Powder Coating Calipers

[RED1.8T]

I want to have my calipers powder coated, but I need to know if the heat will hurt them or if I should disassemble them before I take them to the shop. Will the high-temp tape they use protect them from enough of the heat to not hurt them when they put are put it the kiln?
Thanks in advance

[SinisterA4]

The tape will be fine. I did a set of camaro calipers last month and they held up fine but I use an oven not a kiln. Just make sure the shop cleans and preps them properly.....it's the key to a good powdercoating job.

[Spongebob05]

The tape will be fine. I did a set of camaro calipers last month and they held up fine but I use an oven not a kiln. Just make sure the shop cleans and preps them properly.....it's the key to a good powdercoating job.

What about the paint that they use...is it highly rated not to flake if the calipers heat up close to 500 degree ??

[RED1.8T]

Spongebob - I do not know about the paint for sure, I do know powder coat is more durable that normal paint, I think it would be safe to assume it will hold up fine...if I am incorrect some one please correct me.

Also, I just spoke to the shop, they want them completely disassembled and cleaned prior to the coating. They did say the would clean them but thats more $$, and I like to save as much here and there as possible.

[redline_redline]

a cheaper solution could be to take off the wheel tape off everything around it and paint the caliper with some high heat paint. duplicolor makes some good spray paint, or you can get the caliper paint that you brush on. just a suggestion

[tip]

yeah second that. i did the cal. on my other car about a year ago and they have not flaked or turned colors. but i took them off then apart and cleaned the sh!t out of them then painted. cheap looks good and has been to hell and back and still looks good.

[x1rider]

another option would be a Cerakote ceramic coating
http://www.caswellplating.com/powder/ceramics.html

[quattrotman]

Man, powder coating sounds like a lot of work. You have to disassemble the whole caliper (including the piston and seals). The heat won't hurt it but it's a lot of work just to paint. I'd just use one of those duplicolor brake caliper paint kits...I did...the paint is very easy to apply, very durable and doesn't change color. Best thing is you don't have to even dissasemble the brakes if you don't want. Just get in there with a small brush and take your time. the results turned out great. Just clean them up with a toothbrush and the supplied brake cleaner and remove the outer clips and start painting. Looks professional to me.

[Doss]

Powdercoating is a lot of time and effort for stock brakes. I can understand if you were pimping a set of Wilwood 6 piston calipers, but not the stockers.

Just go to the store and get the Dupli-color brake caliper paint and read the directions. Your car will be ready to go in tomorrow instead of Friday or Monday of next week.

[buschman]

I had the calpurs on my Dodge painted using regular body paint. I had the calipers on my ponatic powder coated and polished(one part is powder coated, the other high polished to a chrome like shine). Both the Dodge and Pontiac have held up well. the dodge is driven way more and babied less so I'm not sure it's fair to say that because the paint did not look as good as long is a fair comparison. What I do know is that the powdercoat/high polish is easier to clean than the body paint. Now that could be other factors like I drive the dodge more or the type of brake pads used or whatever.

When I did have the dodge calipers painted I also had the inside of the rotors painted as well. this paint did not fair nearly as well. In fact in most of the visible areas it burned and cracked off within a year. Most rotors now-a-days are cadium washed(My Pontiac has that) and it holds up very well. So while the rotors do get extremely hot, the calipers stay much cooler and can hold good body, powder coating, or polishing.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[fongaroos]

do this!!!

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...ghlight=brakes

[RED1.8T]

Well, no offense to everyone's opinions, but I dropped the calipers/carriers off at the powder coater today. Cost is $150 ($40 for carriers and $110 for calipers), I could have saved a little money by cleaning them myself but I got lazy after I took them off, which was a breeze by the way. I know it seems pointless to coat these to some of you, but I plan on sticking with these calipers for awhile, and I know I can also use them with the 3.0 carriers which I may do sometime in the future. If I get get my digi working I'll post pics for everyone to check out.

