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Brake calipers painted, new pads, and some stereo improvements, too

DrumReaper

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My car was at the dealer a month ago for front brake squeal. With 2,500 miles on the odometer at the time, there was no way I was going to live with that.. hearing it at every stop light, stop sign, parking lot etc. Dealer took it for a drive, confirmed pads needed to be replaced, said there was a hot spot on them but no issues.

Only issue is them still on backorder. I just followed up with them yesterday and they had parts look into it. ETA is June 7th for backordered to be fulfilled.

There should be zero issues with warranty within the 1yr/12k pad warranty. I'd definitely escalate it.
I’m having the squeal as well... 2200 miles in the odo.
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CarbonZ

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Looks great. On my list as well. I've painted calipers on almost every car I've had. Love the red look.
 

AgSurfer

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Great post; very detailed. I am having my Ford dealer body shop paint the Brembos on my 2018 Roush SC mustang. They are actually an awesome paint / body shop and I have brought them many vehicles for after-market paint / body work. Super customer service and good quality.

Cost for the caliper paint job is $600.

They do not remove the calipers from the car. As I've seen in most caliper paint applications, they sheet and tape the entire car up, wheel well, rotors, all cables and other functions areas, etc., and remove the calipers from the rotors but let them hang. Then they brush / clean, prime, paint (multiple coats), dry / cure for appropriate time period, then clearcoat, dry / cure again, etc. the calipers. They will have the car for 3 days.

I decided to go with bright yellow caliper paint for my kona blue metallic 2018 SC GT. Should be a good looking combo.
 

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galaxy

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@AgSurfer Wow, that’s a lot of damn work to not just go one more step and take the caliper off, eliminating aaalllll that other work and risk??
 

AgSurfer

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@AgSurfer Wow, that’s a lot of damn work to not just go one more step and take the caliper off, eliminating aaalllll that other work and risk??
You raise a good point. I'll double back with the shop and discuss. Then they don't have to plastic and tape everything up, right?
 

galaxy

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You raise a good point. I'll double back with the shop and discuss. Then they don't have to plastic and tape everything up, right?
Exactly. In fact, I’d never ever take my whole car there for something like that anyways. Take the calipers off and take them to them. That whole process just sounds crazy to me.
 

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Exactly. In fact, I’d never ever take my whole car there for something like that anyways. Take the calipers off and take them to them. That whole process just sounds crazy to me.
Here is what paint shop said - - " we will unbolt them and hang them from under the car and spray them, just not going to remove them completely, just don’t want to get air in the lines and have to bleed them".

Thoughts? I can easily request them to completely remove the calipers from the car and paint them. Then they can put them back on and the service shop can address the brake fluid.
 

galaxy

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@AgSurfer That's funny to me. Funny that they'll go through all that work, but yet bleeding the brakes after putting the caliper back on (if completely removed) is a bridge too far. Is this job outside your own personal capability; to just take them off yourself and only take the calipers to the shop to get painted?? Bleeding the brakes after reinstalling the calipers is no different than bleeding the brakes after any other brake job or fluid flush. Don't understand why that's so cosmic for them.
 

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AgSurfer

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@AgSurfer That's funny to me. Funny that they'll go through all that work, but yet bleeding the brakes after putting the caliper back on (if completely removed) is a bridge too far. Is this job outside your own personal capability; to just take them off yourself and only take the calipers to the shop to get painted?? Bleeding the brakes after reinstalling the calipers is no different than bleeding the brakes after any other brake job or fluid flush. Don't understand why that's so cosmic for them.
Yes beyond my mechanical expertise. Plus I do not have a lift or jack / stands in my garage (thought that will be remedied sooner than later). I'll request they remove the calipers entirely and then properly reinstall, bleed the brakes, etc. to ensure proper function. I'm the paying customer so not sure why they would argue.

Thanks for the input.
 

galaxy

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@AgSurfer To me, it's just a small price to pay for them to have the whole car, have to cover and tape up all that stuff, and risk overspray, etc. There's always overspray, always. It's floating everywhere. BUT, one could argue, if you can't take the calipers off and take them to them, and they have to tear it down anyways, it may not be worth it. IDK. I wouldn't want my car any where near the paint work being done. I wouldn't want all the plastic and other taping and stuff that would have to be done for them to paint them on the car. Too much going on. I'd want calipers clean off and my car no where to be found where the painting was going on.
 

Alain

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I decided to paint my calipers and install Caliperfexion studs and Power Stop Z26 pads while I was at it. As I decided to completely remove the calipers to paint the whole things, the job took a bit longer than expected, but I'm happy with the outcome.

The BMR jacking rails made easy work of lifting the car and putting it on jackstands, and I picked up the Reverse Logic lug guides to easily get the wheels on and off without banging them around, which was especially helpful when remounting the wheels.

