Finally got tired of terrible looking calipers so painted the front ones. Rear ones will get done some other day in the future. Not perfect or a 'pro' job but 1000 times better than before. I removed the caliper and bracket, but didn't remove detach the brake line, instead just carefully supported the caliper so I could turn it for getting at different angles.

These were so bad it took most of a Sunday to get all the grime and rust off of them even with using wheel wire brushes (stainless and nylon). Once I was done with that, I was almost tempted to leave them shinny metal and apply a protective coating they looked so nice.

Anyway, no before and after but if you can imagine the rear in the picture being much worse as the front actually had quite a bit of rust, that's the 'before'. The rears did as well in the past but I had previously tested out some various cleaning methods on them several months ago (while mounted). I had also removed the rear spring clips back then and cleaned them up. Eventually I will clean up the wheels and address the scratches/curb rash. Eventually.

Also, I had just got a steam cleaner so decided to do steam and brush the wheel well liners and wow what a difference, especially after being able to apply some Trim Serum Trim Restorer just to see if it was worth it.

Side note: During this process I discovered that you're not supposed to grease the caliper pins so fixed that and the braking is noticeably smoother. The guide pin boots are relatively new (replaced a couple of years ago).

If anybody cares I'll take some better pics.

Attached Images

  

__________________
2007 X5 4.8i - 12/06 Build - Silver/Black - 3rd Row