JChen

My brake calipers were originally black from factory but they are now severely faded/rusted brown. Contacted two shops nearby with one charging $900 to get all four painted and another shop charging $1,700 to get all four powder coated. Feel like both are a bit much so considering DIY or contacting more shops for quotes.

Wanted to hear everyone's experience or opinions on what would be better.

DHL

Powder coat is more durable than paint, but requires quite a bit of masking to keep the coating out of interior surfaces or threaded holes with tight tolerances. The quote of $1700 seem high. Color choices can be more limited with powder coat as well, and pricing can escalate if you want a color other than black.

Nickshu

Get them wrapped. They do that now. You could probably even figure out how to DIY it with some practice on a junkyard caliper.

Dubgw

In 2020 my dealer agreed to have my calipers “ painted “ before delivery as a free perk ( those were the Covid days!!)

when car arrived the paint job was horrible so he remedied by sending out for powder coating ( free!) and they r as perfect today as day 1....

they r powdered same yellow as the Porsche ceramic caliper color and have the exact Porsche black lettering ( don’t forget to include)
DONT DO PAINT!!
$1700 sounds very high but might be because of your location(?)..... consider a “ fun “ color rather than black which won’t easily be seen (IMO)

PatMc

To do it right is a fairly labor intensive process. Most places tear down the caliper, bead blast the whole thing, mask, powdercoat/paint, reassemble. You lose the anodizing (which prevents corrosion) in this process.

When we do Brembo calipers, and we try to avoid them, they get torn down and run through an ultrasonic to get them sorta clean, then reassembled without seal (just boots/pistons) and all the threaded holes plugged with old bleeders...then they get blasted. We do it this way to maintain both the machined surface finish and the anodizing in the bores, boot fits, and threaded holes. Then they come apart again and get baked...which brings a bunch more contamination to the surface...then slapped back together and blasted again. Then 2 coats of etching primer...some bodywork if necessary followed by another coat of etching primer, then color, logo, and 2 coats of clear. We use a catalyzed clear and they come out very nice.

The reason I prefer paint to powdercoat (and Brembo recommends paint as well) is because of the masking lines...powdercoat leaves a very hard masking line typically since it's usually much thicker than paint. Paint has a much softer masking line and can run over a bit into the boot fit areas whereas powdercoat can't. This creates a total encapsulation of the exposed calipers surfaces...something that cannot be done with powdercoat.

nevil

That's a good detailed description of your process for painting calipers. I have a couple of questions. Who is "we"? And, also important to most of us, what is the ballpark cost for doing this?

PatMc

"We" is Automotive Brake Solutions (autobrakesolutions.com) . I'd rather not quote because I'd rather not do them. We specialize in cast iron calipers, and typically will only do a pair of brembo's every now and again when some of our larger customers who feed us pallets at a time (of cast iron) want one or 2 sets of brembos done.

I'd be more than happy to do the prep work, then send everything back and have a body shop of your choosing do the paint. We have all the rebuild kits and most pistons available for OEM brembo calipers for you to rebuild yourself....but we're not setup to process painted calipers on a large scale.

Nickshu

PMB Performance in Utah is a Porsche brake refinishing shop. They mostly do classic stuff but I have seen their work on new stuff too and it's top notch. I went to Werks Reunion in 2020 and they had a booth there full of custom color GT3 calipers and stuff. Beautiful work. Possibly more than you want to invest in a Macan, but they are out there. I have no association with them other than in around 2013 I used them to redo the calipers on my 1982 911SC with outstanding results.

PatMc

PMB does an excellent job on Brembo calipers...instead of maintaining the original anodizing, they strip and re-anodize, then use a liquid paint. If I was having brembos done, I'd use them.

Nickshu

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Brembos are actually painted from the factory, not powder coated. Special paint and special process to resist degrading, maybe can't reproduce that outside of the factory.

PatMc

Correct...Brembo uses a polyurethane paint, and specifically advises against powdercoating. The hard part to duplicate is the original surface finish. We ran into the same problem at StopTech (I worked there for 18 years) when folks would want their calipers refinished...the original anodized surface under the paint cannot be duplicated easily...the only effective way to strip is by bead blasting, which peens the surface and leaves it rougher than the original surface...we can then anodize and paint, but in small batches it is cost prohibitive when a new caliper is less less than $500 or so. IIRC, Macan calipers are about 1/2 that at the dealer for new ones.

If all we're after is a color change, I'd probably just scuff up the paint on the old ones with a fine scotchbrite pad and re-shoot it...look at like a fender at a body shop. If the old paint is chipped/peeling/gone then new calipers, in this case, are less than refinishing unless you DIY

JChen

Purchased some decals off Etsy and some G2 Performance Brake Caliper Paint on Amazon (<$100). Will take to a friend's shop and see what we can do with the DIY.. will keep everyone posted on how it turns out.

DHL

Powdercoat is also difficult to do with logos and multi colors of large contrast like yellow calipers with black logs or vice versa. I'll bet most powdercoating shops will powdercoat the base coat and paint the logos. That's what HRE did on my wheels. Wheel was mainly powdercoated with the recessed HRE log painted by hand afterward.

Nickshu

You can buy the Porsche stickers. I have done it on a couple prior 911's. The new stickers even held up to track level brake temps without issue. Acromann Shop online has them.

dak911

Depending on how "fussy" you are...I have cleaned (wire brush and a few cans of brake cleaner) and painted calipers on a few of my BMW's I used some caliper paint that was a 2 part mix, and painted them with a brush...no decals
Unless you got down on your knees and stared at them, they looked great...took about 4 hours altogether, car on jack stands all 4 wheels off