[Nigelo]

Most of us on here will have looked at our rusty wheel hubs and our pitted, corroded, ugly calipers and decided that this simply wasn't to our liking. No matter what model you have, it comes to most of us.

Hubs are easy to sort - either paint them with a little hammerite or buy replacement 'coated' discs.

The calipers issue has further solutions:
a. Paint with caliper paint (easiest, cheapest, most common)
b. Buy a Big Brake Kit (Not cheap, potentially massive overkill!)
c. Stick on a chinese caliper cover (socially unacceptable, potentially
hazardous, fake!)

I have mine painted silver, but I still wasn't happy. Having a 335i, the 348mm discs and big calipers fill the space behind my 19" rims well and do the job great so I wasnt going to spend a £K or two on a BBK. So taking a bit of a lead from Audi, I've come up with a mini-project!

Looking at various audis, they use a larger than average antivibration clip with a logo'd plate on it to add a bit of asthetic to the brakes:



Im planning on doing something similar with some clips I bought:


...but cover more of the 'open' caliper area.

Here's a before and after imagining of how it might look!

Before


After (picked a GTS-ish colour scheme and fired on a wee logo - didnt have a plain BMW one handy!)



The spring clips seem well able to hold a little extra weight as they are v tightly clipped in and the additional metal plate that I'll add will be properly affixed by someone more able than me. Am I missing any obvious issues, or any C&Cs before I start my little project?

[mccoy]

I'd say you'll need to ensure the additional plates will have to be fixed to the clips in several locations so they are completely solid and as one unit. If not, you may get vibration issues.

Cooling should be ok I guess and not really an issue. Might be worth doing a few checks once fitted and if the brakes are getting too hot then simply revert to your old clips or maybe add some small vent holes on the face of the clip.

The only potential major problem I can think of is how to remove the clips when they're on if you have the plate covering them. You'll need to ensure you can pry them off from the inside of the caliper (where the disk goes) once you've removed the unit from the hub..

[MEGA]

Can I just ask that you both don't put an M logo on a non M car and also don't spray them orange for the love of god.

I am interested in the DIY, taste permitting! Of course..

[IanS100]

I've never really studied a spring clip but assume they are spring steel to certain extent, so will welding affect the quality of the steel?

[Nigelo]

I guess as long as the welding avoids the springy clip part then we should be okay.

As far as the colour and logos go.... Hmmm, maybe not something quite as ostentatious as the orange, but I'm not going to the hassle of making the calipers more aesthetically pleasing just to paint them black or silver to effectively hide them again (I should point out I now have black CSL alloys) IMO red is the cheapest look for calipers now. A designer wouldn't necessarily pick red to go with black and gray so ill be trying to thread a fine line between boring and tasteless. It's a hard call, I'm not out to fool anyone that I've got some special brakes from a snazzy company but I like the glossy colourful finishes they often have.

Now the logo.... As far as I think now, BMW have diluted the M-brand so much themselves. I have a full msport interior so that ///M logo is already on 2 pieces of trim. I think if I put M3 etc on then that'd be silly, but ///M now means something else within the BMW brand... M-sport has been around for ages now!!

I wouldn't just put BMW on them as that looks strange since no other brakes go for car manufacturer branding. They're not BMW performance brakes so that's a wee bit cheeky too. Is there another logo that I'm missing that'd be more correct or suitable? 335i maybe?

[Phil325i]

Is there an echo in here?

[Bungle009]

pardon.

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Is there an echo in here?

Nigelo's parrot

[P 5UML]

i personally think the M sport badge is ok, permitting its on your car properly somewhere else and as you said your interior is full m sport so why not...maybe make the logo a little smaller and see how it looks! think it will look spot on, like you said there are not many other options!

looking forward to seeing how they come out!

[creepy coupe]

Originally Posted by MEGA

Can I just ask that you both don't put an M logo on a non M car and also don't spray them orange for the love of god.

I am interested in the DIY, taste permitting! Of course..

Even BMW are offering M badges on the calipers of non M car these days.

[Nigelo]

Lol, blinking smartphone app on the fritz!

[Nigelo]

Here's a less 'flash' colour and a slightly smaller ///M badge!

[phil200tdi]

I like it

Looks like f10 m5 brakes.

https://www.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTgZVDPJZBJqKrJaROREOQLlwYMMGOvG mjsXdOF1jol9YEQ9_KdfA

[parapaul]

I like the idea but I don't know how well it will work.

The clip as it is, sits recessed into the caliper by several mm. To add a plate to the front that will cover the caliper like your pictures suggest, you'd need spacers of some sort between the clip and the new plate.

Also, would a plate on the front impede fitting and removal in any way? Spring clips can be right buggers to get on and off at the best of times!

[Josh1a1h]

Mate I like your thinking. sUbscribed

Give it a good go. You may be onto a nice way of improving the stock calipers,

I just got new wheels and I will be painting my calipers and hubs for sure.... This could be another idea.

Cheers fella

[Nigelo]

Cheers guys!

Paul, you're right in your thinking - a spacer is definitely needed for the reason you gave, also the main part of the clip has a raised bevel that needs to be compensated for.

To get round the issue of removavilty, I think I'll have to leave a little cut out were the clip slots into the fixed part of the caliper to fit a screwdriver in.

I've a few shapes and pieces fabbed in lovely cardboard to try later!

[golfmck1980]

I think they look great

[Nigelo]

Here's a pic of the cardboard template blutacked on to test for size, placement and spacer depth required. Guess who's printer only has black and magenta ink left!!! It looks like I've photoshopped it for some reason.



What do we think? Should I head to the local engineering firm to knock up a couple? Back calipers are going to be much trickier though - the spring is much more recessed (about 1.5cm)

[Cyprio]

Definitely a worthwhile mod if your endeavours pay off - keep us posted.

[Phil325i]

Nigelo, completely off topic, but I would very much like to know the make and source of those wheels - they're ace!

[Nigelo]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Nigelo, completely off topic, but I would very much like to know the make and source of those wheels - they're ace!

Hey

Think they are from autoalloys.com in Northern Ireland, but they look identical to the csl reps that cricmcn sells on m3cutters.com in his trader thread.

[NJ 1161]

Looks smart. Stick with the 'm' logo I say, but maybe not the pink! ( course the printer ran out )

Cleans it up nicely at minimal cost.