Does anyone have a photo of the brake caliper showing the position of the retaining clip? I just removed all 4 of the wire clips to paint the calipers, and it seemed too easy to reinstall them. I think that I might have put them back on incorrectly - does someone have a photo of the caliper showing the correctly installed clip so I can be sure I did it right?

Thanks in advance!

 

I've got pictures of mine but it's an R56. I don't know if they have similar brakes or not.

 

Here you go.

Front


Rear

 

OK, I guess it WAS as easy as I thought - that looks just like what I'm seeing. Thanks so much!

 

You're Welcome!

 

Matt, pictures of yours? What color did you paint them? Inquiring minds want to know

 

very nice work. I painted my front ones last year.

 

Purple Haze FTW.

 

"Jimi Hendrix Calipers"

 

I went red - they look faaaaaaaabulous against the deep purple through the web spokes. No pics today because of the gray - I'll shoot some when it's sunny.

 

Here you go:

 

Glad you took a picture to remember them in all their red glory. Those stock pads will turn them black by the weekend. They do look nice Matt.

 

What kind of paint did you use, since I am considering this too.

Why don't my unpainted ones not look black from dust, but everyone says they will be covered when they are painted.

Besides dirty painted ones will still look better in my book than dirty unpainted corroding ones.

 

I think it's mostly because we look at painted ones, making us notice the brake dust & we just ignore the unpainted ones. I use Hawk ceramic pads & IMO they are darned near the cure for brake dust woes.

 

Hey your Calipers look great!

I bought the caliper paint kit -and have always been afraid to take calipers off the rotor.
It's a long story, a friend needed brakes and a friend and I thought we could help her.

It was a "long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away" Thank God.

However the experience, or the lack there of, has kept me from taking brakes- drums, calipers,etc ...apart since.

Can anyone help?

I have the paint kit, I want to try...can someone walk through the process of pulling the caliper off the rotor and pulling the pads out of the caliper, which from the pics I have seen, you have done for the paint,

Thank you all in advance for your help.

 

You can paint MINI brakes just fine without removing the calipers. You just need to remove the springs. Read this.

 

Thank you!

Nice paint job by the way.

 

I only removed the spring clips and painted mine on the rotor as well. I bought the "dupi-color" caliper brake kit. I also bought some brake cleaner and a little wire brush for prep work. I also used painters blue tape for masking off.

 

Does anyone have any great tips on how to get the springs back on easily and without scratching the fresh calipers?

Thanks for any help!

 

use a pair of pliers to "straighten" the leg of the spring as you're inserting it in the hole... and to maneuver it so it ONLY touches the hole... kinda like playing "Operation"... I'm trying to remember, I may have actually used TWO pairs of pliers, one on each leg, to keep the second side from scratch the caliper while I was putting the first side in...

 

I painted my calipers black. brake dust? What Brake Dust?

 

Luv your Ate rotors - about to install mine right now.

 

Can you tell me more about the rotors?

Blimey -will you have the "how to" on your Blog?

 

Ate made the OEM calipers on my R52... may have made the rotors too, I dunno... Anyway these PremiumOne Slotted Rotors are a bit nicer than the OEM rotors... and attractively priced. Actually looks like vdubdoug only has the fronts.



Lots of other write-ups on brake jobs on NAM and elsewhere - I'll post a bit about them on my blog but I'm not doing a full how-to.

 

and I only have the rears!
My rears went bad before the fronts, so I waiting.