Re-Anodize Brembo Calipers

Paddy said:
I agree with Dellorto man. its like £80 for a good rear tire when you can get good used for £20 or the price of petrol when used chip fat is far cheaper. I knew a man once who had some chrome plating done when he already had a can of silver paint !!!
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well, $450 Canadian to Cerakote 3 calipers is the cheapest I can find that service anywhere near me. This is for the Guzzi mechanical freshening. I am not intending to do any other cosmetics so I am not going to spend that kind of money just to clean up appearance of calipers on this project, then have them look out of place as being too nice for the rest of the bike. $270 Canadian to powdercoat 3 calipers also seems a stretch for this particular project. I am spending heavily on mechanical freshening but not on cosmetics. Its not a Laverda after all..........Thanks for the input but this time the calipers are just going to get a heck of a cleaning together with a rebuild with fresh pads......
 
Hi Paul,
Brembos come up beautifully with soda blasting, it doesn't harm the finish. It will be cleaned of all contaminants and as good as the underlying anodising finish will allow it to be. I just use a little air boy handheld gun and they come up great. If the anodising is already damaged / degraded then you will end up with lovely clean and fresh damaged/degraded finish.
Wash thoroughly after with a dash of vinegar to neutralise and make sure to thoroughly wash and blow out all blind ones. I think if any soda remnants are left behind it can become pretty corrosive.
Cheers
SB
 
Paddy said:
I agree with Dellorto man. its like £80 for a good rear tire when you can get good used for £20 or the price of petrol when used chip fat is far cheaper. I knew a man once who had some chrome plating done when he already had a can of silver paint !!!
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Hi Paddy. I appreciate the humour of your post, but it implies that a low-cost solution is a foolish choice when there's a more expensive option available.

Specifically, you appear to express the opinion that hi-temp caliper paint is a worthless bodge simply because it's cheaper than alternative coatings like powder coat, Ceracote or anodising.

I disagree. Price is not necessarily an indicator of suitability. For instance, powder coat is usually more costly than paint, but (for a number of reasons I've stated before on this forum) I think it's an inferior coating to paint on pretty much any motorcycle component. As for anodising, people here have expressed dissatisfaction with having calipers re-anodised and are looking for an alternative. I don't know much about Ceracote, except that it's costly.

In my experience, when applied properly (as with any surface finish, good preparation is the key to success), caliper paint is a practical, reliable and durable finish that looks pretty good, although I've only used black. I don't know if the gold caliper paint is a reasonable duplication of Brembo gold.

Best of all, painting is something you can do yourself at home. What have you got to lose by trying it? If you're not happy with the result, strip it off and try again. Many owners of old bikes like to do their own repairs and maintenance. This forum helps them to tackle jobs that they might otherwise be reluctant to try. I'm just offering a simple home workshop solution that might satisfy this particular need.

If the available colours or finish of caliper paint aren't to your liking, then feel free to spend silly amounts of money on an alternative that may not be any better.

All of the other coatings mentioned require specialist application (that's why they cost 10 times as much). But if you're not happy with the finish, you've not only emptied your wallet, but you could end up having a dispute with the guy who did the job, which is never a pleasant way to spend your time.

Cheers,
Cam
 
breganzane said:
Hi Paul,
Brembos come up beautifully with soda blasting, it doesn't harm the finish. It will be cleaned of all contaminants and as good as the underlying anodising finish will allow it to be. I just use a little air boy handheld gun and they come up great. If the anodising is already damaged / degraded then you will end up with lovely clean and fresh damaged/degraded finish.
Wash thoroughly after with a dash of vinegar to neutralise and make sure to thoroughly wash and blow out all blind ones. I think if any soda remnants are left behind it can become pretty corrosive.
Cheers
SB
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thanks, Steve!! I will pick up some soda and give it a go. I have the necessary equipment, other than somewhere to actually do the blasting. My last house I had a long wide heavily gravelled dog run beside the house that I used to blast soda in, the left over soda seemed to just kind of get absorbed into the gravel...... Don't really have anywhere to do it outside in my current downsized home and small garage, but I will figure something out.
 
Cam, I painted the three black calipers on my 1978 Kawasaki KZ 650 when I first rebuilt the bike 12 years ago. I took the calipers apart, ran them in the ultrasonic in a degreaser type solvent, further cleaned them up with paint thinner, then used VHT caliper paint". I let the colour coat dry, then used the VHT clear caot. I then heated them in the kitchen oven at 200 F for an hour or so. Then I let them sit another 24 hours just to be sure, then put them back together with full rebuild kits and new pads. They have held up perfectly, no chipping or fading. The caliper paint was/is a really good match for the original finish on those particular late 1970's Kawasaki brake calipers.


For the calipers on the Guzzi project, in addition to the seemingly very high local ot me cost of Cerakote or powder coat, the real issue is trying to colour match the stock Brembo gold. I did briefly think about doing them a non standard black or grey, but this project is about the mechanics not the cosmetics, and so far I have restrained myself from my usual bare frame/bare engine cases approach. To test the colour match of the VHT caliper paint gold I guess I would have to buy a can and test it, too difficult to assess the VHT gold from a computer monitor. If I could get a good colour match from VHT I would happily paint the Guzzi Brembo calipers, this is not a rivet counters concours restoration by any means.....
 
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