So I just got my front and rear GT calipers for my conversion and I wanna clean the hell out of 'em.
Would you all recommend sand blasting them or going to town with a wire brush and brake cleaner? I realize that I'd have to get new seals if I blasted them, but with how nasty they look I'll be doing that anyway for peace-of-mind. I have easy access to a blaster at my work.

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I've seen people take a dremmel tool with the sander attachments and it works perfectly fine.

yesterday I got a durable baggie from the kitchen, placed the screws and small parts in them and sprayed brake cleaner in there and swished it around. I then took it out and wiped it all down with a cloth and used a wire brush. for the actual calipers im going to use the brake cleaner, and some sandpaper. and hand hand sand them. i wish there was an easy way to get pics on here. I can put the pics of what I cleaned yesterday on Facebook 6gc if you want. they were SUPER dirty and came out SUPER clean

If i had access to a media blaster (im going to assume your referring to a glove box and not a full booth) id use that. At home i clean most my parts up with a wire wheel....depending on what it is. Its quick and pretty much pain free.

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Yeah, it's a glove box. It's so convenient - I blasted my bike frame in there before painting it. So I'll I'd really have to worry about is removing the bleed fittings, masking off threads and the pistons, correct (I'm replacing all seals and rings, regardless)?

I mask all the rubber parts and avoid blasting in tthose areas

For at home the best you can do is to wash with chemicals like wheel cleaner (Meguirs HotRimz works very well), spray them down with cleaner and let it sit for a couple minutes to work, then scrub down with a stiff nylon brush. This will remove all the loose dirt and grease and give you a good base to work with. I would suggest only lightly wire brushing stock calipers as they come with a pretty thick coating from the factory that stops rusting and you want to retain that. All you want to do is remove any loose dirt, not strip to bare metal. You can use a file to knock down any high points and left over casting roughness. Follow the directions on the caliper paint for painting and then curing the paint. You may want to bake the calipers in the oven to accelerate the curing of the paint so that when you bleed the brakes any spilled brake fluid won't damage the uncured paint. You can also attach a rubber tube to the bleeder nipple to help get the fluid away from your fresh paint job.


Other more caustic cleaners can be used beyond wheel cleaners like some acids but only use those outdoors, with proper gloves and goggles and be sure you can dispose of the left over correctly (such as do not pour it down your drain, it could explode in your face).

This post has been edited by Bitter: Apr 11, 2015 - 9:23 AM

Use scrubbing bubbles foaming shower cleaner, and a wire brush. Any seals will be fine if you don't scrub them with the wire brush lol