The calipers were sanded using scotch brite wheels down to the bare anodizing with air angle grinders.
First the front, then the rear calipers with sanded. The abrasive used cleans off all loose paint and feather edges everything without being too aggressive which can gouge up the aluminum, leaving sanding lines. The sanding gives the surface teeth so the coatings can adhere better.
After machine sanding, the calipers are hand sanded to get into the nooks and crannies the angle sander could not get. Every bit of the caliper is stripped and sanded, even the parts you cant see. This is to prevent the paint from peeling up on a corner or something later.
You can see that the prep work goes into the insides of the caliper where the pistons are.
With 4 guys on the car, the process is surprisingly fast. We would say that the calipers were stripped and prepped in about an hour.
14 comments
Should you really be getting paint on the brake caliper piston boot?
No, some OEM Brembo calipers do! It’s not going to hurt anything,
It won’t stick to the boots well, so if the boot needs to flex the paint will flake away from the boot, no problem. That’s my experience after having used high temp epoxy paint to refinish my own brembo calipers.
What do they typically charge for this service?
(I also find it odd painting over the caliper piston boots)
$600 which is reasonable because the process is about 10 man hours.
That sounds worth it for the quality of the job.
I’m curious to know which Brembos have the pistons and boots covered in paint. (I’m genuinely curious, I’ve just never experienced it). They look amazing afterwards. Could you have had the Lexus logos put back on them if you wanted?
not all of them but I have seen it on some cars like my STI. I think it so the finish won’t be damaged assembling them, they normally paint over the bolts are everything. You can put anything on them.
I have some high-end Brembo Monoblock calipers sitting on my desk and the boots are covered in paint from the factory.
Wow, the end results are impressive. Really nice to see the care that’s taken during the prep too.
FWIW, I bought a used set of front Brembo calipers taken from a 997 911 4S and the stock seals had red paint on them.
Nice work, but no signs of safety glasses, even when using power tools.
I am wondering if it wouldn’t be easier/better to pull the calipers and hang them in the wheel wells on a stiff wire, rather than doing all of that masking.
I was curious about doing this with my Brembos but looking more towards the powder coating solution. Did you consider this as well or did you know re-painting was the way to go?
Powdercoating isn’t a very temperature tolerant coating and tends to easily discolor. West Coast Calipers tells me that the paint they use is.