jmgtp

Getting around to some TLC on my 94 and would like to clean-up the seemingly never cleaned before brake calipers. I have C5 Z06 replica wheels and they don’t hide the brakes. The calipers look like there is 20 years of brake dust glued to them and the rotors are equally ugly in the non-contact patch.
Is there any on-vehicle option to clean the calipers? I did a complete brake fluid flush last year and would prefer not to remove the calipers and have to do that all over again. I don’t mind getting a little gritty with an old tooth brush but not sure if I’ll get acceptable results. What would you use to clean? Brake cleaner? Soap and water? Unicorn ****? Doesn’t need to be perfect but as it sits you wouldn’t even know the calipers are aluminum. As far as rotors, those come off easy enough. I was thinking of using a rust converter to effectively change the brownish rust color where the pads don’t touch to a flat black – will it hold up?

peyc2

I'm curious on this myself. Watching and learning.

hooked073

brake clean workd great you can also reach thru the spokes with a brush and get the tough spots. Also if you want you can get brush on caliper paint and the calipers and mounts thru the spokes. If you take your time no one will be able to tell untill the wheels are removedand they see the very back of the caliper

l98tpi

If you have brake dust baked onto the calipers you can clean as best you can with brake cleaner. But you would probably be happier painting the calipers. There are caliper painting kits that are brush on.

eutu1984

You could try a wire brush on a dremel motor tool, may be tedious. I soaked my rotors in the rust converting solution and 1 gallon was only good for two rotors, they looked good but rusted back over except where the pads contact. painting with header paint helped but not much.

jmgtp

My calipers are aluminum so it isnt a rust issue but rather a dirt issue. I'd rather not paint, but if I go that route and the caliper isn't clean of contaminants first (what I'm trying to accomplish in first place) won't the paint fail?

kimmer

Had that issue with the BB calipers I bought. Clean them the best you can and paint them.

Phat98

For the calipers I used some spray-on aluminum wheel cleaner (for coarse finish), let it set for a few minutes, then scrubbed them with a brass brush (similar to a toothbrush). They cleaned up very well, then shot them with some caliper paint - all this done while on the car. Also used the caliper paint to paint the rotor hat - the brake pads will take care of any overspray you get on the rotor.

92ragtop

I used a small wire wheel in my drill to get rid of the heavy stuff. Then BrakeKleen and a brush for the parts the wire wheel couldn't hit. This was for both the calipers and the rotor hats. Once that was all done, I used a silver brush-on caliper paint, Duplicolor I think.

jmgtp

Extending the scope of my cleaning. I have the rear spindles and trailing arms off for wheel bearing replacement as well as some bushings. They're equally if not more grimy than the brakes. I'm going to try to scrub them up with some scotch bright and soapy water in a plastic tub then since this weekend is warm out (40*) I'll power wash them. Not sure how well it will work but will take some before/after pics.

jmgtp

Here is some progress, I haven't got to the brakes yet but here is some of the suspension that I did. This is by no means a "polished finish" or anything like that. I just wanted the parts fairly clean and presentable and once again you can tell they are aluminum.

As a side note, the absolutely most effective method of cleaning was a large plastic tub of warm dish-soapy water and plain old steel wool. All done by hand and the grime comes off a lot faster than you would think. I tried pressure washing first and that was useless.

The first pic is a finished trailing arm vs one that had no cleaning done.


and finished parts:

eutu1984

There looking good, that's about how mine were when i did mine, i used an angle grinder with a soft wire brush. After i pressed all the bushings out i had lots of corrosion on the inside were the bushing were. i used a drill with a sanding drum to clean em up on the inside.

corvette Stu

Use caliper Covers and just hide everything plus you will get plenty of for using them.