So I'm going through the archives and it's really been helpful. I'm looking to replace the brakes and master cylinder soon cause they're ever so slowly leaking and I'm afraid they won't stop when i really need it.

There was a guy in one of the topics that just got a cheap set of calipers from autozone and tore them down, meanwhile ordering a set of o-ring seals to rebuild them with. Good idea/bad idea?

Second question: How hard is this to do? I guess I could use my old calipers to rebuild, but it'll take a lot of work to clean them up.

Third: Is this a better option than just buying a brake package like from zip or vette brakes (considering price)?

 

IMHO, You are wasting your time and money by buying and/or rebuilding calipers tht don't have stainless steel sleeves.
Do it right and get stalinless sleeved calipers with O ring pistons, new performance pads, braided hoses. Have your rotors turned for smooth surfaces and break pads in properly. Use fresh fluid and get all the air out of the lines.
Your life may depend on it!

 

:iagree: TOTALLY!!

 

The calipers from Autozone are stainless sleeved, but they are not cheaper than many of the mail order vendors.
My car had 3 calipers that were stainless sleeved and one that was not. I opted to replace the non-sleeved caliper with one from Muskegon (best price I found), then I purchased the O-ring pistons from VBP and rebuilt all four of the calipers.
While I was rebuilding the calipers I found that Bubba had worked on them before, the drivers side front caliper (already sleeved) had been deformed on the milled surface where the two halves mate together. Bubba had either tried really hard to pry the two halves apart without removing the bolts, or he had dropped them from a great altitude while they were apart. The edge of the caliper was chamfered about 30 degrees right at the countersink for the little o-ring seal and the o-ring was still visible between the two halves even after torking the bolts. Neeless to say, that little o-ring blew out while I was bleeding the brakes and that caliper needed to be replaced as well.
Autozone's price was about $10.00 more than I paid Muskegon, but they had it in stock and I could get it that day. It was stainless sleeved, and I was able to carefully remove the O-ring pistons from the Bubba'ed caliper and install them into the Autozone caliper.
My brakes work beautifully now.

You will not really save any money by buying the parts from Autozone, you might save about $100 - $200 by rebuilding your calipers (if they are already stainless sleeved), but if your calipers are not sleeved already the best route would be to go ahead and buy a complete set of sleeved/o-ring calipers.