I'm replacing the pads and rotors on my stock 4 wheel disc camaro, and i want to paint the calipers.

Looking for as many tips and sugestions as you guys have got.

Biggest concern is how to clean/prep the calipers for paint, as well should i lay paint on the metal or something between coats?

Heres a pic of the car just for fun

 

Spray 'em down with brake parts cleaner to get all the oils and dirt off and spray 'em with what ever color you want. I use engine enamal. but you can get brush on and spray on paint specifically for calipers.

 

you think thats intensive enough? seen calipers painted on cars where a **** job was done and they flake so quickly.

Also things like should i be putting clear over caliper paint or is it inteded to stay on its own? any sugestions appreciated.

 

I've used gloss engine enamal and it looked good, never flaked, or rusted. but like I said, there are specific sliper paints out there that have a glass enamal in them. Autozone carries some good ones. and a variety of colors.

 

I've seen caliper-painting kits, which include all that's required. Check Wal-Mart.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliper.html

JamesC

 

Those are the same ones I've seen at autozone. they're prolly cheaper at wally world.

 

Check Wally World, the kit is very complete, cleaner, paint, even masking supplies I think.

 

Will you be disassembling the calipers, or removing them off the car?
Your results will be much better if you can get the calipers off the car, and carefully clean the living daylights out of them. In the end you can check your flexible brake hoses and bleed your brakes and have new fresh fluid in the system
When I did my PBR's I scrubbed and scrubbed, fine steel wool and cleaned with laq thinner. Disassembled, masked etc. It actually didn't take too long. Waiting for the paint to dry slowed the process down!
I ended up using VHT's product, similar to duplicolour.
Here are some before and after's

 

On my Bronco, I painted my calipers and I used duplicolor caliper paint and it worked great!

 

My PBRs are out getting powder coated as we speak

In the past i have used the kits with good success, but since the guy is going to blast and powder coat them for less money than the kit costs i should be on a winner! Obviously i have them completely stripped to do this.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

Ricco,
What media are you going to use on the calipers? Curious. How are you prepping the calipers for the p.coating? Are you pulling the pistons out of the calipers as well, before you p.coat?
-Andrew

 

I got my red caliper painting kit from Wal-Mart on clearance for $13. I still haven't painted them yet because of all the pollen.

 

Yes, they are completely stripped - pistons out and everything. I got the rebuild kits from O'Reillys about $9 each.

Dont know about the media for blasting, i just took them to a place that was recomended to me, said it would be about $25 dollars, the paint kits I have seen are like $30 or $40.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

I used the Duplicolor kit from Wal- Mart. Came out real nice. Just make sure they are cleaned properly and dry.

 

WARNING: Painting your brake calipers may make you go faster.





j/k

 

I used some POR15 I had sitting around on my front calipers about a year ago, and it's holding up just fine.

 

never thought to use POR 15 on 'em...

 

why would you think to use por 15 when they sell "caliper paint"

 

Because POR 15 will make 'em bullet proof! lol!

 

anyways, im going to be painting my calipers with caliper paint

i have never dissassembled a caliper before, im assuming i will have to do that, im just re-using my stock calipers but figure while i have the rotors off might as well paint them, if anyone has anything usefull that will help me in this process
please i appreciate your advice

 

Why do you have to disassemble the caliper? I'm not even going to take mine off the car when I paint them. I wouldn't bother painting the rotors, you can't paint the surface where the pads touches anyway so there isn't much left.

 

You don't have to disassemble the caliper completely. (Ricco, is powder coating and blasting his set, so it makes sense to pull them completely apart).
This all said, at least pulling the caliper off the mounting brackets, and pulling the brake hose off will produce (imo) better results. If you leave the caliper on the car, it's hard to scrub off all the road debris, brake dust, etc... It's tough masking and painting the underside and reverse side of the caliper while it is still on the car. For the amount of masking you will have to do to prevent a pile of overspary, the effort is better put towards pulling the caliper off the car. It is a simple job, and as I mentioned previously, if you pull the brake hose - you can not only check and replace them if necessary, but you can bleed the brakes as well (something that should be done on a regular basis anyways).
Painting the rotors - many paint the hub area with high temp paint. This keeps the area rust free. There was a thread recently posted (I will add it if I can find it) where a set of after marker rotors where preped and painted in the area of the hub. Looked great.
-Andrew

 

If you're using spray paint then it'd be a good idea to take them off, but I'm using the Duplicolor kit that is brush on and I thought he was too.

 

IMO it doesn't matter if you are spraying, brushing or powder coating, you will get a better result by stripping them down and rebuilding.. just like if you were re-painting a car.. the more you remove, the better the end result.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

I didn't disassemble mine, and they look good. but a buddy of mine disassembled his and they look a lot better.

 

take them off the car, disassemble them, and send them off to get media blasted and powder coated... the powdercoating will make the finish last a lifetime.

Since the calipers are nearing 20 years old anyway, nows a great time to put a rebuild kit into them. then they'll work like new, and look better than ever before.

good luck.

 

Ya i just bought new calipers, with core it was like $20-30 each new. Then no cleaning really required was able to paint them directly. I got one of the caliper kits that duplicolor makes, was well worth it they look great to this day and are easy to clean when i wash the car.

