. Which could end up being just refinished in polished aluminum again. Who knows. As for painting the brakes, definitely needed it.
Thank you. The before picture was taken by the previous owner (who knows what he had in the trunk). The after picture is with nothing in the trunk and the angle is slightly different. Definitely not lowering it as I don’t want to deal with the headaches afterwards.
Thanks, although not in the pictures, there’s a front chrome piece on the lower fascia and a chrome strip on the bumper, both of which were painted too. Why chrome on a performance SUV is beyond me. I can understand it on the 300 SRT8, but not the Jeep.
