86 Carrera Brake Caliper Painting ??

[ELUSIVE]

Howdy all -
I'm a few months into ownership of my 1986 Carrera and really loving it so far. The weather in Colorado over the past few months has been pretty crappy and just this weekend I was able give her a first bath.



One thing that I have loved about the more modern Porsche's are the red brakes. My 997 Carrera S came with them, however the 2006 Boxster that I recently sold and my 2013 Carrera came were base models so they were not red. In both cases, I was able to paint them with a long involved process of massive cleaning, masking, multiple coats of high temp primer, multiple coats of high temp red, PORSCHE stickers, and multiple coats of clearcoat. The result was awesome.

Here are some pics of before and after on my Boxster and after on my 2013 Carrera:






So my question is this:
What are peoples thoughts on doing something similar to my 86? Clearly the wheels are smaller and less open to see the caliper. I'm very shortly upgrading to 17" wheels so the openings are going to get a bit larger. Is it totally lame to have painted red calipers on a more vintage car like this?

I would appreciate the thoughts of this community!

Thanks!

[Flojo]

keep that for the time when a brake fluid change is sceduled. then you can do the following:

- have a new set ready to plug and play swap (job done with bleeding in less than an hour)
or
- take what you have and rebuild (will take you at least a day, if you have a bead blaster)

normally they a plated, golden chromated/zinc plated. but you can paint them. do what ya like.

[RFP]

Oh, please no painted calipers on a '86

[proporsche]

Originally Posted by RFP

Oh, please no painted calipers on a '86

this..forget about it;-)))
Ivan

[Antomero]

Zinc plate the calipers.... Period correct!

[Mark Salvetti]

Besides not being period correct, the big difference between your Boxster and 997 and your Carrera is the sheer size of the newer calipers. I think the puny calipers on the G-bodies look a little silly painted.

Sorry.

Mark

[Lyle O]

I just had mine refurbed by PMB; very happy with the classic look...

[rokemester]

OEM plated, then clear coat to keep them looking pretty a bit longer. I’m just a stock look guy. Do what floats your boat. Black better than red if you want to paint them.

[Sebscst]

If every time you look at your 86 you wish the calipers were red than do it. It’s not the end of the world and you won’t lose 10k in value. I like the way your other 2 cars looked.

[Tremelune]

"Correct" is an arbitrary fiction. Do what you like.

You might want to look into Boxster brakes. I forget everything, but I recall it being a straightforward conversion without the need of a new master or bias...They'll look the part, for sure, though you probably won't see much behind Fuchs!

[mepstein]

PMB plates them to restore the plating in the piston bore. That's what kept the calipers working for 35+ years. If you just paint, you miss this step.