Brake caliper O ring vs Lip ring ID?

[entropy454]

I am thinking about replacing my rear calipers on my 69 vette and was shopping local parts stores.

Should I assume that the large chain part stores have stainless steel calipers with o-ring style calipers?

Is there any way to tell the difference between the o-ring and lip ring? I would prefer to get the o-ring from what I've read on-line.
thanks
jim

 

[bossvette]

I rebuilt my calipers with O-ring pistons not a bad job at all; I did all 4 corners
you cannot tell the difference unless you take them apart. saved a bunch of money doing it myself. I wanted to just do the backs but was advised to do all 4 by vendor that having O-rings and lip seals may cause uneven braking.

 

[TimAT]

It's a safe bet that most chain auto parts stores have sleeved calipers. However, the odds of finding a rebuilt caliper that has o-ring pistons at a chain store is going to be a longshot. They rebuild back to factory specs because of liability issues- GM never used o-rings in the C3 calipers that I'm aware of.

 

[White75]

all the ones you can get at Autozone and others are the lip sealed ones. Seems like the only place to get o-ringed ones are corvette specialty stores.

 

[6880 Mike]

...Should I assume that the large chain part stores have stainless steel calipers with o-ring style calipers?...

No. Do not make that assumption. The o-ring calipers are specialty provider items.