hey guys...

DIY for friday i'm thinking that i wanna paint my calipers red... i think it would look pretty decent on a black car... i changed my front pads last weekend, and i could have/should have painted them then, but the cottage was calling my name... i did have a couple of questions though: i want it to look sharp and clean, so i'm willing to put in the time to do it right... is there a thread somewhere describing how to do it? do i need a primer? how many coats? whats the proper way to prepare the caliper to take the paint... anything u guys can tell me about would be wicked... i dont even know which paint to use except that it has to be heat resistant... should i take the caliper off or can i get away with just doin it with them on the rotor and just tape up the rest...

thanks guys, anything i missed?

cheers

 

They sell this stuff in a kit form. Comes with everything you need, from primer to paint. I have it and am thinking about putting it on but someone brought it to my attention that for around 120-150 you can just have the calpiers Powder Coated and then it would look sick. Although that would include you having your car on stands for about 2 days. Its a rough call but it would look soo much cleaner. Anyone with first hand experience with either please let me know as well. Very curious as to how both sides look.

 

I actually scotchbrited, primed, painted, and cleared my calipers and they look beautiful. It took all of one day though...drying time and what not. Oh that was just the painting. Pulling them off the car takes an hour or two.

 

I have painted a couple of different sets. All you have to do is get a couple of cans of high-temp spray paint, from your local auto parts store, $7-$8 per can IIRC. I removed the calipers from the car as I was doing the pads and brake lines at the same time. I have heard of guys leaving them on the car and masking off the wheel well but I didn't want any overspray getting on the car. I cleaned all of the old brake dust and grime off the caliper with a stainless steel wire brush and brake cleaner. Clean them a couple of times there is alot of stuff that doesn't come off the first time. Don't use a brass brush though, the brass is softer than the caliper and little bits of the bristle will wear off and stil to the caliper, ask me know I know. Then sand them with a 400-600 grit paper to rough them up a bit and blow them off with an air compressor to get rid if all the sanding dust. I taped off the caliper pistons and holes for the brake lines and bleeders. Spray 2-3 good coats of the high temp paint and you are done. Let them dry and you are good to go.

 

Wow, Ive seen a couple people that have done it themselfs but it came out looking like ****. My bad for the mis-information. I guess that some people just suck at DIY jobs. Glad to hear it worked out for you guys.

So Wankel, have you found that the kits or the high temp spray cans work better?

 

The easiest way to do it is to buy the kit from duplicolor at your local auto parts store. You don't need to take off your calipers, and you apply the paint w/ a brush (not spray paint).

 

I used scotch bright pads, and a bunch of rubbing alcohol to clean them... then I used spray high temp caliper paint.

The brush would be cool though... but hey, I used what I had available

I just painted mine black though.

 

I don't have any experience with the kits. I have used the spray can both times. Brushing the paint on would be a faster since you dont have to remove anything but i think that you would end up with brush marks. I'm too much of a perfectionist and all those little marks would bug the crap out of me. Maybe the paint is thick enough that it would level out and you would not see the marks, i don't know. Like I said, I have not used a kit so someone who has would have to chime in on that one.

 

So use a sponge brush... the caliper surface is not smooth, so a brush would be fine.

 

ya i checked out a part's source by my place and they had the duplicolor stuff but not in red... not gonna be able to do it tom. afterall, goin golfing... prolly try it sometime next week... thanks for all the input.. i'll prolly clean them up good, iron brush and alcohol, and dry painting them with a brush, sounds like i should get the best results with that...

headshock: i was just gonna check out how the red looked before i got new wheels after the winter, if the red isn't looking good i'll just paint them black... guessin your liking the way yours look...? Still have that changer?