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.

 

Resurrecting an old thread here. I was curious for anyone that has done the restoration, what clear did you use over the logos?

I’m in the process of restoring my JCW calipers now in a prismatic silver grey (body color). They are off to powder, and I’d like to put a logo back. I’m not confident that the PET sticker won’t shrink or the colors bleed if I put it under a low temp clear powder.

Meaning I have 4 options.
1)sticker logo with no clear
2)high temp clear over the sticker (VHT or similar rattle can) and prey it doesnt yellow or chip
3) gamble with the 170’C low temp clear doesnt exceed the 180’C threshold of PET and mess it up
4) no logo, leave the caliper powder only

Would appreciate thoughts/guidance.

 

I didn’t add a sticker to my calipers, so don’t think I can help you with the options. But if I did I don’t think I would clear coat them.

I just cleaned my calipers up a bit, “rebuilt” them, and installed with ebc red pads. I may sand blast and powder coat them in the future if I have my car resprayed though.

 

They are looking tired. I guess TRW just silkscreened the logo over the powdercoat since I have seen others with this issue. Plus, there are so many rock chips on them, I am fine with replacing the pistons, boots and lines and just rebuilding them. So I will give them a fresh coat of powder. It was not a cheap upgrade so far. I guess I could just add a sticker and see how it holds up, but once they are on, I don’t have the patience to replace the sticker and clear them. So after powder is my only shot. I’m sure they will look mint, I’d hate to put on a high temp clear that doesnt age well. I can however put black vinyl under the clear powdercoat, just not as detailed as this JCW logo. Probably just MINI letters.

Since I have fronts only to do, I planned on doing the dark silver to match my body color behind matte black r98s.

 

I refurbished some about a year and a half ago, powder coated, high temp stickers from ebay, no clearcoat.
They still look brand new after a year, I don't use a power washer or anything though so I cannot speak to that.
The no clear coat for me was a just in case I ever wanted to redo the stickers I could clean them off and slap a new one on without stripping.

 

Thanks for the reply! I always try for perfection, which I’d normally equate with the full Monty, but that looks great. I think I’ll do the same. glad to see it’s not marred by rocks and the brake dust didn’t discolour the sticker.


After rebuilding and recoating them, I’m more concerned about ruining it on the final step by adding a rattle can of 2k clear over it. Once they are installed, I won’t pay to redo the job if the clear flakes or yellows, I’d just be miserable. Maybe the clear makes it look 5% better but not worth the risk. I hand wash my car and rinse, no power washer.

 

Restoration complete, minus the JCW stickers in the mail. I replaced the pistons and screws. I also got stainless steel lines. Is it worth replacing the brake hoses??

If so, OEM seems pricey, as usual. Is raysbestos good quality? I’m assuming there is 1 hose spec for all calipers, I haven’t seen anything else.

 

I replaced the old rubber lines with the stainless braided on all four corners when I refreshed mine if that’s what you mean, I think it was $100 for the whole set of front and back. I figured if I was in there and adding a bunch of air to the system already I might as well do it so I’m not back later, I can’t tell you if there is any pedal feel difference for me, but 20 year old rubber might bulge a tiny bit under brake pressure.

 

Thanks! I bought new sus brake lines, OEM is crazy expensive