I was stumbling through a junkyard and naturally found myself in the Mini section. Out of the four Minis there, thankfully only one of them was an R53 (all ways hurts to see them there). It was very picked over, with almost all of the interior being gone and most of the easy to get to parts under the hood being taken. The red brake calipers on the car caught my eyes, and upon further inspection, the car was actually a JCW. They’re insanely rare where I live, and despite being an automatic and completely totaled, it was still cool to see one. Unfortunately the only JCW parts left on it were the exhaust, head, and calipers. I knew that I wanted the calipers, and picked them up for $100 for the set (with brackets).



Obviously, the junkyard hadn’t done these calipers well. The first step was sand blasting them… I attempted to do them in the cabinet I have at home, but it was just too slow of a process. I gave them to a friend, and he had them blasted at his work.


I knew that I didn’t want to rattle can them, and I really wanted an excuse to buy a powder coater… I had an old oven laying around that I put on casters that I could simply roll into the garage, plug into my 220 line, and bake the parts in. The Eastwood powder coating system that I bought had the ability to do two coats. This gave me the ability to use a zinc infused corrosion resistant primer, and then run my color over that. I chose a blue that went well with my lapis blue interior on my 2002 R53.


After all of the powder coating was done, I had to put new guts into the calipers and brackets. A company called Frentech offers a kit that comes with a new piston and seal, piston boot, bleeders, slide pins and boots, hardware, and grease for said parts (basically everything except the castings). All of these parts fit perfectly and seem to be very trustworthy. Since I’m installing these on my non JCW Mini (that was in need of new brakes anyways), I decided to order a full set of JCW rotors and pads from Brembo. Also because my R53 is 20 years old and has 20 year brake lines on it, I decided to upgrade to a set of braided lines from a company called Ireland Engineering. Theyoffer the lines for early and late r53’s, and are works of art (they check all of the boxes that braided lines should check). DONT CHEAP OUT ON BRAIDED LINES!!! A cheap set of braided lines can be more dangerous than your dry rotted rubber ones.


Lastly, I had to stick on the pretty JCW decals that the calipers once wore. They were then cleared over with a high-heat/automotive clear coat. I’m confident in saying that the finish on these calipers is better than factory! And despite all of the gadgets and rebuild parts and decals that I had to buy, it was still cheaper than buying new R53 JCW calipers and brackets (around $500 a pop).


I eventually went back and took the JCW head off of the engine. Given what they charged me for the calipers, I knew it’d be a steal. Unfortunately someone had swiped the sought after JCW injectors, and it let water into the engine doing a real number on the head. I still tried to buy it with hopes of getting it resurfaced and the seats re-cut. To my surprise, they wanted $100 for the head despite its atrocious condition. The gentleman who ran the yard himself told me that it was “fvcked”, and that at the price he was charging, it wasn’t worth getting resurfaced (buddy talked himself out of a sale). I would’ve happily paid a fair price for it (essentially scrap value), but he wouldn’t budge. Ya win some and ya loose some. As for the JCW exhaust, well the car was sunk into the ground making it pretty much impossible to get off. Anyways, if anyone ever has any questions about rebuilding these calipers, I’d be happy to answer them. Happy motoring!!!

Caliper Rebuild kit: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333288699...sAAOSwRl1eQoD-

Brembo Pad & Rotor kit: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154827435537

Braided Lines: https://www.iemotorsport.com/product...d-mini-cooper/

 

^^^ Great score with detailed write up!

 

Great work! I just rebuilt the original calipers on my R53. Painted them a similar color to yours using POR-15 paint. For now, I wanted to keep the stock brakes -- maybe someday I'll go the R56 upgrade route.

 

NICE! Love the color you chose!

 

Sell me your calipers, I hate my red ones lol. Nice work!

 

Hey, great job! I’m rebuilding a set of r56s calipers (poor man jcw upgrade) too, and im doubting myself at a couple of points. I luckily stumbled across your post and was surprised at how recent it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

#1 the caliper guide/slide pins (four total), two are just steel, and two have a rubber bushing at the lower inch of the pin. Which is the top pin, and which is the bottom?

#2 when installing new caliper piston (rubber) boots do i just slide the rubber boot around the piston and into the groove, and then push the piston into the cylinder? or do i do what i have seen online; slide the rubber boot over and to the bottom of the piston and then force it into the cylinder?

i hope that makes sense.

-Mac

 

So as far as the slide pins go on r56 front calipers, they should all be the same… a metal pin with a “nut” on the end and then right on top of the “nut” is the folding rubber sleeve. I may be missing something but I’m %99 sure that they should be the same.

The boots on the pistons can be tricky, but I founds that if you slide the boot on the very end of the piston (the end without the groove for the boot), and then put the boot that’s still presumably hanging off of the piston into the caliper bore, with a good push the piston will slide in. Once the piston is pushed in all of the way, the boot will naturally seat on the groove on the piston.

If I miss understood the pin thing, pictures would help greatly 👍

 

Cool im pretty sure i understand the instructions for the piston boot. i was definitely doing it wrong. As for the pins, the used r56 calipers i received cane with a total of four pins; two are just steel, and two have the rubber bushing at the end (see picture attached). Does it matter which i install at the “top” or “bottom” of the caliper?

 

Love the blue! Reminds me of the color of my brakes on the daily.

 

I looked at a pair that I have on the shelf and if everything is installed as from the factory then the pins with the rubber sleeve are on the top.

 

wow thanks for checking that. I already installed my pins opposite of that lol. So far no issue. Now if I can just solve this exhaust leak.

 

Seems like Honda calipers I have serviced have them in the lower pin, so maybe it doesn't matter.

 

right on. yeah, i dont think it matters either.