At long last, a few upgrades are coming to the Slamry. After getting lowered on coilovers and getting wheel fitment dialed in, it was time to address what was hiding behind the wheels: the brakes.
Now, the stock Camry brakes were no issue for stopping the car. In fact, I never had any issues with the braking performance. However, I was concerned with how they looked behind the wheels. Having been in service since the car was built, the original calipers were worn down and the rotors were rusty. I had plan to always upgrade the brakes to make them look substantial and knew that Highlander/RX350 front brakes (calipers, rotors, and pads) were direct bolt ons for the Camry thanks to the Toyotanation forums. So after a quick discussion with Terence and waiting my turn for an appointment at TT Automotive, it was finally time to get stuck into the upgrade.
Parts a-plenty!
I ended up purchasing quite a few parts. Pictured are:
- Toyota Highlander front calipers (painted black by Eclipse Autobody)
- Toyota Camry rear calipers (painted black by Eclipse Autobody)
- StopTech sport slotted rotors for the front and rear
- StopTech stainless steel brake lines front and rear
- Toyota Highlander OEM front dust shields
With all the parts laid out, the next step was to remove the old DOT 3 brake fluid and put in new fluid for the brake fluid flushing later on.
Some fancy German DOT 4 brake fluid for the Slamry
Once the wheels were removed and the car was in the air, Terence made short work of the front and rears, finishing them off in a few hours. We managed to take some before and after photos to show the differences:
Apologies for the blurry photo
Razor sharp picture and brakes.
Ironically, the old setup looks bigger than the new one because I took them at different distances. But rest assured, the new 2-pot setup with a larger rotor is substantially larger. Here's Terence with the comparison:
The black on the StopTech rotors should help prevent rust from forming!
The old, rusted brake shield on the right and the new one on the left. Look like rust really did a number on the old cover, but that means it did its job protecting the rotor. Also, fun fact, if you plan on doing this upgrade the Highlander cover does not use the exact same 4 bolt holes as the Camry item so expect to drill a new bolt hole for each cover.
Terence working on the rears, accompanied by plenty of Rust Check to inhibit rust formation
Before: Rusty
After: BLAAAACK
The Slamry was actually finished on Thursday, the day I dropped it off, but we also ended up working on fitting the JP Vizage kit onto the car, which took significantly more time (and effort) than I expected. I left my car at the shop for Terence to continue finessing the kit onto the car to make the fitment as close to perfect as possible and came back on Saturday, where I was greeted by a massive snowstorm (it snowed at least 15cm in one day).
When the snow falls, the Subbies come out to play. Having driven Terence and Theresa's WRX in this weather, I've become tempted many times over to buy one for situations like this!
I also had a chance to finally take a look at Terence's lifted Forester. Looks mean in the shin-high snow!
More glamor shots
The moment the car got out, it had to manage through the freshly fallen snow, which the Slamry managed magnificently thanks to the Michelin X-ICE XI3's. You can also see the new brakes behind the wheels and snow!
While putting things back together, Terence asked if I was interested in testing out some LEDs in the fog lights. Curious, I said yes and in a few minutes, we put in some SaberLED 10 000 lumen LED lights into the fogs and I was instantly shocked at how bright the 6k colored lights were. So much so, that I immediately wanted to upgrade the DRLS and low/high beams. I had been seriously considering a HID projector retrofit from Lightwerkz but for about 250 USD in bulbs I could have some great performance at a fraction of the cost. I'll have to see how they hold up in terms of the light cut-offs as I prefer not to blind oncoming drivers with the heat of a thousand suns.
With everything finished up and the car off the lift, I thanked the team once again for their excellent work and took the car back home. Terence warned me that the brakes would be squeaky but my goodness, they are LOUD. Thankfully, it'll go away in a few hundred kilometers but in the meantime, apologies in advance to anyone I drive by because it's a pretty high pitched whine.
The next appointment for the Slamry is a new front windshield as it ended up cracking across this winter, followed by the final body kit fitment in 3 weeks. The pieces are going in for paint on Monday and will be done later that week! Super stoked on how things will turn out for this humble little car.
Until next time,
Gary