I didn't want to end up having the whole system gravity drain, so I unclipped my brake sensor switch and found an "assistant" who would be happy to hold light brake pressure on the pedal for as long as the job took. Thanks kids! And yes, I also released the handbrake after this to make rear brake removal easier.
Brake Assistant.jpg


Removing the front brakes took a little work breaking the mounting bolts lose and removing them - my air ratchet didn't have enough power so it was manual all the way. I cleaned off the remaining Loctite, cleaned up the stock bolts and ran them in and out until the mounting threads were cleaned up, and rubber-banded a baggie around the brake line to catch fluid. It sat for a week and didn't fill more than that on any corner, so I didn't lose much fluid.
Front Brake Removed.jpg


I didn't have the special tools to remove the parking brake hardware from the rear but was able to make do with these - I used the trim tool to compress the spring and the brake line wrench to slide over and compress the top connector to get it out of the bracket.
Tools.jpg


Everything removed.
Rear Brake Removed.jpg


Then I removed the brake pads, pins and hardware, bleeder valves, and crossover tubes. I'm a little concerned at the look of one of the front pads after less than 3k miles:
Front Pad.jpg


Is the damage along the center line normal?

I cleaned up the hardware with a wire wheel as well as getting the Loctite out of the rear bolts which I reused.

Front hardware before:
PXL_20210321_195649786.jpg


Front hardware after:
PXL_20210321_200329406.jpg


Rear hardware before:
Rear Hardware Corrosion.jpg

Rear Pin Corrosion.jpg


Rear hardware after:
Rear Hardware Clean.jpg

Rear Pins Clean.jpg


Rear bolts before and after:
Rear Bolts.jpg

Rear Bolts Clean.jpg



I cleaned the calipers and sanded the Brembo logos so I wouldn't have to try and line up on them perfectly:
Front Caliper.jpg


Rear Calipers.jpg



And I used sawhorses to prop them all on for painting.
Ready to Paint.jpg



Since I was painting the entire calipers, one G2 kit didn't give quite enough coverage. I put two coats on everything and a third just on the outer faces, but I wasn't happy with the coverage in total, so I ordered a second kit. While waiting for it (and after the first kit had cured for a couple of days), I lightly sanded some of the runs and uneven parts on the exposed faces. After getting the second kit, I gave everything two more coats. After curing, I applied the Brembo decals then applied 3 coats of VHT high temp caliper paint clear over the top. The finish isn't perfect, but pretty good and I'm happy with the gloss and look. We'll see about durability.
Painted Front Caliper.jpg

Painted Rear Caliper.jpg



I reinstalled the hardware with some silicone brake lubricant on the pins and hardware and on the backs of the Power Stop Z26 pads where the caliper pistons would contact them.
Painted Front Caliper Assembled.jpg

Painted Rear Caliper Assembled.jpg



After installing the Caliperfexion studs up front with blue Loctite and then a coat of anti-sieze on the stud and ARP assembly lube on the threads, I remounted all the brakes (using blue Loctite on the stock rear bolts) with new copper crush washers on the stock banjo bolts all around.
Painted Front Caliper Mounted.jpg

Painted Rear Caliper Mounted.jpg


I'm a little wary of the durability of the paint as, of course on the last rear caliper, I dropped one and chipped a good amount of paint (fortunately not visible when wheels are mounted). I also noticed some chipping/peeling around the edges near the bolts holes. I think next brake work I do I'll do a little touch up with the brakes mounted.

So, after bleeding all four brakes with the Motive power bleeder, I mounted all the wheels back up and she's back on the road!
GT350 Front Caliper.jpg

GT350 Rear Caliper.jpg

GT350 Painted Calipers.jpg


Pardon the dirty wheels, I have to wait until Friday for the ceramic coating to be fully cured before I can wash the car.

Overall, I'm happy with how they came out despite it being a bit more work than I had anticipated.

Last weekend before the brakes I also did some upgrades to the B&O stereo. I replaced the subwoofer with a Pioneer, stuffed the enclosure with polyfill, and clipped the wire for the center speaker. Over all a nice improvement for under $100. More details here.

Chip
How was it bleeding the brakes with the Motive bleeder? I'm debating whether to flush my own brakes or take it to a shop and have them do it.

I bought the Motive power bleeder last year but I had some trouble using it on my girlfriend's wrangler.
 
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ChipG

ChipG

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How was it bleeding the brakes with the Motive bleeder? I'm debating whether to flush my own brakes or take it to a shop and have them do it.

I bought the Motive power bleeder last year but I had some trouble using it on my girlfriend's wrangler.
It was a piece of cake. I overfilled the master cylinder a bit and didn't put any fluid in the power bleeder, I just watched the master cylinder level. Bled all four brakes in maybe 15 minutes (keeping in mind the car was already up on jack stands with the wheels off).
 

Alain

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It was a piece of cake. I overfilled the master cylinder a bit and didn't put any fluid in the power bleeder, I just watched the master cylinder level. Bled all four brakes in maybe 15 minutes (keeping in mind the car was already up on jack stands with the wheels off).
That’s what I was wondering, if you had filled the Power Bleeder with fluid or not.

last year I filled the power bleeder with brake fluid and i had a hard time getting it to pressurize.
I’ll try it this year the way you did it. Just overfilling the master and just using the power bleeder to only pressurize the system.
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