DIY Brembo Caliper Painting ... the easy way

[BlownSS]

So. I had done some searches for caliper painting and came across a bunch of the V6 ones and they gave me a bunch of hints on how to clean and prepare and what type of paint to use but.....When I went out there to do it, I had some ideas on how to make it easier. Im not going to show how to take off you wheels and secure the car on jacks and stuff. There is enuf of that info around here. Mine starts where you get to the meat of the paint job. I started by taking out the upper and lower brake pad retainer pics out by using a long nail to poke em out. I took these and the retainer and the pads out and laid them on the desk after labeling where they went. I then grabbed some 200-300 sandpaper and got the calipers really scuffed scuffed up. No need to remove all of the grey pain, just scuff and get it to where the new paint can make a mechanical adhesion. Now get yourself a catch pan and spray the whole thing down liberally with brake cleaner to get all the goo out of there and let it sit for about 20 minutes and air dry or use a air hose to speed up the process. NOW...........


Tape off the top part of the caliper both front and back like this. You are doing this so you can rotate it back into the caliper and not have to worry about how to get it all covered! Once in this position, you can tape up the back area to keep the paint from getting on the inner part of the caliper when painting.





Now go get a large trash bag. I think this one is a 55 gallon one. I pulled it off of the roll and cut off the end that would end up being the bottom of the bag. Then i got my scissors and cut a line lengthwise just through the first layer of the bag and opened it up. It should look like a big plastic drop cloth now. If it looks like a big plastic snowflake or a bunch of dolls holding hands, you have too much immagination and you have failed already. If f not, go somewhere in the lower third of the plastic sheet and cut a 10-12 inch slit in it and feed it around the caliper and secure it to the taped areas that you did before on the rotor. Secure the rest of the sheet to the car and you should be pretty well ready to pain except something to cover your floor if you are concerned about getting paint on it.













Now go get sum paint. I used the Red Dupli-color caliper paint from Parts store. It looks really nice. I then applied about 5 coats about 20 minutes apart from each other starting with very light dustings to make sure there were no runs.



I bought some 3.75 inch x 3/4 inch Brembo decals from ebay and applied those. After I applied them, I used a good quality Lacquer clear for the top coat and did about three coats like I did with the red. I let it dry for 24 hours and put my wheels back on. They look great. Total investment was about 20 bucks! SCORE!!!!

[nyrfan]

Nice job. What kind of paint and how many coats did you use?


Sent from my AGM, 2SS/RS

[BlownSS]

Originally Posted by nyrfan

Nice job. What kind of paint and how many coats did you use


Sent from my AGM, 2SS/RS

I was in the process of editing and moving pictures around when u posted this. It has been updated.

[nyrfan]

Originally Posted by BlownSS

I was in the process of editing and moving pictures around when u posted this. It has been updated.

Great write up thanks, I think I am going to try this. I have a question, is the lacquer necessary or just for more of a gloss look. I'd like to do this but have more of a satin finish.


Sent from my AGM, 2SS/RS

[CamaroLS]

Looks really good!! Do you think it will hold up to the brake dust like the powder coating does?

[BlownSS]

The top coat is more of a protection for the brembo decal. Im sure you could do a satin clear top coat to protect it.


I think as much as I clean my vehicle, the dust wont be there long enough to affect the paint. but the paint seems pretty tough!

[nyrfan]

Originally Posted by BlownSS

The top coat is more of a protection for the brembo decal. Im sure you could do a satin clear top coat to protect it.


I think as much as I clean my vehicle, the dust wont be there long enough to affect the paint. but the paint seems pretty tough!

Ah, gotcha. Thanks! I think I'm going to pick up the supplies tomorrow (and order some decals) and try this my next day off.


Sent from my AGM, 2SS/RS

[BlownSS]

The biggest part of this is to TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!!! Rushing with wet pain leads to alot of work and huge disasters.

[CamaroLS]

Originally Posted by BlownSS

The top coat is more of a protection for the brembo decal. Im sure you could do a satin clear top coat to protect it.


I think as much as I clean my vehicle, the dust wont be there long enough to affect the paint. but the paint seems pretty tough!

Ok. Do they sell a clear from the same brand as the paint you used?

[BlownSS]

Originally Posted by CamaroLS

Ok. Do they sell a clear from the same brand as the paint you used?

Not that I saw. I mean not a Caliper clear coat. I just used a quality clear lacquer that was in the auto body paint section in a spray can.......It was duplicolor i believe.

[CamaroLS]

Ok. Did you just do this?

[BlownSS]

Originally Posted by CamaroLS

Ok. Did you just do this?

Yup.

[nyrfan]

Originally Posted by BlownSS

The biggest part of this is to TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!!! Rushing with wet pain leads to alot of work and huge disasters.

Thanks for stressing this as I have a tendency to rush things.



Sent from my AGM, 2SS/RS

[techinny]

Nice write up.