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Calipers are in shipment right now from Mike.
SS brake lines are in shipment from Z1 Motorsports.
Decals are in the mail from someone on eBay.
Once I get the calipers in my hands, I'll be able to assess things better. I'm thinking I need to disassemble each caliper, and remove the pistons for media blasting and powdercoating. That will be interesting. After painting, I don't know if I should be "rebuilding" them with new parts or not, I suppose that depends on the condition of the rubber gaskets and retainers. It's $150 for a rebuild kit for all four, which is kind of a lot considering what they are. Brake pistons all by themselves are way expensive, so I'd like not to go down that path.
I'm also wondering about the pins and spring plates... can't I just clean those up? It's only $25 for new pins and springs, so meh.
And I'm wondering about the bolts and bleeder valves. Probably don't need new bolt hardware, but the bleeders... It's $90 for 8 new bleeder valves.
Someone with experience with brakes let me know what I'm looking at please. There are 6 pieces here.
Each rear wheel receives one (1) hose whereas each front wheel receives two (2)- one straight line and one with the angled fitting.
Photo from the370z.com:
Hope this helps.
Have you settled on a color? I know you focused in on orange...
Last edited by ILM-NC G37S; 03-07-2024 at 10:22 AM.
I visited three different powder-coat shops in Rochester today. Each vastly different than the other in technique and cost. Now I'm just spinning, trying to talk it through in my head.
First off, I will be personally disassembling the calipers, removing the seals, rings and pistons, then rebuilding them myself. None of them will take that on, they're painters not mechanics.
Second, if I'm putting decals on the calipers (which I am), that means I apply the decals myself and use a caliper spray paint clear coat over the decals, regardless of whether there's a clear powder coat or not.
Third, all three of them suggested I do without the primer powder coat. They said it's just not necessary. However, depending on the paint selected, some colors require a top-coat to activate the base coat, some don't. So I have to pick out the color, and all three referenced the same place to pick out a color: https://www.prismaticpowders.com/
One of the shops uses a vapor blaster to clean the parts. One of them uses a chemical bath. And one of them uses a fricken laser. Seriously, a laser! He was so proud of the thing, since he just bought it last month, and he gave me a demo. It was pretty amazing.
One shop came in at $275 plus powder, which should be about $100, so... $375. Another at $600 to $700 all in, and another at $800+ all in. Curiously, the lowest quote was the one with the laser, and his explanation was that they're primarily a large, industrial shop. So little jobs like this are just good marketing. If I love it, and post about it on Google or wherever, it's worth it to them. The other two shops were small, whereas the large shop was in the old AC DELCO facility (i.e. General Motors from years ago.) Wandering around inside that facility just trying to find the shop was surreal.
Mike's old calipers showed up yesterday, neatly package in the same boxes from when he bought StopTech calipers a few years ago, which is two smaller boxes inside two larger boxes. This is really nice, because it gives me a storage solution when selling and shipping my old calipers to someone after this is all done.
This morning, I opened one of the fronts and one of the rears, and they look in reasonable condition. Granted, there's red spray paint all over them from one of his earlier experiments, and they have IDK how many years of grime and crud on them, but for the two I inspected, the caliper bodies themselves seem undamaged.
So I took one of the rear calipers, pulled out the cotter pins, tapped out the retention posts, removed the spring plate and old brake pads. Then I used a 14mm socket to remove the four big bolts and take the caliper apart. Again, everything looks OK to my not-a-mechanic eyes.
The retention posts, the four bolts, and the spring plate are all pretty gross. However, a few minutes on the wire wheel, and they cleaned up just fine. As for the two caliper halves, I'm going to pick up some brake cleaner and blast the heck out of them this weekend. That's my weekend project, disassemble and clean the parts as best I can before giving them to the shop.
As for removing the pistons... derp. Not sure how I'm going to do that. I reached out to a friend who has a workshop to see if he can help. If not, I have a compressed air tank, so I could buy a trigger handle with a tapered end attachment, and blow out the pistons myself. At the moment I'm still thinking about how to make that happen.
So... progress being made on this project, for sure.
Looking at the math on this project, I'm starting to wonder if buying the $1250+ calipers already rebuilt and powdercoated might not have been the right approach, taking into account resale of my old ones.
But then I wouldn't actually have a project to occupy my thoughts and my time. IDK, it's a judgement call.
Looking at the math on this project, I'm starting to wonder if buying the $1250+ calipers already rebuilt and powdercoated might not have been the right approach, taking into account resale of my old ones.
But then I wouldn't actually have a project to occupy my thoughts and my time. IDK, it's a judgement call.
In my opinion when tackling something like this where you are going through every corner of the project, it tends to be more expensive than ANYTHING else. It will be **** when it's done.
I disassembled the other three calipers this morning. Drained the brake fluid inside and cleaned up all the bolts, pins and spring plates on the wire wheel. Love the wire wheel. The next thing to do is blow out the pistons... all 12 of them.
20 years ago I bought a compressor tank, for use on the bikes and the cars. Bought it from SEARS, I think. Anyway, it's in pretty sad shape after living in the garage all this time. So much that the on/off switch doesn't work anymore, it's always on, and I have to plug it in then unplug it. But it still works, and that's what's important. So yesterday I spent $10 at Harbor Freight for an adapter kit that has a trigger attachment, and a tapered rubber tip. One caliper at a time, wrapped tightly in an old towel, I blew compressed air into the brake fluid hole. After a few seconds, "BAM!" like a freaking gun shot as the piston pops out. It's really kind of startling. Scary even.
However, the front calipers have 4 pistons each, two on each half, and I can only pop out one from each half. In order to get the remaining piston, I have to clamp the other piston into the hole around a rubber glove, and damn if I can't find any of my C-clamps. I know I have some, but I can't find them. God damn it. Now I have to go back to the hardware store.
After I get the last pistons free, I need to pick out the rubber seals and the rings, and remove the bleeder valves. At that point each caliper half will be just cast metal, no parts. I'll blast everything with brake cleaner and prep them best I can before giving them to the powder coater.
02-29-2024, 10:25 PM
It's $90 for 8 new bleeder valves.
That's what I'm going for.
