Removing calipers to powder coat

[Airborne5.0]

Hi everyone,

2018 5.0 pp1 with the 6 piston brembos, I am wanting to remove the front and rear calipers to powder coat them red to match the pin stripes and cars interior. I am able to do basic wrenching but have never done brakes.

I just had my car go through a preventative maintenance appointment and had the brake fluid flushed and changed among other things.

How difficult is it to take the calipers off? Do I have to bleed to brake lines or can I retain the new fluid?

Is it difficult to re-install?

I would probably replace brake pads and rotors while I am down there.

Thanks for any advice.

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[sk47]

Hello; Are you sure you want to powder coat rather than use a heat rated caliper paint. I ask because my understanding is a powder coating needs to be baked to finalize the products finish.

Someone correct my assumptions if i get this wrong. I would assume to do this job the pistons will need to come out of the caliper cylinder bores. Two concerns in my thinking. One being to clear out the brake fluid before the powder coat process. The other being a concern for the piston seals during the baking process. (note-this may not be a factor since brakes may get hotter in regular use.)

How difficult is it to take the calipers off? Do I have to bleed to brake lines or can I retain the new fluid?

Is it difficult to re-install?

If i am wrong about the above, then the steps of removing calipers ought not be too hard. I assume you will want to coat the brackets which hold the calipers as well. You will need to figure a way to plug the brake lines once the calipers are removed to stop the brake fluid from dripping out.
Reassembly will require bleeding the brakes all over again. Caution-If you do not prevent the brake fluid from leaking out of the lines you may have to take the car to a shop if air gets into the antilock portion of the system for a brake system bleed.

Reassembly is not too difficult, but this is a vital safety system. If you do not know brake systems there are things which can be screwed up.

Think ahead about threaded parts. Might not be wise to coat threads.

My suggestion is to consider more simple paint. I get the powder coating is supposed to be more durable. But my take is you are not familiar with brakes and brake jobs.

Good luck.

 

[Crew4991]

Hello; Are you sure you want to powder coat rather than use a heat rated caliper paint. I ask because my understanding is a powder coating needs to be baked to finalize the products finish.

Someone correct my assumptions if i get this wrong. I would assume to do this job the pistons will need to come out of the caliper cylinder bores. Two concerns in my thinking. One being to clear out the brake fluid before the powder coat process. The other being a concern for the piston seals during the baking process. (note-this may not be a factor since brakes may get hotter in regular use.)





If i am wrong about the above, then the steps of removing calipers ought not be too hard. I assume you will want to coat the brackets which hold the calipers as well. You will need to figure a way to plug the brake lines once the calipers are removed to stop the brake fluid from dripping out.
Reassembly will require bleeding the brakes all over again. Caution-If you do not prevent the brake fluid from leaking out of the lines you may have to take the car to a shop if air gets into the antilock portion of the system for a brake system bleed.

Reassembly is not too difficult, but this is a vital safety system. If you do not know brake systems there are things which can be screwed up.

Think ahead about threaded parts. Might not be wise to coat threads.

My suggestion is to consider more simple paint. I get the powder coating is supposed to be more durable. But my take is you are not familiar with brakes and brake jobs.

Good luck.

Agreed, heat rated caliper paint is the way to go for this case. Take the wheels off, grab some cardboard, garbage bags and tape things down and spray away. Easy job compared to removing powder coating.

 

[geep81]

When I looked into powder coating my calipers I was told I needed to have them completely disassembled and all rubber bits removed.

It got too complex for a regular guy like me so I just went with G2 caliper paint instead.

 

[kz]

Hi everyone,

2018 5.0 pp1 with the 6 piston brembos, I am wanting to remove the front and rear calipers to powder coat them red to match the pin stripes and cars interior. I am able to do basic wrenching but have never done brakes.

I just had my car go through a preventative maintenance appointment and had the brake fluid flushed and changed among other things.

How difficult is it to take the calipers off? Do I have to bleed to brake lines or can I retain the new fluid?

Is it difficult to re-install?

I would probably replace brake pads and rotors while I am down there.

Thanks for any advice.

If you are able to undo two bolts (15 mm socket btw) then you are fully capable of doing it.

Take wheel off, remove brake line (catch leaking fluid), undo two bolts holding caliper to the knuckle and slide it off the rotor. Rear is little more involved as it's shitty single piston caliper and you have e-brake cable coming to it.

If you do pads and rotors, you need piston spreader tool for the front and the tool that rotates rear caliper piston to move it back.

Yes, you will have to bleed the lines after re-install.

If you're power coating them yourself, you will have to completely take calipers apart - remove pistons and seals and then rebuild it. It is not difficult but if you don't know what you are doing, I suggest you don't.

 

[sk47]

Take wheel off, remove brake line (catch leaking fluid),

Hello; Not sure how the antilock brake system works on a Ford Mustang but found out the hard way on a GM pickup. Had to replace rear calipers on a Chevy pickup. When i removed the banjo bolt on the end of the brake line which attaches to the caliper I found the brass washer was stuck on the fitting. It took a while to get that washer removed and during the time too much brake fluid had drained out of the system.
Once I got that deformed washer off, I could rig a way to stop the drip of fluid, but it was too late. I finished the job of putting on new rear calipers. Bled the brakes with the engine off and got a good firm pedal. Soon as i started the engine I got a brake light on the dash and the pedal was soft.

