chris walrod

Since my brake calipers were looking a bit aged, I thought I would do something about it. Being a total nut-job and desire to everything myself, I ordered a powder coating gun and kit and decided to give it a 'go'.

Before you guys call me a Big Red wannabe, I thought to do these red because my new wheels are being painted a dark grey, and thought to add some contrast.

Since powder coating needs to be cured with heat, and I dont want a divorce, I bought a toaster oven from Wallymart to dedicate to powdercoating small items, plus would be handy for heating bearing housings, or other press fitting components.

Made 4'x4' booth out of plastic sheeting by stapling it to the ceiling in the garage, draping it all the way to the floor to keep the powder coat dust to a minimum. Fabbed up a hanging wire (coat hanger) and connected the ground wire to it from the powder coating machine.

Removed the calipers from my car. Removed the brake pad striker plates and other hardware and took them into work for a bead blasting treatment to get ALL of the original coating off the calipers. I figured its always best to start with super clean surfaces.

After stripping, degreased them in the kitchen sink (when wifey was not home) and let dry.

Put them, one at a time, in the new toaster oven for some time at 200F to bake off any left over moisture. This is recommended by the powder coating people.

Masked off the seals/pistons and hung on the wire, in my temporary spray booth.

Applied the powdercoating and put back into the oven at the recommended 385-400F until medium-well (20 minutes).

Let cool, and applied the high-temperature decals.

Next week, I have to take a batch of parts (brake bleeder nipples, pad striker plates, brake rotor backing plates etc.) to a plater for zinc plating. This should give the calipers some detail. Cant wait to get these all back together and on the car!

Here are a few pics

poorb0yw

Looks great Chris. I need to get myself one of those powdercoating kits too. Have ya had any time to work on your carbon fiber projects?

Jean

Chris, amazing work. I had no idea about the powdercoating process, very informative, thanks.

BTW, where do you get the decals from?
Jean

Toga

Nice work Chris!

Mine would need the same treatment. Is there a internet page where we could have more infos on that powder coating kit?
And my last two questions: what is the colour ref and where did you find those high temp stickers?

Thanks

paradisenb

Really great finished product. The blast work appears superb. I think this key to a acceptional job. Reminds me of firering clay. I was expecting 'Yellow'.

Midnight C4S

Wow Chris beautiful work, you make it seem so easy. How $ was the powder coating kit may I ask? I might powder coat my hole kitchen if it works as easy as you made it seem.

Riff

Nice work! I do have a question. The brake bleed nipple is left in place during the PC process?? What happens when you remove it to put in the new ones? Will the finish crack and flake off upon removal?

Cheers,

Damian in NJ

Decals can be found at www.porschedecals.com

Toga

Thanks Damian!

I didn't know that adress. Very good one with a lot of choice!

Anir

Chris,

I'm impressed. They look brand new. Thank you for sharing.

mlincoln

Nice job...how much does the kit/materials cost?
--Mike Lincoln

akolodesh

hey "big red wannabe!!!!!!"
good job

mnmblu

chris walrod

Thanks guys for the compliments! Really appreciate it.
I bought the powdercoating kit from http://www.columbiacoatings.com/

The kit was about $100 including extra powder and a pressure regulator that I installed at the gun to eliminate any air hose surge. This was in addition to the built in regulator at the compressor.

Toaster oven was about $50.

I bought the decals at www.xenonmods.com Rich Calnan is the guys name and he states these decals should hold up on calipers and are high temp. They are about $10 for 6 decals.

Before I remove the bleeder nipples to send out for plating, I will cut the powder coating with a razor blade to eliminate the chance of tearing the coating.

Its pretty easy to do, just the prep work is time consuming. The hardest part is getting the caliper from the booth to the oven without touching it. I thought of hiring a snake charmer to come over and play a flute to get these calipers to rise out of the booth and into the oven, but was not in the budget for this project

If you already have a compressor, and can get your calipers off your car, its not that hard to do and you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself. If interested, I can keep my booth setup to do others calipers?

Anir

Chris, this is indeed "a great place or what".