RE: [DML] brake caliper painting

["John Hervey" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy, 
Naturally Rob is a friend and yes he has the years on me. But I also have
been rebuilding brake calipers for a long time and have worked with some one
who has rebuilding for 30 + years. I'm not trying to compete for you
business but Rob brought it up. 
I just rebuilt a set of Rob's plated calipers and that's all I'm going to
say about that. But the facts are I don't mold my own seals for the
calipers. They are factory made by another company. I naturally bead blast
my own calipers, hone the piston holds and clean / turn the plated pistons
that are not pitted with a 400 grit aluminum oxide pistons on my lathe. I
replace ant pistons that need be. 
Factory Zinc Plating is about is about 0.002 thick be it zinc or cad and if
you see the quantity I do you can see it doesn't hold up very long. Unless
they have oil or leaking brake fluid on them they are all rusted right thru
the plating. It just doesn't last long. The process I use as I'm told by the
professionals with the acid etching primer applied thick and the pure 316
stainless steel paint is about 10 times thicker than plating. Who will last
longer I don't know but I'm told by people in the business that rebuild
calipers by the 100's say my system may even hold up better to damage
because it 's so much thicker.
I also have pure 316 pistons if you want to pay $30.00 ea and I have Zinc
plated calipers and I can Cad plat also if people want to pay the price.
It's all in the money. They look nice for something you can't see and all
you want to function for a long time. We build a quality product for the
money and have found them to be very durable without having to take out a
loan.
John
www.deloreanautoparts.com

  
     

-----Original Message-----
From: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
rob@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 10:22 AM
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [DML] brake caliper painting

Andy,

 

Cadmium plating (superior to Zinc) makes the caliper look better longer but
the real advantage comes from the fact that the piston bore is re-plated at
the same time. We only use re-plated calipers in our shop and feel that
painting is basically a waste of time unless you're going to powder-coat
them which adds significantly to the cost and is strictly for a better and
longer lasting appearance. The other things that contribute to longevity are
stainless pistons and the use of Girling OEM seals and new bleeder screws.
Rubber compounding is a surprisingly complex technology and the original
Girling seals almost never crack or fail on Delorean's. These calipers
always seem to fail from lack of fluid flushes and the absorption of water
over time. This causes the fluid to "varnish" the bore and eventually to
corrode the chrome on the original pistons and subsequent binding of the
caliper. We offer cadmium plated calipers with stainless pistons and Girling
rubber for about the same cost as John (He has someone make his rubber
seals) but feel more comfortable with OEM rubber parts. We have been
rebuilding them, in house, for over fifteen years and I don't recall a
single failure. You won't "have to mess with them for a long time".
Shameless plug I know but I just can't resist. I'm proud of the quality of
our calipers and actually enjoy rebuilding them. Strange but true :).

 

Rob Grady,

 

P.J.Grady Inc. 

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