Hey Guys,
I just got done rebuilding and painting my brake calipers. Base car so they were bare metal.
Here’s what I learned with pictures. I’m not trying to do a full how-to article, just passing on what I learned.
Caliper Paint - You’ll see a lot of videos of people painting their calipers on the car with a brush. I tried the brush on stuff and it was a mess. If you’re going to paint your calipers do it right. Remove them, clean them, and spray paint them. I used Duplicolor engine primer/paint/clear coat. Very happy with the Duplicolor. Very nice spray tips, almost as nice as a paint gun.
Here is what they looked like after 4 coats of painted on caliper paint. I scrubbed it all off. PIA and spray painting is much, much faster.
Removing Calipers… Use the bleeder screws from the calipers to plug the brake lines. Good time to replace your brake lines, but wait until you’re installing the calipers to remove the old lines.
Cleaning calipers. Just buy a walnut blasting gun from Harbor Freight. It make a bit of a mess, but it’s fast. Walnut shells will not remove coatings or plating. I wet sanded the side of the caliper that faces out to smooth out some the casting roughness and break the edges. Paint does not like to stick to a sharp edge. Not a lot, just spent a minute on each. Then hose them down with brake cleaner and scrub them.
Masking Calipers…. Use aluminum tape for masking. It’s tough enough to survive walnut blasting. Reuse the old dust boots with aluminum tape to mask the bores. I happened to have little threaded plugs to seal the threaded holes, but the twist on electrical caps work too if you push the plastic side in the hole and thread them in.
I used two 3/8” wood dowels with one clamped in a vice to hold them while painting. It allows them to be rotated so you have access to both sides.
I did two at a time.
Only start painting if you have a few hours to work. I did not touch them after primer. I shot on two coats of primer, waited 30 minutes and shot the color, and then waited 30 minutes and shot the clear.
Primer resists runs pretty well, so just two normal coats. The paint loves to run, so the key is light coats. The first coat is very light. Thin coats after that. It will take a few coats to begin to have full coverage. Some coats are just to hit the hard to reach spots. Wait a few minutes between coats and at least 10 coats. The paint gets thinner as it dries, so go a couple more coats after you think you’re done. It takes patience, but you’ll end up with a nice finish and no runs. Wait 30 minutes and give it a couple coats of clear.
If you look at the shiny part of the last picture you can see that the PORSCHE lettering can still be seen so you know where the new decal should go.
Wait at least 24 hours before putting the decals on. I shot a couple more coats of clear over the decals. After they were dry I hand rubbed them with polishing compound to remove any roughness from overspray.
The paint dissolves with acetone so you can clean any over spray out of the bores.
I painted the crossover lines seperately.
Obviously the calipers bores need to be meticulously clean before reassembly. I installed the seals into the calipers and the dust covers onto the pistons dry. The dust covers should spin on the pistons pretty easily, if they don’t then spin them one way and the others until they pop into place. I used a Q-tip and put a layer of fresh brake fluid on the inner half of the piston and slid it into the bore all the way down and pressed the dust cover into place. No assembly grease and no mess.
After the pistons are in then its normal brake pad assembly. Just don’t put the pads on backward like I did below on the foreground one. I ended up replacing everything Including the front shims.
Installed calipers…. I read we’re supposed to replace the big caliper bolts so I did. I replaced my brake lines with the Renntech stainless braided ones. Be careful not to over torque the brake line fittings. The new calipers bolts were T55 Torx not hex like the originals.
Okay, I know… steel brakes with yellow calipers. Poser. I would have painted them red if the car were any other color than red and I don’t think anyone will think an old base Boxster has carbon brakes.
Bleeding brakes…. Use an air compressor at 30 psi (2 bar) and the motive products adaptor. Don’t waste any time or money (like me) on anything else. (BTW the “universal adaptor“ is a POS).
