V1 REAR CALIPERS PARKING BRAKE MECHANISM DIS-ASSEMBLY.

[bigred]

I'M WANTING TO HAVE MY REAR CALIPERS POWDERCOATED, IN ORDER TO DO THIS, I NEED TO DIS-ASSEMBLE THE PARKING BRAKE ASSEMBLY, HAS ANYONE ELSE DONE THIS YET??

 

[Zoom Zoom]

If these are the ones from the donor they want work on goblin

 

[Ross]

The new DF kits include the parking brake. They are from a Pontiac Solstice.
Powder coating bakes the parts to melt the powder onto the part, so generally rubber parts are removed before baking the metal parts.
So, does the parking brake part of the Solstice caliper have any rubber parts inside?
I don't know the answer, but if someone can find an exploded view of this caliper, it would help answer this question.
Part number 18-B5050 is the rear drivers side brake caliper for a 2006-09 Pontiac Solstice.
Part number 18-B5051 is the rear passenger side brake caliper for a 2006-09 Pontiac Solstice.

 

[bigred]

THESE ARE THE CALIPERS SUPPLIED BY DF, THERE IS A RUBBER SEAL DIRECTLY BEHIND THE CIRCLED PICTURE, I'VE GOTTON AS FAR AS PULLING THE PIN, AND IT APPEARS I NEED A SPECIAL TOOL TO REMOVE SOME SORT OF A SPRING METAL CLIP THAT SETS BEHIND THE PISTON

 

[jirwin]

FWIW I disassembled the main piston thing that does the actual braking, but left the parking brake alone. I sprayed with VHT caliper paint and baked in a craiglist propane oven I bought and it worked fine. Granted I kept the temp pretty low. Not sure what powdercoat bakes at.

 

[Ghostknife]

Powdercoating is usually around 400*. I have a feeling that the caliper gets pretty dang warm while hot lapping and that the seal would be ok.

 

[Scott #321]

Another thread on this:

Disassembling rear brake calipers for power coating.

Hey guys I am trying to take apart my rear calipers and having some trouble on what to do next. With the pictures attached, I remove the piston, seal and dust boot. I have never attempted a caliper with the parking brake integrated into it and don’t know what other seals need to be removed...

dfkitcar.com

I personally used VHT that matched my powdercoat on calipers but each has their own build which makes the Goblin unique.
FYI standard DOT3 right out of the bottle boils at 400 F and once its been in the vehicle for a few years to absorb moisture that temperature falls to around 285 F so I would imagine 400 F is the upper limit of the seals.

 

[Lonny]

We have had several sets powder coated without disassembling them and have had no issues. That's not to say that everyone will have the same experience.

I feel like there is a better chance of damaging the calipers and seals during disassembly and reassembly than heating them during powder coating.

 

[Zoom Zoom]

Mine were done by Lonny and no problem with them the one sticks sometimes but I don’t use the E- brake that often if I used it more I’m sure I would have wore down the powder coat that is making it stick. It only does it once in awhile.

 

[lksohm]

I powder coated my front calipers a few years ago but have left the rears bare for this reason. I will be doing some more coating soon and would like to try it with minimal disassembly. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[bigred]

thanks everyone for the input, i think i'm just gonna go ahead and have it powder coated just like it is. i'll post pictures afterwards,

 

[cetuttle]

We have had several sets powder coated without disassembling them and have had no issues. That's not to say that everyone will have the same experience.

I feel like there is a better chance of damaging the calipers and seals during disassembly and reassembly than heating them during powder coating.

did you remove the piston?

 

[bigred]

did you remove the piston?

yes, i removed the piston and seal with compressed air,

 

[williamwhite]

For anyone that is searching the 'parking brake disassembly' topic BEFORE making a run at it, DO NOT attempt to twist off the parking brake lever stop (blue circled portion of bigred's pic posted earlier). I did, and it took very little effort to ruin the brand new caliper by shearing it clean off.

My powder coater refused to coat my calipers with the pistons/seals in place, but we're willing to do it with the parking brake hardware still there. Otherwise, I wasn't going to disassemble anything.

I ended up purchasing a remanufactured caliper for powder, as the parking brake lever would no longer ratchet after the stop was gone.

I'm chalking this up to lessons learned on this project but hopefully this helps someone else avoid a mishap.

 

[newbtrying]

I’m about to dive into powder coating these myself and this thread was really helpful. I guess I’ll remove the seals/pistons with compressed air and leave the parking brake lever alone.

My question is did you sandblast this caliper before coating? Or just go over it as-is? I don’t want to damage the seal on the parking brake lever.

Also,did you remove these black (silicone I assume) guides? Or remove and reinstall them?

 

[williamwhite]

My powdercoater required sandblasting mine even though they were brand new. I removed the rubber components (slide bolt covers and piston seal) but didn't do anything with the parking break mishap I described above.

Also, the rear pistons should be "unscrewed" out, as compressed air won't work. Compressed air will work on the fronts though.

Lastly, make sure you tape off where the piston seals attach on the rear calipers. My coater only taped off the internal section and I had to sand the powder off to get them back on. See the pic.

 

[williamwhite]

I also had one of my calipers start leaking fluid through the parking brake lever. I wasn't able to figure out if it was the caliper I replaced or the one I broke the parking brake lever stop or whether it was related to sandblasting or powder. Could have easily been a fluke, but something to look out for after coating.

V1 - Rear caliper leaking from parking brake lever?

This is the first issue I've run into with my build that searching the forum did not yield anything. I'm pretty sure a replacement caliper is in the future, but I wanted to see if anyone else had run into this before. I went to bleed my brakes tonight. I hooked up my power bleeder and after...

dfkitcar.com

 

[bigred]

i do believe my calipers where sandblasted, i ended leaving the parking brake seal as is, and have had no issues with it leaking!
good luck!!