GT to Cobra rear disks. Worth it???

[Mustang5L5]

Just installed the Mach 1 13" front kit. I love the braking now.

I already have a brand new M2300-M Cobra rear disk kit (rotors, anti-moan brackets, axle brackets, dust shields). I was planning on putting it on my 5.0 later on but i can always get another kit.

I realize the performance benefit of the slightly larger and vented rotors in terms of preventing fade, but at the same time i'm really not looking forward to pulling the axles to swap it on. I've done it before since i've converted my fox to 5-lug, but unsure if i want to do it to my daily driven GT.

I realize on a street car i may not even notice a difference, but i'm kinda bothered by having big beefy front brakes, and the small thin GT rear rotors and visible dust shields.

Has anyone done the rear upgrade separately from the front? Was there any noticable improvement? Also, on the 99-04 cars, were you able to use the Cobra anti-moan brackets??

 

[DropTopPony]

i didn't think it was worth it, i still have my cobra axle brackets and rotors in my garage. If i have to pull apart the rear then i will do it...until then i don't think its worth the agg.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It looks a lot better...

 

[DropTopPony]

It looks a lot better...

he's talking about the rear....its only a 1" difference in size, the big improvement is the rotors are vented.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Still looks better, the stock rears are tiny and now that he has upgraded the front it probably is even more noticeable.

 

[Mustang5L5]

he's talking about the rear....its only a 1" difference in size, the big improvement is the rotors are vented.

To me the size is noticable. I have a friend with a bullitt so he has the same wheel setup as me and i think his rear brakes look pretty big inside the wheels. I mean they are 11.65" rotors...that's bigger than the puny 10.9" rotors we have for stock FRONT brakes.

But the question is, on a street car, is it worth it? I have been debating AutoXing, but if i do this i will only go once or twice (unless i really get hooked in which case it will be a no-brainer what to do)

But seat-of-the-pants i shouldn't expect to feel anything right?

I would like the look of a bigger rotor in the rear though. I guess it's just a matter of if i want to pull the rear apart to get the look

 

[HoustonGT]

I'd say do it if you want the bigger look out back because most people say its not even noticeable performance wise. Personally, i'll be upgrading to the Bullitt front brake kit in a month or so and just plan to paint the rear calipers to match because i don't want to deal with swapping the rears and not getting any better performance

 

[Mustang5L5]

i'll be upgrading to the Bullitt front brake kit in a month or so and just plan to paint the rear calipers to match because i don't want to deal with swapping the rears and not getting any better performance

That's what i did. I got the Mach 1 brakes which were plain black but i painted both the front and rear red to match

 

[HoustonGT]

That's what i did. I got the Mach 1 brakes which were plain black but i painted both the front and rear red to match

Looks really good. Did you use the spray on caliper paint or the one you brush on? Any problems with flaking or discoloration?

 

[outcold00]

I just did it on my 96. It does look better and not really hard to do just stinky.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I did the rotors with spray on since they came bare for some strange reason (OEM 99+ Brembo rotors). Since they were new, i didn't know where the area the pads would make contact would be, so i painted about 1/2" into the swept area. When i tested the brakes the first time, it wiped the area clean but made a jagged "tear" where the line of paint meets the bare area. I tried to trim it a bit but i don't like the result. That picture shows the good rotor, but the other side has a few tears i don't like. One of these days when i'm bored i'll tape a solid line off now that i know where the pad contacts and spray it again.

As for the calipers, i used the duplicolor brush on kit. I did the rears on the car and they came out fine, but I did the Mach 1 calipers off the car since you need to take them apart to really paint it right.

The first coat came out a little wavey, so i sanded them smooth and did another few coats and it's much better.

I had my stock GT calipers painted for 2 months with no probs with flaking.

Just be carefull when putting the wheel on. I accidentally hit the caliper with the inside of the spoke when mounting the wheel and put a chip in it. I touched it up but it's not as smooth as the rest. You won't see it unless you get close.

I've sprayed the brakes with water and done about 100 miles of driving on them. No probs with paint flake yet, but i think it's too soon to tell

 

[Skidzz]

From a performance stand-point, it's not really worth it unless you road race a lot or something.

 

[Mustang5L5]

True i guess.

I guess if i do decide to do it it will be for appearance only i guess considering i don't drive the car that hard.