850i brake upgrade part 1- lots o' pictures inside

[AllanS]

I ended up buying Bruno's 850 front brake setup a few weeks ago- I hadn't planned on messing with the brakes on the 535i since I have other projects that need attention, but I just couldn't resist. I also picked up a pair of rear calipers and carriers and hardware from a 540, from Vines automotive down in Alabama, as well as some rotors from that place in PA that someone on this booard mentioned.

Now, Bruno had painted the 850 calipers and carriers red. Besides the fact that I don't like flashy stuff like that, the red paint had started to burn and crack. Obviously, I had to repaint them, and I chose to go with the spray can route. I bought a pair of cans from VHT which are supposedly rated up to 900F, in semi gloss black. The stuff builds a nice hard (albeit, thin) layer of paint on the surface, which is definately a lot less resistant to scratching than the red 2 mixture paint that Bruno used, but hopefully it should hold up against heat better, since, um.... there's less paint to dissipate heat to. That's my theory at least, and I'm sticking to it.

The hard part was actually getting the old red paint off. I used a die grinder (25k rpm) and went through about 8 different wire brush wheels, which were utterly destroyed. The upside, was that it just ripped through the old paint, making it a pretty simple operation, and it didn't harm the surface of the metal. I then cleaned the carriers and calipers with lacquer thinner, taped off what needed taping, and started spraying. As of right now, 1 caliper is completely finished, 1 is 90% done, and the carriers are maybe halfway finished. The rear rotors should arrive by tomorrow, so the plan is to get this all hooked up by sunday.


A halfway finished caliper.


Another caliper shot.


Halfway done carriers.


Carrier with the old paint.


Partially stripped caliper.


Rear 540 calipers and carriers, waiting to be cleaned.

[Bruno]

Looking good...

True that red is flashy... but with big brakes like that I couldn't resist...
I should repaint my rear callipers black instead of red. I might do that when I install some 328 x 20 rotors at the back hehehe.

[AllanS]

So you're sticking with the 540 calipers in the back then?

[Bruno]

Yep. I am just going to modify the carriers so the M5 3.8 rear rotors fit...
That is going to be fun hehehe.

[AllanS]

Nice I was looking at Mov'it kits a while back, but Ultimate Garage stopped carrying them so there's really no place to get them. They were the only nice complete aftermarket kit that I could find, that was under 2500$.

[Bruno]

What about Ireland Engineering brake setup (selling them to UUC)

[AllanS]

You mean the PBRs? UUC doesn't sell those anymore, I don't think- all they have are the 4pots for the e36s and e46s now.

My take is, If I'm going to shell out over $2k for brakes, they'd better be 4 piston. I know that the old PBRs are supposed to be amazing, but I just can't see spending that much for them.