I tried a few shadetree methods of getting the antilock free of air but the first few did not work. I had made an appointment at a shop to have the system bleed with some sort of special tool. Was to cost some $. I stumbled onto a shadetree method that worked. I made a thread about the experience on this forum.
A bottom line for me is I now keep several sets of banjo washers on hand and put on a new one any time I have the fitting off. I also made up some small bolts & nuts with correct sized soft washers which I can put in the banjo fitting to stop the flow of brake fluid and keep them in my brake parts box.

 

[JGalarse14]

You will have to completely disassemble the calipers. Pistons, seals, boots, etc. Fronts aren't too bad to assemble, but I gave up on the rears. I'm also not the most mechanically inclined, but if I had to do it all over again, I'd just use high temp paint.

 

[Airborne5.0]

Dam thanks for all of the replies everyone. I was leaning towards powder coating because I have read that caliper paint doesn't hold up well and flakes off.

Does anyone have suggested brands that hold up well over time?

 

[Airborne5.0]

Bumping for some paint suggestions

 

[sk47]

Bumping for some paint suggestions

Hello; I see such paints for sale at Wal-mart, at Autozone, at Advance and others. I do not have a personal suggestion as i have not tried any. Maybe go for a name brand?
I did see a video of where one guy did not mask off the surrounding area and painted his rotors. His brakes gummed up when he drove the car.
I suggest finding some "how to videos" and doing good prep. Get the calipers very clean. I do not know if scuffing the surface is needed but such is done before most metal paint jobs. Maybe a high temp paint with the primer included or a high temp primer.
Watch some of the TV shows. They have painted calipers. Do not know how their jobs last or turn out.
I would unbolt the calipers and caliper mounting brackets but leave the brake fluid lines attached. Find a way to mount the calipers and cover/mask everything else in the area. I do mean mask all around. I painted the rear bumper of a pickup in place. Did a pretty good job of masking off until I had the spare tire out later.

 

[Skye]

Something I've noticed more and more at the local shows: Owners who've removed and farmed out their calipers for powder coating.

There are companies that accept the caliper, disassemble, coat, and re-assemble. It's certainly more expensive than DIY paint. But along with the coating, another advantage is they can often custom color match and apply a deep clear coat (if desired).

As you continue to get paint recommendations, I'd look at others during any of your local C&C events. See who sourced it to these businesses and how it went.

 

[Yorkshire_OH]

Bumping for some paint suggestions

https://www.amazon.com/ERA-Paints-O...=B08HSS23CV&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_17_t&th=1
ERA 2K brake caliper pain worked very well for me, just wasn't quite enough for me to do all 4 calipers at once so needed to buy more. you need to have all your ducks in a row before you mix this stuff though, it starts curing as soon as you start the mixing process. Gave a great finish and zero issues with the paint so far (but I've only done around 3000 miles since I did it.
Also as others have said, clean clean and clean again those calipers and I also used a hi temp primer under this stuff, looks about as close to powder coated as you'll get.

 

[BigR4444]

Dam thanks for all of the replies everyone. I was leaning towards powder coating because I have read that caliper paint doesn't hold up well and flakes off.

Does anyone have suggested brands that hold up well over time?

DEFINTELY G2
https://g2usa.com/

I mean, dont underestimate the preparation.

I did mine in June 2019 and they still look good. Theyre starting to show some age in certain spots, but you really have to look closely to see it. That could also be due to lackluster prep on my part. But from 10+ feet away they look great and the color pops just as much as day 1.

I did the VHT spray on my Nissan back in the day and it looked dull after a few weeks.
g2 is the way to go if youre painting.

They even do specific color matches

 

[frestylmotox01]

I did this last year, I removed the calipers from my car and completely disassembled them to have them powdercoated a different color. It was pretty easy, you just need to take your time and keep track of the parts you remove. I wound up rebuilding the calipers with new seals since it was fairly inexpensive and I wanted the peace of mind. There are a bunch of videos on how to do this and you can get the brembo decals on Etsy or eBay to complete the job.

 

[Free Spirit]

Hi everyone,

2018 5.0 pp1 with the 6 piston brembos, I am wanting to remove the front and rear calipers to powder coat them red to match the pin stripes and cars interior. I am able to do basic wrenching but have never done brakes.

I just had my car go through a preventative maintenance appointment and had the brake fluid flushed and changed among other things.

How difficult is it to take the calipers off? Do I have to bleed to brake lines or can I retain the new fluid?

Is it difficult to re-install?

I would probably replace brake pads and rotors while I am down there.

Thanks for any advice.

So uh just something to consider, I know some people like to claim they know more than the manufacturer but brembo themselves have said NOT to powdercoat their calipers because it affects heat. On top of that why bother with it when you can just use g2 caliper paint or similar and it's alot easier. I like to listen to the manufacturer when it comes to extremely important things like brakes. Yes I know several people have powdered their brembos with no issues but I also know several who have had failure because of the heat. Do you own research. YMMV

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