Swapping red calipers !!

I have what may be a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway! I'm considering buying a Cayman S that has the forest green exterior paint. What I don't like is the red brake calipers clashing with the green exterior! It makes the car look like Santa should be driving it!! Is it difficult and/or expensive to swap them for black ones? Has anyone done this? Is it possible that someone with black ones [base Cayman version] would want to swap for a set of red ones? [I don't know if the calipers are exchangable between the base and the S model]. Grey Eagle

I think you would find takers on a swap, but you would also have to swap out rotors too.

I do not think they are compatible. I wonder if you may find someone to professionally paint them to match your car color.

GE, keep it for awhile and the look is going to grow on you. My suggestion is to buy it and wait at least six months before deciding. It looks good to me but of course I live in the land of red and green chillies.

GE: There are tons of paint kits available for brake calipers (with appropriate decals). I believe they are readily available from most auto parts stores in real life and on the Web.

Thanks Fredyy....I guess I assumed [incorrectly] that they had to be baked on in order to last. It probably seems anal to folks to make an issue of this in the first place. It does surpise me a bit that porsche didn't stick with a neutral color for the calipers. Grey Eagle

I think Santa Fe gives some good advice - wait to you actually get the car and see if it grows on you. If it doesn't, they can be painted - there are actually DIY kits available to do it... you have to use paint capable of withstanding very high temps... and the other complication, is that to do it right and have it look good, you'll have to not only take them off the car, but you'll have to disassemble the calipers. When you do that, all the seals should be replaced with new ones... even though they're new or fairly new, disassembly can hurt the seals and gaskets, and you don't want your brakes to be less than perfect in that regard. As far as replacing them with a Cayman 2.7 set, you'll have to change out the whole thing, including the rotors, and then you'll have a set of brakes that are really not engineered for the extra weight and horsepower of the car - really not a good thing, either, if you want to utilize the full performance envelope of the car you've paid all that money for. Now that I've seen you subsequent post, I'll add that yes indeed, in order for it to last, it should be baked on - the DIY kits will not give you what I would call professional quality - nor will the paint last as long as an OEM finish. For that, they'll need to be taken apart and done professionally. brad

Brad, Thanks for the information. That is very helpful and informative. The idea of swapping the calipers sounded less than optimal to me to begin with and you have confirmed, with much better knowledge. that it isn't a wise thing to do. Maybe I can look for some rims that hide more of the red!! I really like the forest green exterior color! Grey Eagle

You can always spring for the PCCS's and you'll get yellow, at least that matches. Kidding too much money for those.

Has anyone had the calipers removed and repainted professionally by Porsche, or another professional shop for that matter? If so, what kind of a price are we talking about? GE

GE, one option is to have your calipers powder coated, they will look great and you can choose among different colors, the cost? Actually not much for the powder coating itself (probably less than $100-150) for the four calipers But you will have to pay someone to remove them, dissasemble/assemble and install them again but if you do it yourself you can save all the labor. Where in CA do you live? There are some very good places in Orange County that do great powder coatings and their prices are very competitive

Thanks Gilles...that is an interesting option. Does "powder coating" last? I live approx. 25 miles east of San Franciso in Northern California. GE

My dealer can paint the calipers any color the owner wants for a nominal charge. They even replace the "Porsche" insignia. I've seen the results and they looked OEM. Ask your dealer.

Thanks Silversled.....I actually did ask my local dealer a few months ago when I was considering a green Cayman. He said it would cost approx. 3 grand, so I shied away from the green paint at the time. GE

beez pointed out all that is required to correctly repaint and that is why it costs so much. Be careful of a cheap solution. Green is nice. If you go to Germany you will see lots of green with red calipers.

Powder coating would probably be just the thing... I just did a quick search on the PCA tech board, and yes, someone has asked this: Q: I would like to have my Boxster’s brake calipers powdercoated to match the exterior color of my car. There is a local agency with a good reputation that I would like to have perform the powdercoating, however the calipers have to be completely disassembled. I have rebuilt calipers in the past and would prefer to do the disassembly and reassembly myself, however I have never worked on a brembo before. How difficult of a job would this be and is their any special tooling required? Also if I do decide on doing the work myself should I replace all the seals? A: Usually the pistons are masked off, holes plugged and then the calipers sprayed and cured in a spray booth. This has proven to be very durable. The seals should be replaced if they are disassembled. Also make sure the piston chambers are fully protected so that no paint gets in them. This can cause the pistons to bind. I would also suggest you do not split the two halves of the calipers. More often after they have been split they will leak. Scott Slauson - PCA WebSite - 5/5/2004 Scott Slauson - PCA WebSite - 5/30/2005 So, this sounds like a good solution, but I still think it will be pretty expensive... pulling all the brake calipers off and taking them apart and putting them back together again, then putting them back on the car, if you don't feel good about doing the work yourself (I know I wouldn't do it myself) would be the expensive part of this... And, you'll want to make sure it's done right - brakes are nothing to fool with. brad

Painting calipers takes a couple hours but its easy.

Brad, et al.... Thanks again for the thoughtful explanations. I am not inclined to do the work myself either! My very limited mechanical ability, and patience with the work, has long since evaporated [I never have done much work on cars myself, I just love to drive!]. This may not be a major job in the realm of auto modifications or repairs but a large part of me thnks it may be foolish to mess with the precison engineering that goes into these cars from the factory! I probably should get over my hangup about color! If I don't buy this particular car [the price may be very attractive] I'll most likley opt for the base Cayman anyway, which as you all know has black calipers so they won't be an issue. GE

I have a local shop that does wheels and tires and they will professionally powder coat the calipers for $1000. That's in So Cal. You can check with CC sponsor Sharkwerks in Fremont, Ca. They will know someone near you. Good luck!

Painting might be better. Just be sure you clean it, sand it if you can then use the primer before applying the caliper paint.

Red calipers have long marked the S model in Porsche's lineup. Paint them if you want, but be aware that it will likely hurt your resale value if that's important to you.

The 997 Carrera has the same size rotors as the Cayman S so it could be possible to fit a full set of Carrera black anodised calipers to your car, then you could either keep the red ones for refitting or sell them on ebay

If you want to swap then obviously the performance difference doesn't matter- why not just get a non-S? Save 10k and get black calipers...

chrismillion.....actually your point is right on! I have been looking for a base Cayman as it really is all the car I need. I was entertaining getting this S because it was one particlular car in the forest green that I think I could have bought at a very attractive price. I've since decided that I am going to stick with my original plan and buy the "non S" and order it to my specs.