DIY Caliper Painting

[phat7]

As chnace would have it, i'm painting my calipers before they're installed. This is going to take approximately 1 week so be patient.

Tools
Dremmel with Wire Brush attachment
Polishing Bit

So after some time removing oil residue and scrubbing with wire brush i hooked i the dremmel and results are good thus far. The brake dust is stubborn and will not come off even with really harsh degreaser. ~becareful not to use harsh liquids as they may damage piston rubber boots.~

 

[jasonlel]

phat7,

check PM... :)

As chnace would have it, i'm painting my calipers before they're installed. This is going to take approximately 1 week so be patient.

Tools
Dremmel with Wire Brush attachment
Polishing Bit

So after some time removing oil residue and scrubbing with wire brush i hooked i the dremmel and results are good thus far. The brake dust is stubborn and will not come off even with really harsh degreaser. ~becareful not to use harsh liquids as they may damage piston rubber boots.~

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f73/fd3s7007/caliper005.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f73/fd3s7007/caliper006.jpg

 

[SideWaysGrey]

bugger went on and on about it la...
but yeah, gota admit, nice finishing to it dude
think I'll do the same for mine too

 

[saru-kun]

Hiee Dev,

Since your calipers are out, I hope you don't mind, but could you measure the diameters of the pistons for me?

Thanks in advance and cheers.

 

[Alchemis]

dev,

what color are you putting on ? gold color like ur whole car ?

 

[phat7]

red. sure adrian. i'll get the ruler out and take a couple of pics for verification. I got your pm dude. How are things?

 

[phat7]

ok Adrian- the front caliper piston size is as follows:

Larger- 32mm and Smaller - 27mm (mind you it was very hard to get pictures. Hope this helps. I measured from outer dimension of each piston ring.

Updates:

The finishing prior to painting should be like this-

Spot the difference-

Yup- SUMITOMO-NO MO :)

 

[phat7]

the overall scheme is going to be red but MAZDA will remain polished. To achieve this i had to grind down the metal and buff out to shine. Note- You want to make it as smooth as possible-

After of which you give the calipers a good cleaning prior to masking.

 

[mrbear]

bro. would like to ask.. SUMITOMO brake pads good?.. im thinkin of getting a new set of brake pads.

* i also wanna spray my caliper. hehe.. waiting for ur result!

 

[saru-kun]

Alright cheers mate Dev...

By the way its Alex, not Adrian :_:

Things are alright, classes starting tomorrow and by the looks of it, I'm going to hate early mornings hahaha. One of my cooler modules would be intro to manufacturing technology where I'll get to play with a mean as hell CNC machine as well as fabrication and machining facilities wheee~ ^^

Thanks again for the measurements. Didn't know that the FD had differential bore calipers...

Cheers

 

[Alchemis]

alex,

do u know what's the advantage of differential bore ? this is the 1st time i see also....

 

[phat7]

bro. would like to ask.. SUMITOMO brake pads good?.. im thinkin of getting a new set of brake pads.

* i also wanna spray my caliper. hehe.. waiting for ur result!

Hi Mrbear,

I've not tried Sumitomo brakepads but i can safely say if its manufactured by Sumitomo there's no doubt its going to be good. With that said, what is the application? Are you normally on street or track? I'll post up pics soon of finished calipers. There's a suprise ;)

 

[phat7]

Alright cheers mate Dev...

By the way its Alex, not Adrian :_:

Things are alright, classes starting tomorrow and by the looks of it, I'm going to hate early mornings hahaha. One of my cooler modules would be intro to manufacturing technology where I'll get to play with a mean as hell CNC machine as well as fabrication and machining facilities wheee~ ^^

Thanks again for the measurements. Didn't know that the FD had differential bore calipers...

Cheers

Hi alex, my bad. I've been talking to this guy Adrian that my wife says looks exactly like you. Go figure. I'm getting old mate.

I've wondered as well if there is any sort of difference with different bore sizes? I'll be removing my old calipers and i'll re-measure the dimensions. We'll have to determine exact difference between the two.

 

[Alchemis]

dev is not old..... old man can't handle 300 over hp :P

 

[saru-kun]

GAAAHHHHHHHHHH :angry_smile:

I wrote the reply down a couple of hours ago and the server crashed when I clicked submit...wtf

Nyaahhhh *bitch bitch bitch rant rant rant*

Abang Dev not old laaaaa.... (polish kasut...cos I wanna ride in your Vios coloured seven when I come back next time ^^)

Anyway, not sure if I've gotten all my terms correct but here goes. Differential bore caliper pistons are designed to even out taper wear. When the pads clamp down onto the rotor, the spinning rotor's torque sort of 'drags' on the pad and 'pulls' the trailing edge of the pad away from the rotor...resulting in more wear up front on the leading edge (of the pad). Hence piston diameters are larger where the trailing edge of the pad is.

Crap...brain isn't working now...my apologies if I gotten the trailing edge and leading edge mixed up, please do correct me, someone.

This is sort of like how you adjust some toe in on your bicycle brake pads. Ultimately it is to maintain uniform pad wear.

Cheerios :shades_smile:

EDIT: That Adrian wouldn't be one boonyloh with a black rx-8 from Penang...would he?