I have seen reference to powder coating of brake callipers and since I am just about to refurb my M16 units wondered if this was a good idea.

I understand it involves heating the coated surface in an oven and presumably would have to be done to a partially assembled calliper.

Has anyone had this done and will it stand up to the heat generated during braking?

Finally, is it worth spliting the calliper and fitting a spacer so I can use vented disks or is this a waste of time for what will be primarily a road car with only occasional track day useage.

not sure about the powder coating bit, but have read that you should never split the calipers, also vented discs are used on cars where there isn;t much airflow to keep them cool, but on a se7en, the discs are stuck out in the wind so you shouldn;t really need them.

gor for some drilled or grooved ones instead.

Ray

Powder caoting requires (generally speaking) that the items are bare metal, which almost always means blasting (bead/shot). To do this you need to thoroughly mask all areas with a sturdy tape (ideally metal). You only need a stray blast in the piston/bore area to sh*g things totally. Much the same goes for the coating. The item is hung on a rack which is given a modest electric charge, and then 'sprayed' with the polymer powder under v. low pressure (<0.5 psi). This is 'attracted to the charged item where it hangs until passed into the oven where said polymer is melted into a coating. It comes out and hey-presto job done. IMHO I would not use it for calipers as it is not particularly temperature resistant. Paint stripper/wire brush, spray lacquer will do nicely. If they don't discolour in a short period you ain't driving hard enough! HTH

i know you're not supposed to split the m16 caliper i'm sure i have seen a rebuild kit for on ewhich included new stretch bolts

here, is this bogus then???

linky

You get new bolts as the old ones are not long enough to reach through the spacer!!
That kit is to allow the use of vented disks with non vented calipers.

It's an acceptable practice to split calipers for this mod, BUT you have to be clinical and use new bolts.
For track days, the standard setup should cope (I'll tell you when I've done a few!!)

Marcus