Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I bought all the necessary supplies to paint my brake calipers tomorrow. I got the high temp. red paint, high temp. clear coat, and brake cleaner. I have a floor jack, but I don't have any jack stand, are they necessary? What do they do exactly? Couldn't I just use the floor jack to jack the front up, do I need jack stand? So, I guess I would have to do the front two first right? How long should I wait until I put my rims back on, unjack the front, and then jack up the rear to do the rear calipers? I just want to do it right. One last question, why do I need the clear coat paint? Instructions I read told me after I spray on the red coat, I should then spray the clear coat on. So, I just do it one after the other, do I have to wait for the red coat to dry then put the clear coat on? Please advise me, I don't want to mess it up.

deathwish

You can use whatever jack you like, just that floor jacks are a lot easier than the spare tire jack, easier on your arm... Basically you want to take the wheel off, and then hose the brakes down with cleaner and scrube with a wire brush. Then mask as well as you can, make sure you cover the discs well. Put on at least 2 thin coats of paint. Start off to the side of the brake, and sweep across the brake to put an even thin coat on. Do this 2-3 times, and lightly, don't just hose it with paint. This stuff dries pretty quick, check the bottle, mine was 10 minutes between coats. After you're done with the paint, put on at least 2 coats of clear using the same method. Once it's all dry, put the wheels on and you're done.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Thanks for the help.

shane

When I painted my calipers,I used brake cleaner then used Navel Jelly and a toothbrush.This will clean them and get rust off if there is any.Goodluck

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

When I did mine I bought the FoliaTec caliper paint and I used 2 jack stands and a floor jack that I got from my next door neighbor who's a Toyota mechanic! You don't need jack stands but in my case I did the painting in my garage and I had to remove the floor jack over night so that I could close the garage door. I put the rims back on after around 10 hours(over night) and them did the rear calipers. I think that you can put the rims back on after a couple of hours as long as you don't drive for 24 hours or so. The FoliaTec kit didn't come with clear coat paint but if the paint your using recommends it you should do it. I also painting the calipers using a paint brush with 2 coats so that they came out thick. If you want more info check out my site under the how2 section. Good luck!

Nathan.
http://www.geocities.com/natanis_ca/index.html

ny96max

make sure to use atleast 3 coats of paint on the calipers if you want the color to last longer. i used 5 coats of Blue hi-temp paint. No clear coat needed unless you like shiny calipers!!! EWWWW

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Thanks for the info guys. Hey, when I jack the car up, should I jack on the side of the car, or front? Let say that I jack up the car on the driver side, wouldn't that just raise the driver side wheel? Someone told me that I could only do one wheel at a time. Well, I haven't paint them yet. I couldn't even get the lug nuts off. Last time I had mechanic worked on my car, and he used one of them power wrench(to take lug nuts off really fast), or whatever you call them, so it on there pretty tight. I couldn't budge it. Geez, I'm weak. Tomorrow I'm going to borrow a friend's power thingy to get the nuts off.

chris j vurnis

Hello Mr: "CUMALOT"

Judging by your screen name, I take it your mind is predominantly on things other than cars... As long as you are happy, that's O.K.

You can't get the lug nuts off and you are having problems to jack up the car??? Sounds like a bad omen for you... maybe you should get some help to paint your calipers

Go to Home Depot or some automotive store and get and 18" torque wrench... put your bolts on between 65-80FT LBs depending on whether you "race" or not. If that wrench doesn't get the lugs off, either they are way over torqued or you need to go to the gym more often...

Jack stands are for SAFETY... If the jack fails (or its accidentally displaced by somebody else walking around the car) while you are under your car, the jack stand will take up the load if the car falls rather than your body getting crushed and possibly killed... The owners manual for the car clearly states where to place the jack to raise the car... Jack stands can be positioned anywhere under a secure section of the frame.... But for this job, you shouldn't have to get under the car...

Most brake cleaners can serve an extra purpose of cleaning up accidentally spilled paint... When I painted my calipers, I accidentally rubbed my brush on one of my wheels and I didn't notice until after the paint dried... But a shop towel damp with the brake cleaner took the paint right off the wheel without damaging the wheel finish...

As for lifting more than one wheel at a time... any front wheel drive car has more of its weight towards the front... If you were to put your jack about two feet behind the front wheel well, you would raise up the whole side of the car... But that is not the proper place to put the jack... so don't worry about it...

hope this helps
cjv

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I'm going to go buy that torque wrench, and see if those lug nuts would come off. I don't think I'm that weak. I believe it was over torqued last time. What you mean by if I "race" or not? Does setting the torque wrench at a certain ft/lbs. make a difference?

Daniel B. Martin

With a good floor jack you may lift the entire front or entire rear of the car. To lift the front, place the jack saddle under the steel channel which runs beneath the power train in the fore-and-aft direction. To lift the rear, place the jack saddle under the midpoint of the beam axle. These jack points are authorized in the factory service manual.

Daniel B. Martin

A torque wrench is a torque measurement device, not a torque multiplication device. If you have a socket wrench breaker bar, that should do the job. If the wheel lugs were over-tightened you might have to put a "cheater" (a length of pipe) on the handle.

deathwish

And with two good floor jacks and two hydrolic jacks, you can life the whole car off the ground and do all four wheels at once like I did

NickStam

iTrader: (3)

When I asked one shop how they do up the calipers, they told me that you should take them offso that you hit up every possible spot. You might even wanna buy new calipers to make sure that they are perfectly clean.

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

I don't think there is any need to take the calipers apart because you can't tell the difference. The only advantage of taking them apart is to save your back because when I did mine I had to almost lye down on the ground to get to the backside of the calipers. When I did my calipers they were only 6 month old and were very clean to work with.

Nathan
1999 Maxima ES Limited

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

Here's a pic of my caliper!

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

Sorry I think I got the right pic here

kit99bar

I got those Focal F5 rims with the little yellow center caps. Do you think painting the calipers yellow would look good? My car is Sage Green Mist. I got a pikachu doll on the dash who's yellow also! =P