[Nissan4Life]

Brakes are very straight forward. Assume at 42K you are only doing the front. I would go ahead and buy new rotors, don't bother getting the old ones machined.

The brake feel will always be soft unless you start modifying things.

 

[Nissan4Life]

Another point on the first use of the brake after the brake job. When you get in the car pump the brakes a couple of times before you start to drive. Since you retracted the pistons all the way it will often take several pumps before the new brake pads contact the the rotor. This has almost cause me to crash as you can have NO brakes the first time you step on the pedal.

 

[Nissan4Life]

since no one has mentioned bedding the pads. read the directions and bed your pads.

just as well, pick up some tubing and a boxed wrench to crack open your lines and drain the shitty fluid as you walk the caliper back.
i have this kit and its worked on everything from a frontier to a raptor to a silradooooo. and its cheap and much easier and a smoother motion
https://www.amazon.com/Motivx-Tools...r=1-2-spons&keywords=brake+caliper+tool&psc=1



i would for sure tq ya bolts down. i was a dummy and on my last brake job one of my rear caliper bolts came loose and it was ****ing with my pedal really bad. it was going to the floor almost and barely stopping.
new bolt in and tqed to spec and the thing stops in the middle of ferguson MO without worries.

good luck, and go slow. its not a race.

I was jsut doing a brake job last night and I was able to use some bar clamps to push the piston back. Like Jr mentioned c-clamps work well. Even used big channel locks before. That tool however looks nice. does it work on 2 pot calipers too.

 

[Nissan4Life]

im not saying c clamps dont work.
playing kickball with a baseball can happen, but i bet you have a better time with a kickball.

apply tension to the piston on the lower piston in relation to the bleed screw. Crack the line and push back, close the line and move on to the other piston.

idk on the two pots, never done them.

POT=piston. They do make a 2 piston version of the tool.

As for your analogy of the kickball. I have a garage full of tools, and many single job specific ones. I am at the point, in tool storage, where if I do not need to own a specialized tool that a generic one will accomplish all the better. A clamp can easily retract a brake caliper piston thus the necessity for a specialized brake piston retraction tool is low. So more like playing kickball with a volleyball rather than an official "kickball". If I was trying to compress a suspension coil spring with some C and hose clamps...

 

[Nissan4Life]

OK to tell you the truth I do not use c-clamps. I have been using these type of one-handed bar clamps for the job. I have a couple of large ones where the clamping surface covers the entire piston face. Works extremely well.

 

[Nissan4Life]

O
Hit the breaks hard at 45mph to 5 or 10mph. I did this four times.

This is typically what I do. Maybe a little higher top speed.

45MPH to 10 MPH - 3-4 times and don't come to a complete stop
60MPH to 15 MPH - 8-10 times and don't come to a complete stop
Drive without stopping for a few miles to cool the brakes and then you're done.

I find this to be too aggressive and will smoke your brakes. I feel that doing so is more detrimental then beneficial.