brakes '68 original caliper colour?

[Slackey]

Hello,

I have a sticky piston in my left front caliper so it is time to rebuild them. At present they are finished in black grime and rust but what would they have looked like from the factory? Thanks,

[tjones02]

Originally Gold Cadmium plated. But today with environmental laws as they are we use Yellow Zinc plating....

That's the pile of plated parts that went into this '74 2002 Turbo a few months back... That we at Casey Motorsports built for Alvin Tan

http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt260/742002turbo/?start=220

Here's the calipers done and in the car....

HTH

[Delia]

Brake calipers, as well as all other chassis hardware (including nuts, bolts) were likely to have been given a quick silver zinc plating. It's not an expensive process and cuts down on corrosion.

And, given the lack of attention to rust prevention by BMW in the late 60s/early seventies, it's logical to expect the least expensive of the two.

It is possible, however, some of the pieces like trunk and door latch mechanisms received a more durable, silver cadmium treatment.

And, while it is often seen on restored cars of the 1970s, gold cadmium plating was never used on original factory parts.

Yellow zinc is not a proper substitute, either. They are supposed to be silver...or at least *some* version of silver.

I get a little bit irked when I see these gilded components flashing about under an old 2002...it looks like some sort of Baroque toaster oven.

Delia

[eastsidebimmer]

I just got new ones on my 71 1600 and since they were only $55 each (dual line, not the ones for you, sorry) I painted them black with caliper paint to keep them from rusting too bad, the color was not that important to me.

I think canary yellow would look ab-fab on your car.

-=Ben

[Slackey]

I'd like to go for stock look but would be willing to paint them if the colour at least resembled the original i.e. silver or gold. It would seem as though they would have been silver, however, i live at the Great British seaside and i know if i forked out for the plating they would look like rusty crap in about 38 seconds anyway so needs must and weather permitting i may go ahead and paint them. If Delia is correct then silver it will be. Thanks,

[tjones02]

As much as there was some over plating on Alvin's Turbo. The original color of the his calipers before we took them apart for re-plating was gold/yellow. May of the other plated brackets and such including all of the original under car hardware was gold/yellow. Though all a bit lighter in shade than how the yellow zinc came out.

Many know, including Alvin that if I had the choice I would have recommended preserving and repairing that car rather than the restoration that it received. The customer gets what the customer wants. As it was delivered it was the cleanest unrestored 2002 Turbo that Sean and I have ever seen. Sean is the head of the 2002 Turbo registry in the US. We documented as much of the original car as we could before we disassembled it for the bodyshop. Though original it did desperately need a respray of the exterior, engine bay and a full motor rebuild.

All of the hundreds of original California '02s I have worked on and the thousands of them I have seen since I was too young to remember, virgin California cars had remnants of gold/yellow plating on their calipers. ATE calipers of other German cars like Mercedes and Porsche from the same period were gold/yellow too. My parents bought a '72 2002tii new and I was handing my father wrenches and helping him work on it since I was old enough to reach the toolbox. My parents joined the BMW Club when I was only 3 in '77. I have been to more Club events and shows than any child ought to. So, I guess one could say that I have been studying/working on '02s and BMWs my entire life. BTW their Tii's original calipers are gold/yellow.

I have seen aftermarket rebuilt calipers come in many colors though. Black, bare un coated metal, yellow zinc, gold paint (that washes off at the mere HINT of contact with brake fluid) etc. All the new and NOS replacement ATE calipers I have ever seen are gold/yellow.

Picture of NOS 2 piston ATE calipers from Michael Cahsel http://www.bmw02.de

A factory BMW picture found on Walloth and Nesch. Though exaggerated for a publicity photo, they represent them as gold. http://www.wallothnesch.com/

A picture of one of my NOS 2002 Turbo front brake calipers... Though not nearly as gold/yellow as I remembered; it is definitely not silver in color. With a little corrosive brake dust and a few heat cycles I can easily see these fading more to silver than gold. They definitely have a lighter wash of plating than he heavy gold/yellow that is so often seen on restored cars. But do have that typical rainbow gold cad look to them.

So for what factual evidence I can come up with. BMW and ATE appear to represent the front brake calipers as more gold/yellow than pure silver.

Now, sending just one dissembled set of front brake calipers out to be plated is rather expensive. In fact sending just one car's worth of hardware to be plated is still expensive. We sent out more than two cars worth of parts to be plated at once. That brought the per part cost down to way reasonable. Almost less than simply buying the nuts and bolts new.

These days a normal thing to do is to paint brake calipers. There are kits available at the local auto parts stores. If I were to choose between silver and gold I would choose silver as the gold hues most of the kits use are way to bling gold for my tastes. For a track car though I would choose black as it dissipates heat better. If I were younger I would have to paint them red, yellow or blue.

If time and budget were better and the customer wanted, Sean and I would be much more detailed in our pursuit of perfection in restoring either one of our own or a customers' car. As it was we only had one week to assemble the car for it's debut. Three of us spent over 80 hours each on that car that week. If 2002's even Turbos were worth as much as Ferraris or other marques, more of our customers' budgets would allow us to do more exacting work.

NOW, as for the earlier '02s like my '66 and '67 1600-2s. The intake manifold nuts and wave washers are black in color. Not the yellow zinc or silver zinc of the later '02s. I have seen original cars as new as early '71 with the black colored engine hardware. The wave washers are also of a larger outside diameter than the normal modern replacements.

The original front calipers on my 90K mile '66 1600-2 had traces of gold/yellow plating on them when I turned them in as cores for rebuilt ones. I have records for that car dating back to 1973 and there are no invoices for front calipers.

I too like under restored or preserved original cars over the over plated polished concours trailer queens that frequent the shows. I think the preservation class at Pebble Beach is one of the best ideas in the long history of that concours. Happily the trend of over restoration is ending. On the other hand I respect the Muscle car crowd for their NEW "date coded" parts like hoses, belts and perfect over spray and paint drips on the cars they restore. Even though the idea of waking up some elderly person from their retirement home and getting them to redo the paint marks on the firewall of some restored Corvette just because it was their shift on the assembly line that fateful day is atrocious. Cars are only truly original once. If Alvin's car were preserved rather than restored it would have been a great candidate for the preservation class in another 20 years or so. If it were were an equivalent Hemi Mopar it would have one of the barn finds of the decade and written up in the next "Cobra in the Barn" book..... If I had had $10K stashed away It would have been mine for the eBay "Buy It Now" that Alvin originally paid.

Hope This Helps and Hope I didn't bore anyone with my standing on the soap box for a turn.

[cj]

Geeez Tom- What did I tell you?

Can you sing your reply?

Cris

[visionaut]

Awesome reply, Tom. Thanks for the great info.

Tom

[Slackey]

cheers Tom,

I will strip my calipers and see what remains underneath. Maybe gold maybe silver. I will keep you posted. You are right about the black harward on the early 02's. Lots of my nuts and bolts are black.

[Conserv]

Updating an older, and useful, thread -

Recognizing that a suspension shown in a factory-produced sales brochure may differ from the suspension on a typical assembly-line car, BMW chose nonetheless to illustrate a dramatically-gold, cadmium-plated set of calipers in its 1974 U.S. 2002 sales brochure.

Steve

[jgerock]

Just like the amazing shiny finish on some of these tii parts. Advertising folks want flashy stuff to show off their goods. Dull parts don't stand out too well. Look at all the fancy detailed cutaway displays at car shows.

Same engine?