Clean and polish disc calipers

[cinquecento]

What's the best way of cleaning and polishing front disc calipers.?

I have removed the the brown rust/discolouration with a wire rush and a small wire wheel with a Dremel... and can see patches of silver metal .. however I'd really like to make them shine.

Outside the easy option of painting them silver is there a another way. Metal polish??

I did see a set at the growl that where zinc coated and looked great..maybe an option too.

[yellowgriff]

You can get them Zinc coated by Dipping or zinc paint. (aerosol)....

[MisterT]

Lindsay
I think they may have been mine that you refer to at the Griff Growl.

I suspect the shiny bits you have revealed from under the dirt are the remains of zinc plating from the factory, if you polish that off they wil go rusty very quickly.

What i had done during a full body off chassis overhaul was to completely dismantle the calipers, seals and all then Derby Plating zinc plated them. There were two options; bright zinc plate which is silver when finished; or a chromate finish over the zinc plate (I'm not sure of the chemistry etc but any good electro plater will know) and this provides a yellow/gold appearance and apparently helps the zinc maintain its bright appearance.

Cadmium plate and chromate finish is even better if you can find a place to get it done these days, but nowhere in the UK is allowed to do it anymore (not on car components anyway, aerospace only!). I had cadmium plate done on my old TR6 back in the mid '90s and it still looked good last time I saw the old girl a few years later. I think you can get it done in the USA but dont know about Australia.

[MisterT]

Just found my pics of the job in progress, the upright and top ball joint mount have also been zinc plated, the EBC disc comes zinc plated from the factory. For the eagle eyed this is a Granada Scorpio Cosworth caliper with 283mm disc.