 

well i did mine last summer when changing my break pads i didnt remove the caliper from the car or nethnig like that all i did was sand the caliper down with sand paper and also used a wire brush for the dirtier parts i used a dupli colour kit i got for like 20 bucks or sumtin like dat it came with every thing tape, caliper cleaner etc, i also used brake cleaner because it used up all the caliper cleaner, as for the painting part, it was easy but u need to apply a few coats, i ve only applied 2 and havent had ne flaking problems or nething like that overall im satisfied

 

MEDIA BLAST Aluminum with Alum oxide. NOT GLASS BEAD.

Id recommended powder coating also. but I might have a biased opinion. :P

Your better off taking em apart and doing a rebuild.

 

I'm definitly not powdercoating them. The only reason im not stepping up to a better caliper is because im going to wait until i get larger wheels in the next few years, so i can put the absolute largest brakes behind the wheels possible.

All i wanted to do is replace my pads with something of a higher quality, to get the rotors turned was going to cost me 35 bucks (canadian) a piece, im just buying new rotors. Figure while i have everything apart i might as well paint the calipers. They will be coming completly off the car.

I've never rebuilt a caliper before and i doubt the firend that will be helping me ever has either, is it perticularly difficult? and does anyone know of any tech articles on the process? hey maybe someone wants to write one and they can make a tech article out of it

 

Here are my calipers when they came off the rear and a shot of them stripped ready for powder coating. I will post another when they come back from the powder coaters..

Cheers,
Richard.

PS. Ihave never stripped calipers before, where i come from you're not allowed to rebuild them anymore. Oh, and yes, i do have new slider bolts since i have a bent pair

 

make sure you paint the disc the same color, so it matches the caliper....

 

I dont think so buddy...

 

you kinda can't paint the rotor...

 

I wire brushed mine and painted them with engine enamel, but they got scuffed up, so I just got dne doing them again. We'll see how they last. If anything else happens, I'm gonna powder coat them I think.
Heres one, still tape on it.

 

Orinackra, nice colour but,
hard to tell from the pics - how many coats of paint did you spray on those calipers? It looks very shiny/clear coated or like there is a gallon of paint on there! Spray light coats and let dry, then shoot another. Don't spray too close either! Prep time is everything. After wire brushing what type of solvent did you use to clean the calipers (the first time around)? If the parts aren't clean it won't matter what paint you use. With the temps these parts are subjected to, the heating and cooling will make that paint flake off in no time.

 

i just did mine with some red ceramic 1500 degree engine paint i had lying around.I did about 5 coats red and 3 coats with 1500 degree clear.they look great.All i did to prep them was use a TON of brake cleaner and a wire brush.I even painted the drums for giggles.

 

I haven't done the IROC yet, but did them on my 02' SS. I pulled the calipers without disconnecting them and hung them in the wheelwell carefully. I then masked the wheel well and covered the entire car with plastic. Use ALOT of brake clean!! Get all dust and road grime off and then I used PlatiKote red engine enamel. I found some dude on ebay who sold silver Camaro stickers made to fit the calipers and applied them. Then I sprayed 2-3 coats of PlastiKote clear enamel. They turned out nice....

 

Lol, I didnt really count the coats, but I used 2 whole cans to do both the front and rear calipers and carriers. No clear tho. Hey, I wanted to make sure I didnt miss any spots!

 

I did mine with the brush on kit from duplicolor. I bought new calipers at the time too so painting them was easy, I used 2-3 coats until it was a nice bright red. I also painted my rotors with the high temp black from vht, stops the hub part from rusting up. The look brand new after 6 months, and the ceramic brakes keep them clean.

-Jim

 

i have a couple more questions

First of all what is better to use as a cleaner for the calipers, laquer thinner which is petrolium based, or brake parts cleaner which i have no idea what its made of.

Also any opinions on wether the brush on or spray on tends to adhere better? I'm also going to look into how expensive powder coating is

edit, im also not looking forward to trying to get the parking break assembly off the rear caliper, looks tricky

 

Use brake parts cleaner. it doesn't leave an oily film afterwards. Most people brush it on. I prefer to spray. not sure if there is a difference. if you buy a complete kit it usually included supplies to brush it on.

 

Spray light coats and let dry - I used l.thinner after I scrubbed with soapy water. Just be sure to rotate/change the cloth you use to wipe the calipers off with. Once you have wiped, switch to a clean portion of the cloth.
-Andrew

 

good prep and high-temp paint.. fill all holes with a papertowel so you dont have to clean it out later.. and any mounting surfaces need to be masked off.. i cant remember if i had to when i did mines..

well ventilated area, some kind of hanging setup so you can spray the entire surface and not touch it.. example: hang from a tree with a wire coat hanger..

happy painting.. throw up some pics of the finished product

 

Here are my calipers after being powder coated.

 

I also Powder Coated mine. The extra money is worth the piece of mind and durability.

 

why did you have baer put on your pbr calipers....or am i goin crazy

 

They're Baer calipers.

 

ya i am goin crazy sorry just woke up, didnt they come coated?

 

Extra money? Mine cost $25... Less than the cost of a caliper painting kit