Remanufactured Calipers

[Mɐʇʇ]

Just in case anyone's considering similar, I've just had my calipers rebuilt by BCS. They've come out nicely.
As far as I can tell, my calipers had never had any love before and while I'll happily leave cheap stuff until it seizes - I wanted to make sure these stayed in good nick and didn't knacker the pistons.
I asked for the following:

• Mechanical remanufacture
• "High End" paint
• Stencilled Graphics (so hopefully won't fade like the old ones)

But no cast smoothing.
In addition, I had a couple of bleed nipples seized in, plus the bolts for the inner plates were seized in too - so all needed sorting as well.
Pistons were fine, thankfully, but obviously new seals & nipples all round.

As per the vote the other day, I kept them stock colours.
I did the rear calipers 12 months ago (just new TRW ones) and have a new master cylinder ready to fit as well - so ultimately, new everything.
Will probably replace all the rubber hoses with stainless fittings & stainless braided hoses with a pvc over shield too if I can find all the right bits to ensure they come out nicely too - I'll post a DIY on that when I get around to it.

Here are the before and after shots
Before:

After:

[Foxmeister]

Looks like a good job and glad as im probably going to be using this lot too, having seized bleed nipples ive decided to just get them refurbed anyway

How much did you pay in the end Matt and what was the turnaround time?

[Mɐʇʇ]

Start price was about 450 for the remanufacture + the paint.

Plus extra for the stencilled logos + seized fasteners that had to go on the milling machine. Or you could stay with decals which I think are included in the price.
Turnaround time, about a week.

The only thing I think it'd be nice would be to have stainless bleed nipples instead - but that's small fry and they're easily available.

Could I have done this myself? Mechanically, for sure. Could I have been faffed with it - not really. I don't have the paint facilities to do a nice job on 2 pack paint either (or frankly, any, paint - I'm rubbish at it), or the logos, so there would have been a lot of messing around and a much longer lead time - so I'm happy.

Other things that were nice - they took the time to call me up and walk me through the current condition of them, what they needed, links to some vids of what the respective options mean and so forth. All came across as very professional, which I appreciated too.

[Shoppinit]

I wonder how much new calipers cost? I only paid about a grand for both my C6 calipers IIRC.

[Mɐʇʇ]

I take your point (including the one you didn't write ).

I didn't look at brand new, but I did look at getting a used set and ones that looked in worse nick than mine were still a lot of £ - plus then refurb costs on them, too.

I wonder how much new calipers cost? I only paid about a grand for both my C6 calipers IIRC.

[Mɐʇʇ]

My sources suggest about £800 per side, but listed as NLA.

[Shoppinit]

Yes, I just had a quick look and they're not cheap. And if they're NLA that settles it.

I had a look on Rockauto and they list a couple of brands of calipers I've never heard of. NLA, also.

[Mɐʇʇ]

There's starting to be quite a lot of NLA, unfortunately. Still, car is 16 years old.

[Shoppinit]

Yeah, it's starting to worry me.

Doesn't matter on a 1968 Mustang because, worst case, you could make the bits yourself, but it's a different story when you've got a duff TCU and no way to make the gearbox work.

I had a problem with the ECU on my Rangey and started to panic because they are unfindable. But then I looked at it and realised all the components on it are analogue! Just fixed it myself with readily available bits. IIRC I also found the circuit diagram, too. Good luck doing that with the ECU of the RS6.

[Mɐʇʇ]

You going to sell up then?

[simonpoulton]

Did they change the steel crossover pipe? Mine started leaking a while back and needed replacing with some copper which I'm not happy with really

[Mɐʇʇ]

Nope (I think, not actually looked), but was shotblasted and painted.
I actually was wondering this morning if I can get polished stainless brake pipe for the odd thing like that....hmm......

Copper/cunifer is good, but it hard looks in keeping with a car. Was wondering about some kind of wrap or heatshrink on long runs of it.

[Mɐʇʇ]

Quick google doesn't turn anything up.

[Nobby]

If I was gonna get mine done it'd just be paint, and source all the other bits elsewhere. I've rebuild a fair few (ok less than 10) pairs of Brembo calipers before and they weren't mega difficult. The hardest part (certainly riskiest & most common on 4 pot Brembo) is often the pad guides. Getting them off usually requires an impact driver as they seize/round easily plus they corrode under the guides, push the guide up and the pads don't move/get stuck.

[Nobby]

For the crossover pipe I used pure copper pipe and covered in thick black heatshrink.