I’m planning to clean up and prep my calipers for painting soon, wondering if anyone has any tricks to cleaning them up other than brake cleaner and an old toothbrush.

 

Brake Cleaner and a wire brush.

 

exactly as you said

 

What they said. And you can even use a Dremel tool with a wire brush if you need to remove stubborn stuff like paint. Whatever you use, keep in mind that prep work is the most important aspect of painting calipers.

Dave

 

just make darn sure you cover the right areas
piston etc
painting and cleaning

 

Hmm, sorry I've never done a brake job so I'm not particularly familure with the parts of a caliper. Does anyone have a picture or diagram of what parts to mask off cause I was planning on doing some painting this weekend if possible. Also, is it possible to just paint them still attached to the car or is it advised to remove them first.

 

any hole that is not what the bolts go through need to be covered
before cleaning through the paint drying

 

A lot of people paint them while they are on, and most paint them at least with the break line still attached. I've never painted before with them still bolted to the car, but did take them off and painted them last time with the lines still attached. I think you get a better looking paint job that way. This time I intend to completely remove the Caliper because I'm adding Stainless Steel lines. I'm a nut for details, so I actually remove all the little brass inserts and don't paint them. You can cover the whole piston area, because you will never see it with the brake pads in the way. I also cover the bleeding screw, holes as mentioned above, all machined mating surfaces and the area where the brake line attaches. Also on the bracket that attaches to the spindle that surrounds the caliper, I cover the little boot that the caliper slides on, and the mating surfaces and holes. I might have missed something, but once you start to go at it, it's pretty straight forward where to mask off.

 

when u remove the caliper off the line, does brake fluid leak out of the line? do you have to plug it while you are painting the caliper?

 

Well, at first some comes out, but does not shoot out. it kind of dribbles out like a leaky faucet when you disconnect the lines. I left the lines hooked up and zip tied them to the spring so they don’t drip. That has worked for the last day and a half for me.