Okay, let's get this party started!

Here's a shot of my front wheel before I started. Just hideous.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/wheel_before.jpg

We will do the front first. Before you start, look at how much of the caliper is showing. Look at it from various angles and take pictures. The reason you want to do this is so that you'll know how much of the caliper you'll need to paint (because you don't need to paint the whole thing). It would be nerve racking to get it all back together and realize that some of the original caliper color is still showing.

The first thing you want to do is loosen, not remove the bolts that hold the tire on the car. Do both wheels or you'll have the car in the air while wondering how to get the other wheel off without lowering the car again.

Ask me how I know.

That was rookie screw up #1. The next thing you'll need to do is raise the car. Everyone has their way of doing this and I am not even going to suggest that my way is the best way. It's just the way I did it. If you have the jacking pucks, install and use those jacking locations to raise the car. Once you get the car high enough for the jack stands, place the stand under the car in the manufacturer's recommended jacking location (you'll find these locations in your owner's manual if you don't know where they are). You'll need to do this for each side of the car.

OR

You can use a nice size slab of 2x4 and raise the car from the front. That's how I did it. I went to Ace Hardware and they gave me (for free) a slab of the hardest wood they had. Get the hardest wood you can find. You don't want that thing to splinter in the middle of your lifting. The wood needs to be long enough to disperse as much weight as possible across the front of the frame, but short enough to fit under the car while the jack stands are there. Check out the picture below:

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/lift_points.jpg

Just put the wood on the end of your jack, slide it under the car, and slowly, slowly, slowly begin to raise the wood until just before it contacts the frame. You want to double check, triple check, and quadruple check that piece of wood to make sure that it is not hitting anything it is not supposed to (you're going to probably get dirty so brace yourself). Also, make sure the wood is not blocking the area where the jack stands are going to go.

Once you get the car high enough for the jack stands, put them in place. Next, slowly, slowly, slowly begin to lower the car onto the jack stands. You may have to re-adjust the jack stands in order to get them exactly where they need to be. Take your time. The last thing you want to do is have a jack stand all ****-eyed and drop the car. Now you can remove the bolts on the rims and remove the tires. You should be looking at this:

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/rotorbrakecaliper.jpg

Pull up your stool and break out either the Dremel tool or some elbow grease. What you want to do is clean the heck out of the caliper while it is still mounted. The reason to do it this way is because the caliper is awkward to clean once you detach it from the car with the brake line still attached, and you can actually damage it if you are not careful.

Ask me how I know.

Here is a picture of one of my calipers that I did damage by accidentally allowing it to forcefully rub against the controller arm while cleaning it. The rubber part that you see surrounding the piston (which pushes the brake pads against the rotor when you press on the brakes) is ripped. Now from what I understand, this is no major issue at this time. What my master mechanic told me is that over time, that piston will get enough grime, dirt and water inside that boot to cause the piston to rust. At that point he said that the brakes would begin to pull to the right or left. He told me not to worry about it because this process would take a while before I would have to replace it.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/damagepistonboot.jpg

Great. That was rookie screw up #2. Since your calipers are still on the car, you haven't made this mistake so make sure that you don't when you remove them.

Once you've got that caliper as clean as you can get it while it's still assembled, you're now ready to remove it from the car. Keep in mind that the brake line will still be attached to the caliper so be careful while working with it. Don't allow it to hang from the brake line or twist the brake line up. It's a pretty sturdy connection but don't create yourself extra work by causing that line to start leaking.

In total, there are only 4 bolts holding the caliper and brake bracket on the car. As a matter of fact, this is quite an easy job and the next time you need to get your brakes done, you'll probably do it yourself. It's that easy. You'll need to remove the 2 caliper bolts first, but there is a bolt that must be held still while removing the caliper bolt (see picture below).

NOTE: Remember that little rule you learned about which way to loosen or tighten a bolt? "Righty tighty, lefty loosey?" Well this threw me for a loop because the rule is backwards. If the bolt heads were facing you, then this rule would work. But because the bolt heads are facing AWAY from you, the rule must be executed in reverse. So, turning your rachet clockwise (right) is actually loosening the bolt. Going counterclockwise (left) is tightening the bolt. I must have sit there trying to figure this out for 20 minutes.

The view in this next picture is what you'll see if you stick your head into the wheel well and look down at the top of the rotor. I have already removed the top caliper bolt and the caliper is pulled away from the rotor:

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/calboltremoved.jpg

Once you have removed the two caliper bolts, pull that locking nut out of the brake bracket. It is held on by that rubber bushing. Just pull it out and you'll hear a suction sound as it releases.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/callockbolt.jpg

After that, remove the brake pads. They just wiggle right out of the bracket.

Important Note: Make sure that you mark the pads as to which side of the car they came off of. One of my pads had worn significantly compared to all the others, even though they were all installed new at the same time. Thus, when I went to put the pads back on, the piston on the caliper would not allow me to get the caliper back on. When I noticed the difference in the pad wear, I switched it to the other side of the car and everything went back together. Mind you, this was after 30 minutes of fussing with the darn thing and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Now you're ready to give birth to a hernia. At least that was my experience. The 2 bolts that hold the brake pad bracket onto the car were a murder to loosen. It took me 2 days to get them all off. I soaked them in PB Blaster, drank a wine cooler (yea, I'm a pansy when it comes to drinking), stared at the car for an hour or so, drank another wine cooler, and then went inside for some AC. It was hot as heck when I was doing this and this was at 3:00 AM. Maybe your experience will be a little different but that was my little sunshine of fun. By the way, don't brace yourself inside the wheel well while trying to loosen those bolts. You can crack the paint on your quarter-panel.

Ask me how I know.

That was rookie mistake #3. Here are the 2 bolts that gave me fits. Once you get these removed, you're pretty much done with the hard part:

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/bracketbolts.jpg

Note: Here's a bit of advice added down this thread by LoneStarFRC. He experienced the same hell with these bolts and explained how he removed his. Its good advice and will maybe help someone out. I quote:

As I was reading through, I couldn't help but be reminded of the first time I pulled my calipers off on mine. Now, I have done brake jobs on other cars in the past and they were not particularly difficult. I was fully aware of the torque spec (125 ft lbs! )on C5 caliper mounting brackets, but I still had a biotch of a time breaking the bolts loose. Even using a small cheater bar on the ratchet handle. The problem is really compounded by the fact that you just can't get much leverage when you have the car on jack-stands. If it was up higher off the ground, like on a lift, it wouldn't have been so bad. I finally figured a way to solve the problem. I placed the ratchet, without any cheater bar, and got it positioned correctly. I then used a small scissor jack and raised it up to apply pressure directly to the ratchet handle and started jacking. Worked like a charm. Fortunately, I was able to position myself well enough to be able to use my torque wrench come time to re-tighten the bracket bolts. The torque wrench is much longer and gave me enough leverage to tighten to 125 ft lbs. ...end quote.

Part 3 of this DIY can be found by clicking this link (http://www.smokinvette.com/corvetteforum/showthread.php?t=8251).