Painting calipers and struts.

Greetings:
I'm working my way through my '73 914 restoration and have purchased the front suspension and brakes from a 1980 SC. The whole thing needs paint. I'm wondering what material is best - particularly for the calipers. Any suggestions?
TIA

Dave

whether you are restoring, or just doing it for looks: do it right or they will not look very nice.

in either case:

1) you should FIRST get one of those little rust/paint stripping brushes that you mount to a electric drill and get all the rust off of the calipers. this can be done with the caliper still attached to the brake line. you want to take the rotor off at least, and hang the caliper with a coat hangar. if the caliper hangs by the brake line, then you may cause a brake leak.

2) after cleaning all the rust and junk off, douse the caliper with a nice cancer-causing blast of brake cleaner. if you don't like the idea of getting cancer (or at the very least a headache) then wear a mask when working around the brake cleaner. i use 1 large full can per caliper. i get the strongest stuff money can buy and i use it liberally. also get a wire brush to clean up the gunk and stuff that forms on the caliper.

3) clean the calipers again. calipers are one of those items which PREPARATION is the key.

4) carefully mask the area to be painted, and then paint away!

5) let dry for a while, and be extra careful until they dry.

use this stuff:

VHT Caliper Paint. it comes in a spray can.

i cleaned my calipers and i found they looked a lot nicer than painting them. the calipers on my 924 were cleaned using the above method 3 years ago. they still look like they did back then with only minimal cleaning since then. once that grunge comes off, you may want to leave it looking clean.

Porsche calipers when new look gorgeous. they have the look of a nice new aluminum basebal bat: very powerful yet very simple.

when properly done, the painted calipers can look fantastic. Porsche INVENTED the "painted calipers" style statement with the "big brake" upgrades in the early 1990s. yeah, there were painted calipers before then, but they never made the same sort of statement like they did on the 993TT. take your time, be careful, have lots of attention to detail, and they will come out fantastic!

good luck!

obin

The way Obin give you is one way, however for the time and money, I would take them to someone else and do it right. Pay the $10 or so to have each one sand blasted and save your time for the other stuff. A wire brush is OK for small stuff but the larger things take forever and your time is more important.

Take the parts after being cleaned and have the struts and you might see about powder coating them.

I have taken my calipers and painted them with good high temp paint, then immediately put them into the oven at around 150 to 200 degrees and let them bake (when the wife is not home for several hours) for an hour or so. After this the paint will be nice and hard and should last longer. Did this as well with my motor fan and it looks like new after a long time on the motor.

agree, a powder coat will definitely last longer and look MUCH nicer.

the way i described will take about 3 hours per side. and still it won't be flawless. to tell you the honest truth, you will spend a heck of a long time to get it as nice looking as if someone blasted it for you. but... the way i described can be done in a driveway in an afternoon and you won't beed to worry about bleeding the brakes afterwards.

i guess it depends on the results, like i indicated, the longer the time you spend, the better it will look.

attention to detail will be the difference between good looking.. and BAD looking.

good luck!

obin

Thanks!

I have access to all of the above. I'm still going to investigate the chemistry at play WRT brake fluid resistant coatings and as suggested, talk to the powder coating people. How does Brembo do it? Are they alloy and anodized? What about the OEM finish on the A calipers?
The calipers and struts are on the workbench and I have a bench-mounted scratch wheel, so that and a solvent wash ought to make short work of the prep.

BTW, sandblasting is kind of a sideline for a local monument (tombstone) business. Seems there's one in every town, perhaps they are all as amenable to a more animated clientele and the extra cash.

Anyway, it is interesting that none of the auto refinish shops around here know anything about the paint chemistry involved.
In a past life, I was involved supplying the aerospace business, where many materials were spec'd in terms of their resistance to skydrol - hydraulic fluid. I'll check that angle too and report the results. Thanks for all the help.

Dave

Dave,

The factory finish on 'A' calipers, if the same as all new OEM Porsche Ate cast-iron calipers I have replaced, is a beautiful yellow-gold Cadmium plating!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Plating... of course. Duh. Mine are kind of a charcoal colour - aged black perhaps.
Plating is Unfortunately I can't think of a metal in 'Wannabe Red'.
Thanks for the continued good info and advice.

Dave

Me learn speak.
Plating is obviously the best choice of all, etc...

Dave