blasting of calipers

[Jaswan]

Hi

i have a set of calipers i am wanting to use on the rear of my car, i am going to buy a servicing kit for them (new piston and seals etc)

a mate has blasted a few bits and pieces for me in the past and i was thinking of stripping the calipers and carriers down and getting him to run them through the blasting machine (he says its a conveyor/automatic type)

is this likely to cause any damage to where the seals/piston fits or is this a similar process to what caliper refurb places do?

Cheers

Jase.

[AndyP]

Sounds like an industrial set up that will probabley be using something like chilled iron grit as the media, this might be too harsh for the aluminium calipers. If you do try it, I'd put an aluminium test piece through first to see how much it shreds it!

If it were me I'd chemically strip the paint, then wet blast them to clean up any corrosion

[pasbogdan]

Leave the old piston/seals inside.Or get a rubber to seal the bore.

[Wrath]

Or blast it with glass

[Thuppu]

We have metal grit blasters at work, and they are really harsh on aluminium. And yes, you need to protect all threaded holes and the piston cylinders other wise they get destroyed. Glass blasting is really nice, leavs a nice and smooth matte finish, I would recommend glass.

[Jaswan]

Cheers for the replies, and for the pics Thuppu.

i am going to look around for a local blasting specialist to see about glass blasting for the alloy parts i need doing.

Jase.

[K Simmonds]

If it were me I'd chemically strip the paint, then wet blast them to clean up any corrosion

Me too, I wouldn't use any sort of solid media blasting on alloy callipers as you risk stripping off the hard anodising under the paint making the surface become porous.

[steve briance]

Vapour blasting is really good.
It was a revelation for me a few years back now - had an intake manifold and other under bonnet bits done. They look like new and because of what the process does to the surface, they stayed looking new! Very impressed and if I'm not painting alu' bits - from now on they get vapour blasted.

[Rikki Kitto]

JP is ya man for blasting look him up on here
Here's a throttle body he just did for me

[Nick320]

Good to know all this. I just bought a set that needs blasting.