Porsche Motive Products 45mm European Adapter Kit for Power Bleeder PEL.1100 PEL1100 PEL 1100 | Pelican Parts
I have a Foxwell NT530. I did the brake bleed procedure with it. Don’t let the reservoir run dry. Get 2 liters of fluid. It tells you which caliper to bleed when and to pump the brake pedal while bleeding. It runs the ABS motor and valves to bleed the system fully. The ABS motor only ran for the last two calipers. I did the procedure twice and it did the same thing both times. At this point you’ll have functional brakes, but a soft pedal. Drive the car around for a few minutes using the brakes. Bleed both sides of each caliper again and you should have a hard pedal.
Caliper disassembly - Almost forgot this part. This pistons don’t come out very easily. You have to use compressed air (100+ psi) and you want to have a piece of foam or something for them to hit when they come out because some of them come out like shotgun rounds. One of them per side will pop out first so take the dust cover off that one and press the dust cover back into place on the caliper. Clamp a plate of some kind over the bore (the dust cover seals it) and it should seal well enough to pop the other one out. Use the bleeder screws from the other calipers to seal all the threaded holes.
I ended up replacing everything (pads, rotors, front shims, pad sensors, etc.) since the calipers looked so good. I used
ATE
rotors, pads, and brake fluid. The brakes feel great and zero squeaks. I got the caliper seals here….
Boots and Seals Kit - Porsche 986 Boxster, 987 Boxster, 987 Cayman Front (Price is for 2 Calipers)
I reused my pistons since they looked perfect, but any scratch or imperfection on the sealing surface calls for a new piston.
I don’t think Porsche will sell the caliper seals without buying a whole new caliper. My dust boots were intact, but some of them tore pretty easily. The racing brake once seemed more robust. I got the standard ones. The car is a 2005, so 20 years old.
The old rotors and pads still have about 75% remaining so I’ll be putting those up on Ebay soon if anyone Is interested.
Well, that’s all I can think of. Here’s a few more pictures...
GORGEOUS work! Hell, you could make a business of doing the paint work for others, if you're interested.
Don't mind the "poser" comment... I'd love to paint mine on my base
987.2
. I'm just too lazy.
I might suggest trying the ceramic pads, as it will keep the wheels and calipers clean. I love my Akebonos!
Thanks for the kind words. I might try the ceramic pads. Making a business of it would be hard since it takes so much time.
cheers,
Scott
Looks great - and gotta love a DIY where the vice gets painted...
Me and that old vice have been through a lot together…. ;-)
One more thing to add. Initially I intended to have them powder coated, but the company I spoke with did not recommend it since they have had problems with the powder coating discoloring when the brakes get hot.
Your experience with using the Foxwell NT530 with pressurized air to do an ABS bleed after a caliper rebuild seems to mirror my own. You mentioned that the ABS motor only ran for the last two calipers. Were these the calipers on the passenger side? And did it do the driver's side first without engaging the ABS pump?
What I just asked is what happened to me. I then did a software update on the Foxwell and did the whole procedure again. It did the same thing the second time. While the firmness of my brakes would have been acceptable for street driving, it was not nearly as firm as I'm used to having. I then went out to some low traffic back roads with overinflated tires and did a bunch of hard stops to engage ABS. The ABS engaged perfectly fine and evenly between both sides. I then did a third brake bleed, but this time without using the Foxwell. Brake pedal was still ok but meh.
I went to the track for a one day training program and the car was pushed through a series to exercises which engaged ABS repeatedly. By the end of the day, my pedal was going down about 2" before engaging the brakes. But if I pumped it, it would engage more normally.
I've now done another bleed using my Motive Power Bleeder and no Foxwell. During the bleed of the rear right caliper a ton of air bubbles were released. I haven't yet driven the car hard, but the pedal is back to being very firm the way I like it.
In terms of the lopsided ABS brake bleed with the Foxwell, my question was whether or not the problem was my car or the Foxwell. Because my ABS seems to work perfectly fine, and that you had the same lopsided ABS bleeding experience, I'm leaning toward the idea that the problem with the lopsided ABS bleed is the Foxwell rather than my car.
Amazing work, and they pop on the car. Really looks good.
How on earth did you paint the black "
PORSCHE
" on the calipers?