[aLeXliu911]

i bought some G2 caliper paint from ebay. i will post some pics after paint my caliper.

[favianjanitra]

may i ask which shop would i bring my calipers to get powdercoated? Can i bring it to any bodyshops and ask them to help powdercoat or do i need to go to a special shop to do it?

[RED1.8T]

From my experience, you would more than likely need to go somewhere other than a body shop. I took mine to a local shop that does water-jet cutting/custom metal fab.
I also had them do a custom battery tray I built for my PC680 which turned out great.

[A4TUNE]

Well, no offense to everyone's opinions, but I dropped the calipers/carriers off at the powder coater today. Cost is $150 ($40 for carriers and $110 for calipers), I could have saved a little money by cleaning them myself but I got lazy after I took them off, which was a breeze by the way. I know it seems pointless to coat these to some of you, but I plan on sticking with these calipers for awhile, and I know I can also use them with the 3.0 carriers which I may do sometime in the future. If I get get my digi working I'll post pics for everyone to check out.

So that's $150 for all 4 calipers including powdercoating and cleaning? Damn that's way cheaper than I expected, I'm going to do this ASAP.

I def want to see pics make sure you get some up here. Also I'm not sure if I feel comfortable messing around with my brakes taking them off and putting them on, is it really that easy or should I maybe have my local shop do it? Also what is your car sitting on when you are having this done.. can you put your wheels and tires back on (obviously not to drive but to sit on) or do you just have it up on jacks?

[fongaroos]

i powder coated mine. pretty easy process and its cheap. the result came out really great!

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showpo...0&postcount=18

i had the option of ceramic coating them, and i really wish i had done that. the finish is much more durable. you might want to look into that.

[RED1.8T]

A4TUNEIT - The price I mentioned was actually for just the fronts, I only had those done because I only have 2 jackstands to keep the car up (which is what it is up on now). I didn't have any trouble at all taking the calipers off. It's very straight forward, I don't think you should have to waste the money having a shop do it, this is a very good guide to follow if you are not sure about how to do it:

http://johnvey.com/features/a4brakes/

I also left my wheels off, because the turn-around for my powder coater is only a couple days, however i did put a couple of the lugs back on to keep the rotors from falling off.


fongaroos-What kind of emblems did you use on your calipers? I love them!! Would you mind if I used the same type, they do a great job of breaking up the solid color of the powder coat.

[cuco33]

ive been debating on powdercoating my s4 brakes and rear stocky calipers or just painting it myself with the brake kits... i dont think i want to spend the extra money for powder coating as ive seen people's brakes come out really good, and they aren't the best painters out there (not to brag but i know i can do much better work than them lol). not being cheap, ild just invest that extra loot into something else. though

[fongaroos]

fongaroos-What kind of emblems did you use on your calipers? I love them!! Would you mind if I used the same type, they do a great job of breaking up the solid color of the powder coat.

i got my decals from an old AZ member. i dont know if she is still making/selling the decals. its pretty easy to find these though, they arent particularly rare. feel free to do the same thing. i was really happy when i had that setup!

[RED1.8T]

Awesome, any chance you could point me in the right direction to find them?

[Dub69]

I had my calipers powdercoated and they turned out great!! I had to tape everything up but I did not disassemble the pistons and seals. When I called Stoptec to inquire about disassembly, they told me that if they can handle regular (and tracking) breaking temps for a prolonged period of time, they can handle oven temps. My brother completely didassembled his Brembos and had a Porsche tech re-assemble them.

Here are a few befores and afters. They should be on the car this weekend.






They have a tiny bit of overspray on the inner seals and niple, but you won't see that when the are assembled and on the car.

[RED1.8T]

Looks like they turned out pretty good. How much did the coating run you?

[Dub69]

I think it was $150 for both. I'm not sure as my brother picked up the tab since he had his done as well.

[Tinman]

bead-blasted, smoothed, and powdercoated calipers with a metallic grey 'rings' sticker. stoptech rotors.








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