I just purchased 06+ calipers and im dropping them off at the powder coat shop tomorrow.

Do I need to take them apart or mask anything? I dont think the oven should do much damage to the internals since theyre made to operate at higher temps.




Edit: For future reference, YES they must be fully disassembled with no pistons, slides, and threads closed.

 

The pistons, seals, and bleeders need to be popped out. Also, all the threads need to be masked, as well as any areas where the caliper body slides on the caliper bracket. The powder coater should be able to media blast them clean and fully decontaminate them from all grease and oils. Finally, most metallic powders, if that's what you're getting, aren't very glossy or UV stable, and should be clear coated with a second layer of powder coat.

If you don't take the calipers apart, the brake fuild will contaminate the surface, and you'll get a bad result. For non-Brembo's I might conside one of the caliper painting kits instead of powder coat. A proper powder coat job might be $200 for base calipers, and $300+ for Brembo's.

 

good to know, as I'm considering this

 

Youre 100% correct.

I took them today to get done and the guy said $250 but will give it to me for $200 since im a long time customer. That is way out of my budget, im used to paying $60 for valve covers lol. I just opted for the silver caliper paint at Pep Boys and going to give them a few passes.

But for future reference, the shop said that they have to be taken completely apart with the pistons popped out and all since the oils will leak.

ps: The shops (Reliable Powder Coating in Downey, CA) metallics come out very glossy and last a long time.

 

My Brembo's are at the powdercoat shop right now. Getting a 3-layer job with logos embedded under the clear topcoat, so they should look pretty amazing. I visited several shops in Tampa last week, and I got a pretty good education on the process.

Another choice is to clean up and disassemble the calipers yourself and buy a Powdercoat kit from Eastwood. Basic, single-color/layer powdercoating is pretty easy to do at home on small parts.

http://www.eastwood.com/powder-gun-promo-kit.html