| Painting Brake Calipers |
 |
 |
Cost: Varies from $5 to $70 depending on the paint used (assuming you have some tools.)
Required Tools: Caliper Paint, 3/4" wide brush, masking tape, floor jack, cinder blocks, wire brush, screwdriver, rags, socket-set to remove wheels.
Paint: There are many different types of paints, from Plasti-Kote Classic Car Laquer ($5) through Testors model enamel to OneShot lettering enamel to the Foliatec Brake Caliper Laquer kit ($50 + $12 shipping).
Several light coats of Krylon hobby enamel works great too. So far, they have all held up tremendously well, with no problems whatsoever, even in high heat situations.
Time: 24 hours (about 2 hours for painting and 22 for drying.)
Instructions:
One of the ways to paint the calipers is by removal of the calipers from the rotors for better results without spending a lot of time masking the brakepads. Since that took a lot of time removing and eventually reinstalling the calipers, I suggest that you DO mask the brakepads and leave the calipers on, it makes the job a lot easier!
- Obviously, you first have to remove the wheels from your car. I would suggest removing them all at once and setting your car on
some blocks. The caliper paint doesn't stay running once you mix the two parts together, so there may not be enough time to jack, remove, clean, and paint your calipers one wheel at a time.
- Once the wheels are removed and your car is SAFELY sitting on blocks, you can clean your calipers with the supplied contact cleaner. Just make sure that the raw, unpainted calipers are immaculate before painting them. Use a wire brush and a lot of BrakeClean, fuel, engine degreaser or alcohol. You may need to use a wire brush to remove any rust or stubborn dirt.
- Mix the two parts of the paint, let it sit for 15 minutes to thicken. You may want to mix only half of the paint into a third container and save some for a later time since any left-over paint will eventually harden if mixed. This would be a good time to lay some paper underneath your calipers, because this paint doesn't come off of anything!
- Apply a light coat to all the calipers with the 3/4" brush. Don't
worry about running-out if you mixed all of the paint. The first coat
won't be enough to keep the dark metal of the caliper from showing
through. On the second coat, your calipers should begin to look
sexy! Apply about a total of 6-7 light coats to each caliper.
- Once you have achieved the 'look' you desired, throw away any mixed paint because it will soon be worthless. Now forget about
your car for the next 22+ hours to let the paint dry (especially if you put on a lot of coats.) Use a hair dryer to speed up the process. If you removed your brakes to paint the
calipers, I would recommend you wait even longer for drying. I found the paint to be a little soft after a day had passed.
- You're done! Believe me, it will be worth work when people are
staring at your wheels wondering why your brakes are red (or blue,
or yellow, or...) Make sure you use a torque wrench when re-installing your wheels!
Impressions:
The paint does an excellent job of covering the calipers, and it is heat and brake-dust proof under above normal conditions (i.e.
some heavy breaking for a limited time.) I have heard that the paint
will discolor if you race your car for extneded periods of time, like
on a larger track similar to Daytona where you reach speeds of over 100 mph and then jam on the breaks for tight turns (this is just
an example!)
Since the paint is really a 2-part epoxy, it is really thick and and easy to apply with a small brush, and there was enough in the kit to easily do two cars.
Todd Taylor
| Sponsor Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
