Caliper Troubles
 

Maybe someone can give me some hope here. Took my calipers to a powder coat shop for some fresh powder. A week after they said they’d be done I went to pick them up. Upon arrival I saw that they had powdered inside the threaded holes for the brake line and bleeders. Inside the piston holes had also been exposed to blasting media. If someone has had this happen before I’d appreciate some tips to get these things usable again.

When the issues were brought up to the owner he told me straight out: “you brought in $2400 calipers for a $100 powder job, what did you expect?”

Anyway, looking for some advice on how to make these right again.

Small claims court is your only option. Powder coating the inside of the piston bores is fatal, and only if the paint hasn't reached the bottom of the bleed holes is it possible to fix those by cleaning the threads.

If the guy took on the job he is responsible for doing it right.

for the threaded opening i think a thread follower might get the paint out. for the piston openings, not sure of the tolerances there - did you try fitting the pistons to see if it was ok? otherwise a small wire brush on a dremmel? or maybe it's dead; i actually don't know anything about these things.

Sorry for your problem. There was an article a few months back in either Panorama or Excellence on exactly the same thing. The author sent his calipers to one place that did a lousy job, and he ended up sending them to another place to have them completely rebuilt and refinished.

You can try to recut the threads. Is the powercoat material anywhere inside the calipers. That would be bad.

Concerning piston holes: have you measured them? Is the surface damaged? If yes, maybe a machine shop can rebore them. But that would also mean overbore pistons / seals. So, i'm shure a brake specialist can rebuilt this.

No DIY job, because you need some know how and tools / machinery.

Regards, Markus

What difference does the value of the calipers make? Cheap or expensive - I don't think the piston bore should not have been powder coated!
Has the guy ever coated calipers before?

Wow, I think a comment like that would have involved fisty-cuffs, and I’m not a particularly violent person. As mentioned, if the piston bores are really pitted up, that may be an issue. If you can, measure them, see if they are within spec. You could probably have them polished if needed. They might be fine. Regarding the bolt holes, there is absolutely NO excuse for this IMO. Complete BS and Mr. Painter Dude should be either writing you a check to get them retapped, or be buying you a set of 2400.00 calipers... thank you very much!

You are welcome to PM/connect me. I'd be happy to author a letter on your behalf that will compel the shop to remedy your losses. Guaranteed by the second letter you'll have the quid necessary to fix your calipers. ;)

This is assuming you didn't sign away your firstborn. Chat soon.

Thank you for the offer, I’ll be inspecting the rework he’s doing with the coated threaded holes.
To be clear, there is no powder coating in the piston bores. They did have enough sense to cover those. Powdering threaded holes in my opinion is completely unacceptable, especially when a metal on metal seal is required with high pressure behind it.

That letter will be gratis. Complimentary.

Never have one of my letters failed to attain the objective. :cool:

Cheers!