Calipers back from BCS and ready for fitting

[Linas.P]

So I was promising for a while to add pictures of the job BCS did on my calipers, to be honest I have received calipers few weeks ago, but didn't have the time to get them fitted ...and they are still in the box to this day.

Just thought I am going to add before and after pictures and say few words regarding the work BCS did on my calipers, hopefully will find some time to fit them and post how they look fitted on the car. As well I wanted to say special tanks to @gaborpinter, because I wouldn't be able to do it without his help!

So to begin with, I believe BCS did great job on the calipers - the "electroplate gold" finish looks great, and I believe it will match well with my brake disks (which have gold anti-rust coating as well). Overall, I would rate BCS experience 4/5*. There are few reason I am taking away 1*, and they all subjective in the way, but I believe overall justifies the rating I am giving:

• during the time my calipers were with them they have sent me several cheesy marketing e-mails... not that I got offended, but e-mails were not the most professional and most importantly simply unnecessary. It did not impact the quality of the work in any way, so that is I guess I can deal with that.
• gold finish is great, but in the places where they have polished the face it seems they could have spend 5 seconds more to make it perfect, it does not affect the function, it won't be visible - but that is exactly what separates "perfect" 5/5* and "great" 4/5*.
• after sending calipers I have called and asked if they can drop the hardware I have included in parts cleaner - they definitely have large industrial cleaner and dropping few bolts in it would have made no difference - the lovely lady on the phone ensured it won't be the problem, but in my package I found just a bag full of rusty bolts.... ammmmhh. Again - it is very hard to criticise them for such minor thing and it would have been free-bee anyway, but maybe instead of sending me 5 cheese e-mails they could have noted that little request and made me a favour?!
• finally, they asked me for additional payment of £52 for 2 things - one slider pin was stuck and one bolt was broken. I knew it was the case, however I have paid not only for "premium paint", but full "re-manufacturing" as well, as such I have expected the broken bolt and stuck pin to be part of standard "re-manufacturing" job. I have raised that and was assured that it was not the case and that I need to make extra payment for the part and bolt removal - ok, fair enough. Now I have received the calipers and I can see that they have replaced all bolts and all slider pins and that really got me confused. So was it part of re-manufacturing or not?! - I tend to believe it was, but they get it confused with painting service... maybe they just need to be more clear what is included and what is not.

Anyway, total costs was £469 + £52.. and overall I think it was worth it - not 100% perfect, but still very very good. In perspective that is what Lexus would charge for standard front calipers alone. Here you get good quality paint finish and matching (if not exceeding) quality re-manufacturing (note: most of calipers are refurbished anyway). If I would have chosen standard paint it would have been £100 less, but with premium paint they give 10 years warranty.

Anyway enough talking - this is what calipers looked before:

And that is what I have received after:

+ bag of rusty bolts which took me hours to de-grease and clean:

 

[Linas.P]

Fitted today, in summary rust to gold conversion - alchemist in action,

 

 

need to get my wheels cleaned, before making comparison of how they look behind the wheels... Actually, It would make sense to clean the calipers themselves, but in head of calipers changing action that wasn't priority 

[Linas.P]

I think final step in calipers story:

Surprising what "simply cleaning" wheels can do 

The last remaining thing is to "refurbish" them maybe into IS-F rims...

[Big Rat]

@Linas.P Great bit of self spanner work there.......... now if you should change your mind about isF wheels and new tyres I happen to know where some are...........

🐀

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, Big Rat said:

self spanner work

I wish it was anything "self"... Not that I wouldn't be able to do it, but I just don't have space to work on my car. I did swap the wheels though (what a hero ).

As for upgrade I am just joking, because I said I will post pictures with wheels once I have chance to clean them, but in result I fitted other wheels altogether. Issue with going further for larger wheels is that I would need to lower the car as well. I didn't realise that before putting 18"... now car looks little high. Actually in pictures it is higher, because suspension is still raised after putting wheels, after driving 100 meters it is now slightly lower, but if I would go for 19" it would just look silly unless I lower it by say 20-30mm. At least based on my own taste...