Has anyone polished there brake calipers?
01-13-2006, 08:46 PM
#1
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Has anyone polished there brake calipers? I was wanderin if anyone has polished their brake calipers? if you did. how did you do it? was it worth it? and how do they look? thanks!
01-13-2006, 09:08 PM
#2
I have, well worth it imo. They are a lil bit more maintenance but not bad. Just have to make sure to wipe em dry after car washes so they dont get any hard spots on em.
Also wouldnt be a bad idea to repolish em once a year or so.
As far as how to do it I'm sure a search will turn up some results but I'll tell you how I did mine anyway. Start by covering up the disc brakes with a large ziplock bag or a grocery bag. Sand the calipers with large grit sand paper and work your way to a fine grit. I started with 400 grit (if i remember correctly) and I ended using 2000 grit paper. For the sanding i'd imagine a portable belt sander would work well on the front calipers since they're flat faced but the back ones will require lots of hand sanding. I used a vibrating sander with the larger grit papers and then hand sanded the rest with 1000 and then 2000 grit. Make sure that they come out as flat as you can make em on the faces. Any waves in the metal that you cant see now will show up a lot after polishing. Clean up the calipers after you're done sanding. Make sure theres nothing on them. Get yourself some Mothers aluminum polish and a buffing wheel designed for a power drill. I'd recommend a corded power drill so you dont run outa juice in the middle of the job. Apply the polish to the caliper or the buffing wheel and have at it. It'll turn black and then buff out to a mirror like finish. The better job you do at sanding the calipers, the more reflective the calipers will be.
Heres a pic of mine. The pic quality is bad (cell phone camera). I'll see if I can take some with my new camera later but I'll prob have to clean up my calipers a lil bit first. I've gotten lazy lately.
Also wouldnt be a bad idea to repolish em once a year or so.
As far as how to do it I'm sure a search will turn up some results but I'll tell you how I did mine anyway. Start by covering up the disc brakes with a large ziplock bag or a grocery bag. Sand the calipers with large grit sand paper and work your way to a fine grit. I started with 400 grit (if i remember correctly) and I ended using 2000 grit paper. For the sanding i'd imagine a portable belt sander would work well on the front calipers since they're flat faced but the back ones will require lots of hand sanding. I used a vibrating sander with the larger grit papers and then hand sanded the rest with 1000 and then 2000 grit. Make sure that they come out as flat as you can make em on the faces. Any waves in the metal that you cant see now will show up a lot after polishing. Clean up the calipers after you're done sanding. Make sure theres nothing on them. Get yourself some Mothers aluminum polish and a buffing wheel designed for a power drill. I'd recommend a corded power drill so you dont run outa juice in the middle of the job. Apply the polish to the caliper or the buffing wheel and have at it. It'll turn black and then buff out to a mirror like finish. The better job you do at sanding the calipers, the more reflective the calipers will be.
Heres a pic of mine. The pic quality is bad (cell phone camera). I'll see if I can take some with my new camera later but I'll prob have to clean up my calipers a lil bit first. I've gotten lazy lately.
Last edited by dementia; 01-13-2006 at 09:16 PM.
01-13-2006, 10:07 PM
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01-29-2006, 01:33 PM
#4
i have polished my calipers....i did them by hand i have never used a power sander or a dremel...i do all my polishing by hand....
i started with a 180 grit.....then 220 grit...then 400 grit...then a 600grit...then a 800 and then a...1000grit...and then i finished with a 1500 grit
after wet sand them i clean them off with a rag and then polish them with my own aluminum polish i make...put i did these about a year ago before the mothers powerball came out..im pretty sure that after you do the sanding steps, you can use the mothers powerball and im sure they will come out looking awesome
here are some pics
i started with a 180 grit.....then 220 grit...then 400 grit...then a 600grit...then a 800 and then a...1000grit...and then i finished with a 1500 grit
after wet sand them i clean them off with a rag and then polish them with my own aluminum polish i make...put i did these about a year ago before the mothers powerball came out..im pretty sure that after you do the sanding steps, you can use the mothers powerball and im sure they will come out looking awesome
here are some pics
