Grand Prix Forums (Grandprixforums.net)
Register Now

Triple Edge Perfomance

Go Back   Grand Prix Forums (Grandprixforums.net)

Notices

Parts/Tools Required

Supplies needed:

Steps

This cost me 50 dollars (no tax, out the door) total to have the sandblasting and powdercoating done, plus another 30 or so on parts. I talked the guy into this by offering to pass out his business cards at local car shows, which I did.

The normal prices to expect would be, 30 dollars per caliper, 10 per bracket, and 50 for everything under the hood, plus tax. Always ask if theres a way to save money, its not cheap, its smart!

To powdercoat your calipers, dog bone engine mounts, radiator mounts, and cross bars.

Well its up on jacks, wating for everythign to be done (replaced shocks and struts too)

Pop the pistons using and air compressor and a bunch of towels, (to make sure that when the piston flies out it doesn’t get chipped or dented)

Getting the seals and stuff out of the calipers was a good time to say the least, they're press fitted in and all I had was a small flathead screwdriver to try to pry them out with.

If you plan of doing this though, keep the old seals, you'll need them to help press the new ones in. There are also another set of seals actually inside the caliper where the piston moves, pry them out with a small flathead and put the new ones in by bending them (they’re only stiff rubber) and making sure they fit into the ridge. The bushings and boots came off the slider bolts much more easily. Just pull, they should come off.

Then I took them (along with my radiator mounts, cross braces, engine mounts and caliper brackets) to get sandblasted/powdercoated. The end result was very good though, the red matches the red stripes on my engine cover perfectly and the black brackets look really good with the red calipers sitting on them. (I got them black to offset the red, too much red otherwise) and brought everything back home.

Front

Rear

My dad and I spent a good amount of time getting everything back together, the rubber bushings for the engine mounts and upper radiator mounts were basically a pain to put back in, we used c-clamps and lots of brake fluid to lube them up and slide in (powdercoating is obviously chemical/salt/brake fluid resistant, definite plus over paint) we actually had to trim the upper radiator mounts to get them back in, beveled one on each side so that on either side there’s still full side pushing out to hold it in place.

I ordered the front and rear caliper rebuild kit and the front and rear slider bolt rebuild kit from advanced auto parts, came to like 30 bucks total, inc. tax. 2 days to ship.

The calipers themselves were relatively easy once we figured out how to reassemble them. Patience is big here, it’s easy but time consuming. 30-45 minutes (each) front and 20-30 minutes (each) for the back. like I said, use the old seals to push the new ones back in, use a popsicle or corndog stick (for precision), a small block of wood (place on seal afterwards) and a hammer to make sure they’re seated fully, then go around with the incredibly useful small flathead screwdriver and just lift out on the seal a little bit to let air escape. Check to make sure they’re seated fully once again. Don’t forget to put the inside seals back in as well.

For the brackets, the slider sleeves and seals were very easy, the basically popped right in.

Caliper reassembled with brake pads in

When putting the pistons back in, make sure the inside seal doesn’t get bound up on the piston by a) making sure its fully seated before starting to put the piston in, b) putting the piston in straight, and c) putting the piston in slowly. You will feel some resistance at first, and then the piston should slide in as if you were only changing your brake pads.

I used new brake fluid to flush my system until all the fluid coming out was clear, put the rotors and calipers back on, bled the brake likes, and finally, it was done.

DO NOT FORGET TO BLEED THE BRAKE LINES

Before I bled the brakes I flushed all the fluid out of the system by tying plactic bags to the ends of each brake line, pushing the brake pedal, adding more fluid, pushing the pedal, add more fluid, push the pedal add more fluid until the fluid coming out of all 4 lines is clear. top off then re attach brake lines.

Bleed the brakes, do not forget to do this.

2 quarts of brake fluid was more than enough for me to do all of this.

Looks very good in the end, defiantly worth it since I’ll never have to repaint them, worry about chipping or flaking of paint, brake fluid, wheel cleaner, road salt, or anything like that.

Go from this

To this

When I did this I also replaced my shocks and struts, repaired some rusting issues, and got new brake pads (don’t buy wearever pads, brake dust like none other)

Pull car out, take for a test drive to make sure your brakes are in fact working. Then go home and look at your sweet looking calipers. I suggest getting your rotor hubs powdercoated at the time all the stuff is off the car too, instead of deciding it looks like crap all rusty 2 months later, then painting them because you need new rotors and don’t feel like getting the ones that’ll soon be gone powdercoated. (like I did)

Hope this helps everyone!

Comments

If you would like to make a comment or rate this write-up, please do so here.

Downloads Available

None at this time



Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
SEO by vBSEO 3.2.0 ©2008, Crawlability, Inc.