Man those calipers look beautiful.
You should look into ceramic detailing coating.
Recently I've been seeing folks do inside of their wheels and even calipers to help buy you a a few weeks of a wash or lesser contaminants to your painted surfaces.

On another note, I'm excited to see those barrels reflecting some orange

 

Tempted to make an offer for your extra set of brakes, but I know it’d take me forever to move a project like this along.

Back in the day, those optional gold Brembo brakes on the G35 coupe really made an impression on me. I remember the first time seeing them, rolling out of a parking garage in NYC. Looked so cool

 

Probably makes more sense to sell them to someone for a BBK upgrade, but either way. As a project it will move along as fast or slow as you want to invest the time and effort. The obvious benefit of working with a doner set is that effort doesn't affect you using your car while you prep. It's expensive though, but certainly less so if you DIY the install.

Anyway, I'm expecting to create a FS thread in a couple of weeks. $500 shipped for a clean, low miles set of Akebono calipers feels like a fair, pay-it-forward transaction, and I'd be happy if it were you.

 

Out of the blue, it occurred to me that the pad pins might be compromised by the thickness of the powder coat. Glad I thought of that before heading to the shop next week, because I was right. Had to sand out the holes just enough so the pins could slip through.

Otherwise, four bags ready, labeled, each with a caliper, pad pins, spring plate and a SS brake line.

Tuesday... Tuesday... LOL

 

Make sure to give the car a good clean this weekend so it's clean and shiny the first time you see it with the new calipers installed.

 

Maybe. Probably. But not today... it's snowing right now.

Duckfeet hide the brakes quite a bit, so my first impression is going to be a little skewed towards meh. But I'm taking a vacation day Tuesday for the install and will be swapping my Vossens on soon as I get back from the shop.

I'll be taking pics. Lots of pics.

 

I'm loading up my trunk for tomorrow, and eyeballing the OEM calipers currently on the car. It occurs to me that I absolutely could have limited this project to the outer-facing section of the calipers, and didn't need to do the back side. You have to strain to catch even a sliver of the backside pieces. That could have easily saved me over $200 on the blasting & powder coating.

Oh well. Done is done.

 

Im here to tell you I took that route when I painted mines, didnt pay that much attention to the back and I suffer every time the car goes up in the air and I see the inside. Also at full lock depending on incline and lighting (OEM width) I can see them as well.

You did good. It cost you but it was not getting any cheaper to achieve. Many folks have gone through this.

I have learned that my cheapness somewhat works sometimes. I scuffed the hell out the OEM powder coating and laid 3 heavy coats as well as clear and it's been 4 years since.
It's technically a 1-2 time type of mod as more than this it would start to show.

 

You're not one to half *** things. You do a mod every 2 years, what's $200 compared to always wishing you didn't cheap out?

 

Shaming me with compliments, eh? LOL, thanks, Epiphany. And technically I used to plan on one significant mod per year, with an approximate budget of $2000 annual, give or take a grand. It's just been the last two years that I've done butkus. Been missing that feeling, hence this project.

Anyway, I'm leaving for the shop in about a half hour. And yes, the car is clean

 

First impressions, calipers on the car with the car on the lift, no wheels... and OMG they are gorgeous beyond words.

Second impression, with the duckfeet on the car and the car on the ground... meh. Duckfeet. I need to get the Vossens back on the car and take some pics.

Third impression, driving around with the new-same-as-old brakes, but with SS brake lines... uh oh. Pedal travel is increased and the pedal is mushy. There undoubtedly is still air in the system somewhere, and I just called the shop back to talk to them about it. Tomorrow morning I'll look at my work plans and schedule a follow-up visit. The mechanic didn't have the same before-after experience that I do, because it's my car. But still, god damn it.

And then there's the money. Five hours at their bring-your-own-parts labor rate, I just got hit with an $800 bill. I mean, it's not like I don't have the money, I make a great living. But I live a financially conservative lifestyle, and this kills me.

 

I think it's almost impossible to not get air into the system when swapping calipers. I bleed my brakes 3x after the Brembo swap.

Suggestion--get a motive power bleeder and DIY it. You're familiar enough with the calipers and bleeders. It's no more complicated than changing your oil or swapping wheels.

 

I've got the passenger side swapped, and took a break to take some pics.

Notice this first pic. See the amber (orange) reflector in the headlight, and the amber tint on the fog lights, and the amber-ish NY license plate? Small details, but I love how it carries around into the calipers.

 

Did your mechanic remember to bleed both top screws? IE, inside and outside facing on each caliper?

 

IDK, but I can't imagine he blew off the back halves (no pun). That seems super unlikely.

The reason it took nearly five hours was after disassembling the original parts, and assembling the new lines and the new calipers, two of the calipers were leaking during the bleeding process. The problem was at the caliper backside where the brake line connects. Apparently there was some paint (powder coat) in the threads. They removed those calipers, eventually used a small wire brush to clean them out, and that solved the problem. However, the clock was ticking, with a hook into my wallet. Man, that sucks. If I had only thought to inspect the inlet threads, I could have avoided the whole thing. I feel like punching myself.

Rochester is angry at the moment. So flustered that third person feels appropriate.

Paid WAY more than I planned on, and could have avoided it if I were more on top of things. Add to that, I still have air in the lines, so my *new* brakes are currently mushy.