has anybody had their stock calipers powder coated? do you have advice concerning do's and dont's?
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Probably but I can't recall anyone specifically. Note that powder coatings are a fairly thick thermoplastic coating that fuses at 300-400F. I wouldn't try driving a Pantera hard with a low-temp powder coating on brake calipers, both because the high heat from such an attempt may discolor the coating, and because the thick coating may tend to insulate calipers and cause the brakes to heat-fade. There are higher-melting powder-coatings available- in Aerospace, we used one that fused at 400F. A specialist in the process would know; I would ask specifically about brake calipers.
good advice
I agree with Boss. One other thing many people overlook when considering powder coating parts is the thickness of the finished coating and the perceived hardness. For example if someone powder coats calipers and spindles then assembles them without scraping the mounting bosses clean they could end up with the caliper offset by 0.05” or more. Even worse, once the assembly heats up and the PC material softens the caliper mounting bolt that were thought to be tight are now loose. Also, critical parts that should be inspected periodically for signs of stress should not be powder coated. Powder coating can be an attractive and durable finish when used for the right application.
I bought a home powder coating gun from Eastwood about 12 years ago. I did everything that would fit in a household sized oven with it, including the calipers. I haven't noticed any degradation in the finish on mine. its baked on at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Eastwood also sells a high temp tape with which you can mask mating surfaces, mounting flanges, etc. that you don't want the powdercoating on. I'm sure that any reputable powder coater would have this tape.
Agreed. Just don't assume the worker guy knows what to mast off. I've seen this step omitted many times.
Team I had 4072's stock calipers professionally powder coated 2 years ago and have never had a problem. 
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That looks nice!
they look great, did you prep them in any way or did the company keep paint dust from getting to spaces where you did not want it?
and, did you split the calipers into halves?
I have not yet removed them from the car, but assume that they need to be split unless the bolts (heads) holding them together are masked off. What's your advice?
If you decide to powder coat them you should ask your painter to prebake the calipers before painting. Cast metal items are prone to getting contaminants within the metal pores and if they are not pre-baked they will cause outgassing bubbles in the final finish.
You would have to split the calipers in half. There is a rubber seal between the two halves that might not like 400 degrees.
so yours is just paint, not powder coat? Any discoloration from heat so far? Of course if you drive yours like I drive mine at this stage in the life of the car, the calipers barely warm up during use.
No problem at all.
Note that somewhere, some one, told me the real color of the calipers was a coat of copper, with a gold second layer. You can see the copper color on the first picture - I guess I missed a spot painting the inside of the calipers.
The first pictures posted I were from Nov., 2014, when I first rebuilt and painted them.
The pictures in this post are from April 2017. I probably wiped off the calipers, but there was no repaint, or anything major done to them.
These pix also show my Koni Shock install, and powdercoated suspension.
Rocky
