Unfortunately, this is common knowledge that I was not aware of... but brake fluid eats paint (at least the brake fluid that was in the Triumph). I had spent a good amount of time prepping one of the brake calipers for paint, making sure to clean off as much rust as possible and properly cleaning any grease for the surface. I left the old rubber seals on for paint. Since I was going to replace them anyways, I would not care if paint got on them. The paint job came off without issue and I was pleased with the results.
The second part of this restoration task was to replace the piston seals. Using a bike tire floor pump to push air through the brake house, one of the pistons popped out. With the piston however came a flow of brake fluid that got all over the work surface. I cleaned up the mess with a rag and proceeded to clean and replace caliper parts. After only a few minutes, I started noticing silver paint residue on my hands and certain caliper metal was starting to appear through the paint. This is when I learned first hand that brake fluid eats paint. I tried to make sure the work surface and caliper was cleaned of brake fluid as much as possible, but the damage was done. I would have to redo the paint job.
In the picture below, if you look closely at the caliper on the left, you can see where the brake fluid ate awaythe paint.
This task is proving to take longer than I thought AND there is the problem of the other piston being stuck. Now I understand why auto shops just replace stuck pistons with new calipers.
