Caliper Paint

Has anyone attempted to use caliper paint to dress up the calipers? I was thinking about trying it, but the calipers are so old and dirty I am worried about adhesion. I know the caliper paints are supposed to hold up to the heat, but if they don't adhere they will flake off and look even worse.

If you have used caliper paint successfully, how did you prepare the calipers? What brand did you use?

Thanks.

 

I've used caliper paint in the past but have since switched to powder coating.

The caliper paint is good but you need to completely dissasemble the caliper, chemical wash it, sand blast it, then paint and bake it , and you need to paint and bake several times for a thick coat that can withstand the elements.


Wade

 

I think the calipers can be cleaned while still on the car if you're patient. I'd like to avoid the bracket bending and bleeding that comes with removal. A question: I haven't seen any threads on whether this is accepted by the gurus of fchat. Good idea? bad idea? I don't mean to hijack this thread but would be interested in a few opinions.

 

Yes you can paint calipers without removing it from the car just make sure you clean it thoroughly, don't understand why you need to take it apart you're not painting the inside.

 

I noticed in Birman's caliper rebuild he used yellow paint.

I was going to go with red, but now I think the yellow looks good.

Any opinions out there?

 

Contrast it, if your car is red, go with yellow caliper
and if your car is yellow go with re caliper,
if your car is black go with either red or yellow

 

If you're going to go to the work of prep'ing them and painting them then make 'em really stand out! Paint 'em neon pink or lime green! Might go well with a neon underbody kit too.

 

LOL

 

When I purchased my Corvette convertible new in 2001 I painted the calipers with “Sign Painters 1 shot Lettering Enamel,” available at any art supply store. After 30,000 miles of driving and some hard auto crossing, they look the same as when I painted them (except for West Texas dust). Being new, I just cleaned with thinner and brushed the paint on. Randy
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About a month after getting our car and after going to a few car rallies, my wife asks me “What are those things inside the wheel on other people’s cars?” I said, “They are Calipers, part of the breaking system”. She says, “Do we have them?” I said “Yes”. She says “How come you can’t see ours?”

I then explained that the car she was looking at had 22” rims and 1” diameter spokes which made them easy to see, plus the calipers were painted.

Then she asked “When are you going to paint ours?”

I love that woman!

 

I think the quick and easy way is to use the drill with wire wheel to remove the rust, use brake cleaner to clean up the grim and dirt. And finally paint them with high temp silver paint.

If it's my car, I would remove the calipers, have them media blasted and professionally plated yellow just like factory. Or basically just rebuild the calipers in the process.

My brake calipers are still looking like new but they are single piston floating calipers therefore they look small and the texture on the caliper is rough and unattractive, personally I think there's nothing beautiful about these calipers even if you powder coated them red. I have seen some kids with Honda Civic with these small ugly floating brake calipers painted red, the term "polishing a turd" comes to my mind

 

A couple of weeks ago I began tearing the suspension apart on my 328 with the intention of only replacing suspension bushings. As many before me, I was struck with the "while it's apart I might as well . . ." bug. Along with mediablasting and painting the A-arms, I decided to tear apart the hubs, replace the bearings and repaint them. The brakes were completely torn apart and new seals/pads/lines were installed. After mediablasting the hubs and calipers, I painted them with VHT high temp silver caliper paint. I am very pleased with the results. I'll post some pictures when I get home from work tonight.

 

Here are some pics
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Looks great. Any before pics?

 

Unfortunately no before pics. It was too much of a greasy dirty mess to try and manipulate the camera during the first half of the project.

 

where'd you get that hat???

 

You like that? My wife picked it up for me on a trip back east several years back.

 

Wow! That looks amazing. It also looks like a whole lot of work. I wouldn't want to drive it after doing all that work.

 

IMO red, yellow or other bright colors on modern Ferrari or Porsche calipers look ok, but those are monster sized, multi-piston calipers. "If you got it, flaunt it," I guess.

But bright red or yellow on our old, tiny caliper'd 3X8/Mondials looks ridiculous. IMO. One step above the Honda Boyz painting their rear drum brake drums yellow.

 

I agree with you completely. I think the calipers are better left in stealth mode on our cars. When I went to Brembos on the front, I ordered them in black!
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If you are going to paint yours, you might find the technique and supplies mentioned here helpful:

http://www.fca-se.org/conc_17.htm

 

I did mine several years ago and things may have changed, but this is what I found. I talked to a Brembo rep at the historic races and I talked to the Baer & Wilwood reps at an SCCA event and just talked to the Alcon guy on the phone. Hands down they all said anodize - it stands up to the heat, brake fluids and brake cleaners the best. Nice, except our calipers aren't aluminum. Three of the four said they powdercoat some product but use a proprietary powder that has high tolerance for heat and fluids but can still be attacked by some cleaners. Then they said NO, my powder guy can't get their powder product. They all said to avoid the spray on paints. They all said if you are going to paint, use a catalyzed brush on paint after blasting & cleaning the parts. Three of them leaned in and quietly said "look at Eastwood". So I did.

I disassembled my brakes and split the calipers. After completely cleaning the parts with brake clean I taped off all the big holes, used silicon plugs on the smaller ones and sandblasted the caliper halves. Untape, unplug, blow the snot out of them with compressed air and flood them with brake cleaner again. Stuck them in the oven to warm (150) and mixed the two part Eastwood paint. Paint them while still warm (that was a tip from the Eastwood guy) avoiding all the machined surfaces especially the mating surfaces. I painted them on a board with a short hunk of closet hanger rod glued to it so as to have the calipers hanging over them so I could paint the whole thing at once (remember its a catalyzed paint). After they dried I did go back and scrape out any paint in the bolt holes.

Hope this helps.

I did do mine in red... and I'm normally against such foolishness but the car is black on black and I just wanted to see how I liked colored calipers as I will probably upgrade to Brembos in the future and wanted to see how the colored calipers looked...

Rick
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+1

Making them stand out too much just says "look at how small I am". Here's what I did...
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How did you get the Ferrari Logo on the paint? That is a nice touch.

If you are going for low profile, I think the silver looks good too.


I still have the 14 inch wheels, so the calipers don't look quite as small. With the 16 inch are larger wheels they do appear diminutive. That is one of the reasons I have not yet gone to the larger rims.

 

Nice looking floor too!