unfortunately the job done by applied plastics wasn't quite up to par with what i was expecting, especially for the price i paid. to top it off, the owner turned into a total asshole when i confronted him about the issues. apparently he didnt want to hear that the job wasnt done properly. He definitely took a very unfriendly tone with me and started running his mouth trying to back track everything and say that i was being unreasonable, and that if he had known the sort of finish i was looking for that he would have either never done business with me in the first place or charged me $1000 dollars. apparently doing quality work is not a priority to them. To top it off, he tried to put the damage they caused on colorado powder coating and kept saying that i signed a paper when i brought them in noting the damage, which is untrue. I signed verifying that the last place had sandblasted them and when we talked upon dropping them off it was also spoken while he was writing that comment that they had gotten some overspray into the piston cups. nothing stated that there was damage where the dust boots press in. this leads me to my next topic of concern. when i dropped them off i made them aware of the slight overspray in the piston cups and asked if they could remove that. he responded saying that they would strip the calipers of the powder coat with a solvent and could take care of it. well when i got them back, the overspray was still in there, and he made mention that they "mechanically" stripped them, which is probably how the edges of the lip where the dust boots press in got damaged. it appears that they used some sort of blade/scraper to get the old powder off. its not too bad and i dont think it will cause issues (can probably clean up the small spots with some emery cloth) but that is probably the most critical area of the calipers as far as function goes. one would think they would have taken more caution. Moving on to my next concern, when i dropped them off initially, i showed him how the last place had gotten powder into the area where the dust boots seal and said i would like them to mask off the whole face where the pistons are on a line in the casting. apparently this was forgotten and they painted in there again...but he didnt want to here that. he said that i didnt tell them everything that needed to be taken care of to do them. Mind you the whole time we were dealing with these issues he was telling me that they do a bunch of "high end" car parts and he had even showed me another set of calipers he had done when i dropped them off. if you do "high end" car parts and have done plenty of brake calipers before, one would think they would know the basics of a brake caliper and what parts shouldnt get paint. not only did they get paint in there, they painted the threads where they mount to the upright and also in the holes where the slide pins go. and the icing on the cake was one of the calipers had some black overspray on it. he had his guy take that one into the back quick to do some touch up with a brush and some paint and the guy didnt even do the right spot. i didnt even say anything at that point because i was so sick of this guy being down my throat and barely letting me get a word in. in the end he had two ways of dealing with the matter, either i pay and take them or i leave them with him and he strips them and does a half ass powder coat job on them and gives them back to me the way i brought them in. i was so done at that point that i just paid and took them as i had no faith in leaving them with them and didnt want to have these redone again. in the end i would never go back to them and i would highly recommend others take there business elsewhere.
in all honesty, the job by colorado powder coaters was pretty good minus the bubbles from the outgassing and the overspray in the piston cups. when i had them do my 17z's they masked off a large area on the piston face and got no powder anywhere near the cups or where the dustboots press in. i think maybe the guy wo painted these last calipers for me wasnt part of the A-team. the one good bit of info i got from applied plastics was that they do indeed have powder primer which should stop outgassing on the final coat. if i get another pair of calipers done again i will go back to mark at colorado powder coating and discuss having primer laid first for an extra charge. he did great on my 17z's and ive seen a bunch of other stuff in his shop that had a quality finish. i dont blame them for the outgassing as that was out of there hands. i should mention that i had applied plastics do a ceramic coating vs powder coating as it withstands heat better and especially with going white i didnt want to risk the powder yellowing. plus ceramic coating gets baked at a way lower temperature which also alleviates the potential for outgassing. downside is that its a thinner coating so you see more of the casting imperfections. I ultimately chose to go that route to avoid outgassing issues, but the price would have been the same to do powder plus a primer.
applied plastics issues:
painted threads
painted slide pin holes
overpsray
paint in dust seal groove
damage on dust seal lips (that is not paint, those are slight gouges in the metal)
just as a proof that colorado powder coaters do a great job, even though my experience with this last set wasnt great ($60 powder job FYI, and you can see how much they masked off around the piston cups here)
Originally Posted by jjvwg
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks