AP Brake Caliper Refurb
 

For those of you thinking about getting your AP's refurbed, this might be of interest.

The red paint on mine had faded and chipped badly and some of the pistons had started to stick, so it was time to get them sorted.

Unfortunately AP aren't interested in servicing let alone refurbing calipers so I searched the Web and came across quite a few companies offering caliper refurbs. Reading some of the horror stories on various forums and social media sites however, it become all too evident that finding a reliable company wasn't going to be an easy task.

After eventually reading good reports on Rennlist about Jonny at Brakecaliperrefurbs.com, I took the plunge. He claimed to be able to provide a full caliper rebuild, new pistons and sealing kits if necessary, and had perfected transfers for the recessed AP Racing logos. Other companies only offered careful hand painting of the logo or skimming the caliper face flat then adding transfers; neither solution appealed to me.

Furthermore, they offered a ceramic coating to the caliper paint which is claimed to provide up to five years protection making it harder for brake dust to adhere to and much easier to clean. Time will tell.

As long as you give Jonny a paint code he'll paint your calipers any colour you want. I fancied a change and went for Ferrari Giallo Modena Yellow, PPG code 84028 with black AP text.

After receiving and assessing my calipers, the bleed nipples had seized on some and required spark eroding and re-threading, which added about £80 to the cost. The pistons were all fine but seals and bleed nipples needed replacing so some more cost there too (£100). All pins, springs and metal inserts are vapour blasted and plated as standard.

Mine took five weeks in the end which was frustrating but it was well worth the wait. The quality of workmanship is superb. They look better than new IMO and at just shy of £700 for four calipers, whilst by no means cheap, is much cheaper than buying a new set. They're finally back on the car and I think with SG paintwork I'm preferring the yellow to the red.....

Iirc Godspeed are much cheaper, and quicker too.

But yours look great, I like the yellow.

Yep, did look at Godspeed but there was a lack of example work to review on their website or reviews of their work on other sites. They may well be great.

I think the cost differential between Brakecaliperrefurbs and others was mainly down to remedial work, bleed nipple seizure which meant they had to be sent to an engineering company, and AP seal kits. It was an expensive refurb, more than I expected, but I have to say the quality of the work exceeded my expectations and the finish is far better than other refurbs I've had in the past. You pays your money (and you takes your choice) and all that...

Very nice - yellow looks great :thumbs:

Looks a great job. Just very expensive for what is a couple of hrs labour plus painting.

They look great :smt023

Note: The front PF discs look to be installed in the opposite direction.
I would replace them ASAP as the cooling will not work.

Looking good otherwise.

Yikes! you're right Alex, thx for pointing that out!

They do look nice in that colour shame they sprayed the brake pipes :thumbs:

Godspeed did mine the same and all you fuckers said they looked a twat yellow ...

They look like a good job :beer:

If the cap fits:blalalala:

all that money and they couldn't be bothered to remove the balance tubes......

Indeed, I had meant to tell them to do that, they've removed them from other AP's looking at example refurbs on their website. In any event, I quite like them painted same colour as caliper, provided they don't flake of course, but I agree, they should have removed them as standard.

As for cost, fronts were £250 and rears £220. That included ceramic coating the paint, all tin work (exc. balance tubes!) vapour blasted and plated and AP decals that actually fit the recessed writing. That was only marginally more than other quotes I received, which didn't include the tin work and ceramic coating or as good a solution for the AP text. I personally don't think thats expensive, especially given the quality of the finish..

The additional costs were 4 x AP seal kits at £118 and £85 for an engineering firm to remove 2 x seized and snapped bleed nipples and re-thread the holes. If other outfits can do all of the above for less money to the same standard, I'd be keen to know where for next time? Just thought it would be useful to post this given the lack of recommendations on here.

Looks good, thanks for recommendation. I'm sure others will find it useful. :thumbs:

I’d quite like to get my black APs refurbished, they have faded quite a bit although still work perfectly with even pad wear. Front and rear.

Who is best to use these days and what would it cost? I’d like a finish that can take some heat (if the car ever goes back out on track...), to look as close as possible to the original colours. Black caliper, yellow writing. I’d like them to look as new but not sure how people remove the light surface corrosion on the bolts etc (most seem to get painted).

They have never been done before so guessing some seals may need doing. That said, the car has always been garaged and the calipers haven’t done massive mileage.

Thoughts? Some of the figures quoted in this thread sound a bit on the strong side (although the calipers look good).