Brake calipers came in today. These come with a black paint but black is boring so I thought I’d try to spice them up. I’ve been watching videos on YouTube and think I’d give powder coating the calipers a shot. I’ve never disassembled or rebuilt a set before but why not..
First I need to get the caliper stands off.
These are simple so I’ll get them out of the way first.
I’ve decided I’ll coat the calipers a bright red (Wheel Red actually). I’m hoping they’ll really stand out through the wheels.
Baked and done.
With the stands done, I get back to the disassembly and prep of the calipers. First step is to remove the banjo bolt and copper washers and set them aside until reassembly.
Push out the slide pin and rubber boot.
Here’s how I get the pistons out. Drop in the piston compressor tool so that there’s only 1” of gap between the pistons and the tool. You’re gonna used compressed air to push out the pistons.
With only about 1/4” still inside the piston cavity, I can easily pull them both out by hand.
Now remove the boots. A flat head screwdriver can be wedged just below the seal and only a little leverage is needed to pop it out.
There’s an inner seal that needs to be carefully hooked with a small pick. They come out easily but you still have to be careful to not damage them.
Now we’re ready to prep for coating. Can’t let **** get into the piston pockets during the sand blasting or coating process.
I machined some plugs out of aluminum wrapped with tape so they’d fit snug into the pockets. Should protect the piston pockets during sand blasting.
The pucks won’t work for the coating process so I spun some large high temp silicone plugs to fit the holes. To hold them in the lathe, I chucked up a piece of tubing that fit in the plug.
The coating on the tube gripped the plug extremely well. The friction of the silicone on the powder coated tube was enough to prevent the plug from slipping at all while turning the OD to size. Who’d a thunk it.
Honestly, I’m amazed it worked.
Snug fit will prevent them from falling out and perfectly protects the pockets.
Coated.
After cooling, it’s back to the bench for reassembly. Pistons go back in nicely with a little bit of this stuff.
Slides pop back in place.
Ready for install.
It’s a two hand affair so just the money shot.
Kinda difficult to know how much they’ll stand out behind the new wheels until they’re mounted but I suspect they’ll show just fine. What I really like is the contrast between the Cerekoted rotors and the calipers. Part of me wishes I went all in and coated them white. Maybe I’ll try white at some point in the future. Looks about 5000 times better than it did new.
