Full caliper rebuild/refinish
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Thanks, how long would I have to wait in between coats before reapplying?
I bought a cheap little Dremel hand held grinder tool with these little cone shaped sander bits to get into the crevices of the calipers should work nicely.
Last edited by no1joey; Oct 25, 2015 at 07:29 AM.
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There's no set time. You just mix it as a single batch so you apply coats until the mix is no longer good. As you add coats it thickens and smooths out
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I believe the only way to do it properly is to have them professionally stripped and refinished. All of the "sand and paint" off the shelf kits are marginal at best in my opinion and provide a "good from afar, far from good" type of finish. I can always tell when someone has used on of these quickie kits but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. This past spring a sent my Cayenne calipers to wheel dynamics.com. They have done a few sets of calipers for me over the years. They completely sandblast/chemically strip the calipers down to bare aluminum and prime/refinish them with an epoxy based paint. They then apply the Porsche decals and spray with another clear epoxy coat before baking them. The seals and dust boots are not removed during the process so no need to worry of someone screwing them up or scarring the pistons/bores. The calipers actually come out looking better than factory new with a perfectly smooth shiny finish instead of orange peel OEM finish. One thing you to clearly tell them (and mark on the calipers) are the areas you do not want painted, for example the mounting surface, the area under the caliper bolts, and the holes for the retainer pins. This is important because the Joe that's doing the painting is clueless and will paint everything. As me how I know. Best it to clearly mark the area you want bare directly on the calipers. Just look at the OEM ones. Once you get the calipers back, you will need to completely flush them out to get rid of any junk that gets inside them as they never seem to be able to plug the bleeder screws no matter how many times I've told them. It's easy to pop out the pistons, flush it all out with soap water, let dry and reassemble. They charge $600 for all 4 calipers and turnaround time is about 2 weeks including shipping. The guys name I have dealt with over there is Eli. They do a great job on the calipers even though I would rate their customer service less than great.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/zhjVSM]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/zhjVSM]
Last edited by pwdrhound; Oct 25, 2015 at 10:19 AM.
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Girodisk sells caliper rebuild kits for ~ $50 per axle. I heard about crazy dealer prices of something like $25 per o-ring. In fact the dealer I called said he couldn't even get them. Note on the Girodisk kit the piston rings are pressed into the dust boots for transport. I thought they had shorted me and bought a second kit from another vendor before I realized they were included!
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Of course yes, that makes sense.
Girodisk sells caliper rebuild kits for ~ $50 per axle. I heard about crazy dealer prices of something like $25 per o-ring. In fact the dealer I called said he couldn't even get them. Note on the Girodisk kit the piston rings are pressed into the dust boots for transport. I thought they had shorted me and bought a second kit from another vendor before I realized they were included!
I bought mine off Zeckhausen racing, great support from David so far. Recommended.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 409
From: Sydney
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I believe the only way to do it properly is to have them professionally stripped and refinished. All of the "sand and paint" off the shelf kits are marginal at best in my opinion and provide a "good from afar, far from good" type of finish. I can always tell when someone has used on of these quickie kits but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. This past spring a sent my Cayenne calipers to wheel dynamics.com. They have done a few sets of calipers for me over the years. They completely sandblast/chemically strip the calipers down to bare aluminum and prime/refinish them with an epoxy based paint. They then apply the Porsche decals and spray with another clear epoxy coat before baking them. The seals and dust boots are not removed during the process so no need to worry of someone screwing them up or scarring the pistons/bores. The calipers actually come out looking better than factory new with a perfectly smooth shiny finish instead of orange peel OEM finish. One thing you to clearly tell them (and mark on the calipers) are the areas you do not want painted, for example the mounting surface, the area under the caliper bolts, and the holes for the retainer pins. This is important because the Joe that's doing the painting is clueless and will paint everything. As me how I know. Best it to clearly mark the area you want bare directly on the calipers. Just look at the OEM ones. Once you get the calipers back, you will need to completely flush them out to get rid of any junk that gets inside them as they never seem to be able to plug the bleeder screws no matter how many times I've told them. It's easy to pop out the pistons, flush it all out with soap water, let dry and reassemble. They charge $600 for all 4 calipers and turnaround time is about 2 weeks including shipping. The guys name I have dealt with over there is Eli. They do a great job on the calipers even though I would rate their customer service less than great.
I agree with you 100% in prep guidelines for spray can paint jobs, but 2 part epoxy is different. You can't even use a primer as it would affect the finish. They've been around for a while and Id say if just scuffing the surface so the epoxy can get a tooth on it wasn't good enough they would have changed their prep guidelines by now. I'm just going to paint over what was once red after levelling it a bit, I wont clog any holes with epoxy though such as the retaining pin hole. I've bought some tools to allow me to sand in the tightest creases of the calipers.
Last edited by no1joey; Oct 26, 2015 at 12:18 AM.
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thats a 2 stage powder isn't it? one of my atv frames is powder coated with a deep purple version of that line of powder it looks wet just sitting there.
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Started work on a buddies set of 6 piston fronts today. Was able to get one coated and after cooling, applied the stencil and sprayed several light coats of black paint. Once the paint fully dries, the calipers will receive a 2 part clear coat for protection/gloss. The color is going to look great behind his black wheels.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 2,496
From: Houston Tx
Rep Power: 187
Started work on a buddies set of 6 piston fronts today. Was able to get one coated and after cooling, applied the stencil and sprayed several light coats of black paint. Once the paint fully dries, the calipers will receive a 2 part clear coat for protection/gloss. The color is going to look great behind his black wheels.
