Is there a brake painting caliper howto?

Thanks

 

but can consume some time.

1) Purchase can of brake cleaner and paint color of choice. I used Duplicolor 500 degree Ford Blue engine block paint.

2) Loosen up lug nuts and jack up car and place on jack stands. The higher the better (within reason make sure everything is stable).

3) remove wheel, and "mask off the painted area" Use towels to cover up the fender, doors and any painted surface in the area. We are trying to prevent any mist getting into contact with painted surfaces.

4) With a bowl underneath the caliper assembly use the spray brake cleaner and a toothbrush and scrub. Remember to use eye protection because stuff flys everywhere. When you think you are done scrubbing, scrub some more. The key here is that it HAS to be grease/dirt free. Any little bit and you will notice immediately!

5) Let the cleaner dry and make sure you have no "puddles" sitting anywhere on the caliper. Should not take long at all.

6) I did not remove my calipers so I just masked stuff off.
-> On the rear, mask the whole parking brake assembly. Its a spring thing. You will know when you see it.
-> ALL rubber parts. There are two distinct rubber parts at the caliper squeeze point. Tape 'em up.
-> Bleeder valve. I taped this up for caution sake.
-> Don't have to but I taped up the rotor. When paint gets on the rotor, it suck to get it off and causes unusual braking (read: you might not stop in the same distance as before) until the paint wears off. My recommendation, cover it up. I used Kentucky Chrome (Duct) tape and newspaper to cover my stuff up.

7) Shake the **** out of the paint can. Make sure it is good an mixed up. Again shake some more.

8) Use very light coats and try to keep uniform. Spray about 4-8 inches away from assembly. I sprayed kinda close because the wind would kick up anytime I pressed the nozzle. I put 5 coats on my calipers to get the color and depth that I liked. Let it dry fairly well between coats. As expected humidity and temperature will affect drying time.

9) let it dry so it is not tacky to the touch and you can put your rims back on. Be careful not to bump the rim into the caliper or you have to do touchup work, which shows.

I let mine dry overnight before driving. You will smell something funny after braking if you have overspray on your rotors.

Enjoy. Hope this helped!

 

Thanks a lot ~ will let you know how it turns out

 

find a car place that sells FOLIATEC caliper paint. check the internet
It comes in a kit with brake cleaner and paint hardener, plus simple instructions.
Spray on the brake cleaner:
put a small circular wire/steel brush in an electrical drill, and let 'er rip..Way less time consuming than a tooth brush or manual steel brush, and does a better job without damaging anything. Then use a small artist quality paint brush and paint on the Foliatec. it saves masking and overspraying, and this paint gives you a high gloss, high quality factory type look once dry
I did all 4 calipers in about 2 hours, jacking up one wheel at a time

 

A can of clear spray paint might not be a bad idea either....just a suggestion!!

 

To "clear coat" the caliper? Or are you just foolin'

 

what ever color you wanna paint it with, make sure it's high temp paint..

clear coat? well it's a good idea if you like the color of the caliper and want to keep it clean.. applying a clear coat to the caliper creates a slick surface which will make the brake dust not stick as much and a quick rinse of water would be sufficient to clean off the brakes.. but i rather have red, black, blue, or silver calipers... not greenish bronzish color..

 

http://www.bmw-m.net/TechProc/foliatec.htm

 

I do believe if I am not mistaken, you CANNOT put clear coat on your calipers because the temp will be so high that it will melt the clear coat. The clear coat cannot handle the heat that the brake caliper paints can.

Do not recommend this.

Dixit

 

forget the makeshift stuff and trying to save a few bucks..get the Foliatec..
It's brake caliper paint..period
do it right
treat your Max the way you'd treat your mother!

 

welll you can always get high temp clearcoat too, i'm not sure if the clear coat will melt off, but i definately wouldn't take that chance on my own car. i used brake caliper paint on my front calipers, the paint is said to withstand heat up to 900degrees farenheit.

 

Any pix of how it looks finished on a Maxima?

 

I bought the blue Enamel stuff, I talked with a auto guy and he said I don't need clear coat for enamel.

Ludacris: a ton of people have painted calipers, I have mdeal in my favorites so I;; just give you the link to his

http://www.fourthrock.com/maxima/mymaxima.html

 

For FoliaTec paint, there's been a thread going on in the Group Deals section for awhile now. The prices are pretty good. If you are going to use spray paint though, a good alternative to covering everything that someone posted earlier was to spray it into a cup and still using a paintbrush to apply it. That'll reduce the chance of it getting messy. Hope it turns out well.

 

ooooh thats smart, I couldn't find any paint brush type stuff...

 

I have a mini-how to. It is more or less a few pics of me doing it. See http://www.fourthrock.com/maxima/caliperpainting/

You'll notice two colors are represented: red and silver. I changed from red to silver. Both are Folia Tech.

 

when you went from red to silver..did you simply paint the silver over the red, or was it more complicated than that??

 

foliatec can be order from these guys..they ship quick and their Canadian prices translate into huge savings for those south :

www.performanceimprovements.com

 

I painted right over the red. The paint is thick and it dries extra hard. It would be much work to get it off.

 

I'm curious about why you switched. I have the Foliatec blue, and although the calipers look good on a really bright sunny day, the blue is a bit on the dark side, so hard to see at any other time. Wondering if red was the same, ( a little too dark) for you

 

The red was too much for me. It was bright and noticable on the Sterling Mist color. My pics indicate the brightness. I thought the color will dull a bit or not be that noticable, but it does not dull and was too bright for my taste.