This is one of the jobs I’ve been putting off for some reason, perhaps because it will be a dirty one. At the same time, it’s also one of the last pieces of the whole front suspension that needs to be refinished and the sooner the calipers get done the sooner my MGB GT might have front tires again.
The calipers have minimal rust so I’m going to attempt to clean them with a wire wheel instead of media blasting them. The idea of blasting grit getting everywhere on calipers sounds kind of scary although I think that’s what people regularly do before painting.
I used compressed air to remove the pistons although in both cases one of the pistons came out easily while the other was a bit tougher to remove. This is one of those situations where perhaps I should have watched a few YouTube videos before proceeding!
I finally drilled some holes in the tight pistons so I had something to push on when removing them. This worked well but of course definitely ruined the pistons for further use. That’s not a problem as I bought new seals and pistons a few years ago when this long project started.
I’m not sure if new pistons or calipers were ever installed on the MGB while my father owned it. From all of the service records I have it appears not. This is what 50 years worth of rust and brake fluid look like.
Here’s another side with lots of grit, rust and some pretty ugly seals. Fortunately the sleeves are clean and appear to be in good shape.
What colour should I paint these? I’m thinking possibly gold, red (many Porsches have red calipers, maybe they’ll make the MGB faster) or boring black. Stay tuned!
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