Im looking at cleaning up my brakes and rather than buying new pistons I'm looking at cleaning up the old ones. Obviously as they spend most of there time exposed to the elements what is the best way to clean them up. What's best to soak them in and stuff any advice appreciated.

i used brake cleaner from a spray can and nail varnish remover.. with one of those green scouring pad/sponge things, toothbrush and loads of rags for the pistons and rest of the caliper..
a little dremmel with stiff brush attachment gets into the seal recesses very well too

For the pistons all you need is a stiff nail brush and some brake cleaner. Just pop them all out and leave to soak in a Chinese take away lunchbox thing.
Then go at them with the nail brush and debit card to scrape off the baked on shite

Ok will try that at the weekend. Thanks.

So whilst they are soaking what do you recommend to spruce up the tired calumets themselves apart from seals! Mine are the gold colour so would like to keep them that colour as they stand out. So what about prepping primer colour any tips?

Are you going for a sand down, primer and then paint gold?
I know little about that but lots about the need kn be anal about the seal recesses being spotless and i mean pristine spotless so the seal and rubber grease beads in right

I sprayed a set of gold calipers with Hammerite smooth gold paint about 4 years ago and they still look good now. The only prep I did was to get them spotless with brake cleaner and a nail brush then masked off the inner surfaces. When you come to reassemble them I'd use some of that red grease to help the pistons slide in.

If yours are corroded then I'd give them a going over with a wire brush first but no need to prime them or use fancy paint etc.

Sligeach wrote: Just pop them all out and leave to soak in a Chinese take away lunchbox thing.

Yep that made me laugh, they are perfect for keeping bike bits organised and mini parts washers too