Painting Calipers

Okay… made DAMN sure that this hasn’t been asked already, so dun flame me :stuck_out_tongue:
How do I paint my calipers? I mean properly paint them. Would I need some kind of de-greaser substance to clean them off nicely first? What kind of paint should I use? What colour would look good on a black car with aluminum rims? (will eventually go 2 gunmetal rims)

Paint them black. Not red. Red is brembos color. Do you have brembo calipers? No. Anything other than black is just tacky. Face it TACKY. Just paint them black. Stock grey rust isn’t hot but black is clean and professional and hot. Anyone that knows their shit has black calipers.

Take the calipers off clean them up with palmolive and spray them down and get all teh grease off the with a toothbrush tape over the piston and use high temp black spray paint.

paint them silvvvvaaaa

Okay, so clean with palmolive and toothrbrush, spray them clean with water (right?) Then tape over the piston and use high temp spray paint?
As to the colour… black sounds good, so does silver actually. I wasn’t really considering red, but I do have brembo rotors, if not calipers. Gold was another one of my choices, cuz I thought it would look decent on a black vehicle.
If I wanted to also give the rotors a cleaning, what should I use? (not gonna paint the rotors lol, I just wanna clean them) palmolive, toothbrush and water spray again, or?

Stupid question… Where would I tape over for the piston? I just washed them today, but I didn’t see any “pistons”. Is it those things covered in rubber?

Basicly just tape over the openings so that paint cannot get into the inner workings of the caliper.

I’ve done it a couple time for my self and friends and the best way to start is to go to any hardware store and buy a metal mesh drill bit (you know the ones that spin and are about 2 inchs around) to sand all the rust off the calipers, then get one of the kits from PI that you paint on (never done spray on) and use the brake cleaner from the kit, and so on and so on… Then you just have to let them dry.

here’s a method a few friends of mine have tried. Its fast, and above all easy!

remove any rust with a wire brush, or drill attatchment.

leave the calipers on! mask off any parts you dont want painted and spray the crud outta 'em

any paint that gets on the rotors will come off after a few seconds of braking.

…oh yeah, splurge for the high-heat brake paint :wink:

If you can, get them sandblasted, they will look nice, and the paint will stick nicer…

Agreed. Brake cleaner works too, or paint thinner/reducer.

Painting callipers anything other than their stock colour, or something subtle, often looks really ricey. Use an ultra-high-heat paint in a spray can and please, for the sweet merciful love of crap, take them off first, DO NOT paint them on the car! If you paint them on the car, it will look like you painted them on the car, there will be overspray everywhere, they will be thin on the top and around the bolts/rivets/ridges, and there won’t be any paint on the back or sides of the callipers.

I just went to my local TSC store (you probably won’t find one of these in TO), and bought High heat tractor paint (Massey Ferguson red for my Integra about 6 years ago, and generic black for my 240) This stuff works great, just use any of the cleaning methods from above, and use one of those sponge brushes. Afterwards, all you have to do is wipe them once in a while with a rag and they won’t fade for at least a couple of years.

My two cents

Canadian Tire sells a VHT High Heat Caliper Paint in Black, Silver and Gold. It works very well but it remains soft until it’s cured properly (brake heat cures it).

Black silver and gold just so happen to be the only 3 colours I’m considering for the brakes. Sweet :smiley:
The calipers are off btw, I bought the calipers off Mr.Skinny’s S14, because I wasn’t too sure how good of a shape mine were in, so I’ll be painting and installing those.
It’d be cool if this was a sticky, I figure lots of people paint their calipers… right?

No it wouldn’t be.