cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

picked up a rear end from an 89 gta going back a while. Primarily picked it up to replace my iron calipers with the rear pbr's. Disassembled the calipers and blasted them down to bare metal, before worked picked up and I was forced to abandon the project. The calipers remained in the garage and after repeatedly looking at them, I grew annoyed with all the casting marks. If you take the calipers down to bare metal, you can see how sloppy the castings actually are. Figuring the project was at a stand still anyhow, given my lack of time and commitment, I decided I'd try to remove the casting marks. Figured the aluminum was soft enough to work with, so I started filing down the casting marks with a file set I had in the toolbox. I was correct in my assumption, and after a little work and a lot of time and patience, I was easily able to smooth out the caliper. The front anyhow, since I didn't bother with the less visible sides of the caliper that you won't see with the calipers installed. After filing everything down, I blasted them again and they turned out pretty nice. Not something people will notice, but I think they look much better. I had originally planned to paint them satin black, while making the abutment brackets either gloss black or a metallic silver, but I'm not sure yet. What do you guys think?

micktroup2

I would sand them down with progressively finer paper and then have them polished and either clear coated or anodized. The anodizing would look SICK.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Got around to grinding down the line on the front of the abutment brackets. I'm gonna try and get them as smooth as possible and paint them a gloss black to contrast the satin black caliper. If that comes out well, I'm gonna do the same thing with a C5 front kit I have waiting for my car. Same deal, used calipers painted red that need to be rebuilt/repainted badly. The bracket for the C5 brakes look pretty bad on the ends, so I'm really interested in trying to make those look better. The C5 caliper casting is much better, but the bracket ends look just aweful. Wondering if all C5 brackets look as poor as mine.

For the polishing and anodizing, seems like a pretty cool idea (that thought never crossed my mind) but the calipers are used and have numerous small kincks and scrapes. I have thought of doing a newer set of calipers and having them powdercoated, but I'm waiting to see how these turn out first.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

hard anodize them, much cooler than powder IMHO

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

powdercoating a lil brake fluid and its toast! still i like it tho! but for calipers hard anodizing is better

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

never heard of anodizing, but after looking a little into it, seems pretty damn cool. I'd do that over powdercoat for sure. Something to tackle down the road, no doubt. Wish I'd have put my time in on some new calipers, but if they were new, I probably wouldn't of messed with them in the first place. Since they're aluminum and easy enough to file/smooth I'd seriously consider doing that over next winter with new calipers. As it is, my car needs attention in other areas so I'll be fixing up what I have for now. Excellent idea on the anodizing though, I'm in agreement.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

recently primed the calipers in hopes of painting them, but once everything was covered in primer, it looked bad. Wasn't too visible on the blasted calipers but priming revealed lots of imperfections I didn't like. I also filed down the maunfacturing info on the top of the caliper. I probably should have just left 'em there since they were a bit of a pain and won't be seen, but they look good none the less. Ended up filing down the bottom of the abutment bracket too, once I realized there were markings on there that would be visible with the caliper installed.
I had a good amount of scrapes and dents that I filled and filed down, primarily on the ridges of the calipers. Sprayed a few coates of primer that I sanded down between coats and ended up with calipers/brackets that are completely smooth and ready for paint.
I still like the satin black caliper/gloss black bracket idea a lot, but with everything being smoothed out I'm not sure the calipers will stand out enough. I do prefer subtle however, so no way I'd paint them red, blue, yellow, or other loud color that immediately draws your eye. I'm thinking of maybe painting the calipers silver and brackets a dark grey, somewhat similar to a stock appearance. Got it narrowed down to two choices, but I really can't decide either way. Probably gonna start on my C5 fronts and hope to have a decision once they're all done and ready for paint.

Black or silver?...your thoughts?

klause83z28

After all that work done, any color chosen will look fabulous. If I had the choice between black or silver I would choose silver.

Cheers!!

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Painted the calipers titanium silver blue and the brackets aluminum silver. The pictures makes the caliper a little green looking (at least on my screen) but it's actually a little blue. Sorry the pics suck but I smashed the screen on my camera and can't focus the pics all too well. In person the contrast is a bit more subtle and not all that noticable at a quick glance. I just need to decide if I like the brackets or if I want a color darker than the caliper. I'd switch the colors around, but I already had the caliper silver and it looked too bright. I went with a darker silver for the caliper, with the thought I'd paint the brackets a shade darker than that. I'm either sticking with these colors, or I'm painting the brackets a gunmetal grey. I'm leaning gunmetal, but this color combo is starting to grow on me. Finishing up prepping my front brakes for paint, so I should have some time to think it over.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Painted up a front C5 caliper and decided to stick with the silver bracket I had painted one a dark metallic grey, but it masked the fact I had smoothed out the bracket and didn't match the caliper as well as silver. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the colors. Not so bright they're instantly noticed and not so dark, they go without notice. I have a blue car, so I was hestitant to paint the calipers blue, thankfully the color has enough silver to it. Also, the brakes are going behind 18" polished wheels, (eventually...mid-late-summer?) so I plan to polish the corvette logos to match the wheels.