Anyone Have Any Longterm Success Painting Calipers?

As the title suggests, anyone have luck painting calipers? I don't mean applying the paint, but having it stick for more than an afternoon? The car in question will not be driven in snow, or roast the brakes at track days. Just regular driving.

I painted the calipers on a buddies 1995 E320 Cabriolet about two years ago and they still look great. Probably about 5k miles on them.

We did them on the car after super cleaning them (soap and water, grease remover, paint pre-prep cleaner) removing the pads, lightly sanding every nook and cranny, cleaned them again and taping the daylights out of everything else.

We did not use special caliper paint, just high temp paint in rattle cans. We applied 4 coats over about an hour.

I'm going to do the same on my wife's new Allroad as soon as she goes to see her sister for a couple days because it really took a full day and they need to dry overnight before reassembly. Another day wouldn't hurt to fully cure.

She will be pissed but will get over it.

I used regular rattle can paint on mine and they still look decent many years later.  I cleaned the calipers well first, and don't drive the car hard or in the snow.

I use Rustolium hi-temp gloss black--have on several vehicles now.  It holds up well and is easy to touch up if necessary.  In fact, I just did mine. 

If your paint fails, its because you didn't prep the surface properly, or you used the wrong product.   Thats it, thats all.

When I did the brake upgrade on my truck with the Lightning wheels I painted the calipers.  I did this around 7-8 years ago and I can still clean the wheels and calipers with cleaner and have them come out nice and bright.

They were new calipers, so I was able to get all the nooks and crannies, have no grease or dust to start with, but I did clean them multiple times.

Cleaned with brake clean and a tooth brush to get all the nooks.  Let that dry.  Cleaned again with brake clean, let that dry.  Did a final wipe down with acetone.  Once that dried I put on rubber gloves to not get oils from my hands on the parts, wiped the gloves down, then masked everything off.

Regular high temp paint, used a primer coat, then went and did 2-3 coats of the color I wanted. 

When that was done and they were fully dried I unmasked everything and set it on a piece of cardboard I painted black for this purpose and set it in the sun for a couple days so the heat would help cure it before I bolted anything up.

Overkill? Maybe. But it gave me a project for a week and a half, and my calipers and mounts still look fantastic near a decade later.

I used POR-15 caliper paint on the Miata. It's been fine for several years. Per Mr_Asa prep is key.

Wire brush

Brake clean

Tremclad/Rustoleum

I usually do them on the first brake job, or snow tire swap, and don't typically have to do them twice

In reply to FSP_ZX2 :

Those look really good!

I've never tried painting. I've either gone hi-temp powdercoating, or they were Wilwoods. Other cars I haven't messed with. 

Although I will admit, even though I'm unlikely to track the car, I REALLY want to put a set of AP Racing brakes up front just because they would look so good behind the wheels. 

I painted these almost 2 years ago and they've had 3 track days, several autocrosses (dual driver), a hillclimb, and a track cross on them (along with about 25,000 miles) and they still look identical:

The engine paint really holds up well.

In reply to z31maniac :

Wilwood's Superlite4R is very similar to the AP Racing 8350 in looks and performance, while being half the cost, just an FYI ;) 

Anyone know if Wilwood offers a factory rebuild service? I emailed them a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything back

Maybe something here from our detail expert will help.

It's funny, I was just thinking about painting the calipers on my Forte GT since you see them right through the wheels. How convenient! I've painted with high temp paint and caliper paint, but I've always heard that the brush-on high temp paint works better. Either way, it's all in the prep work. Get them as clean as possible before any paint goes on, and it should last a while. 

another rustoleum job here.

this was the other side, filthy after 2 winters and 2 track seasons.

Paint was still there if I bothered to clean them.

25 or so years ago, I painted my Alfa's calipers with high temp grill paint.  Still look the same after that.

I powder-coat mine. 

Usually with brake dust. 

hunter47 said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Wilwood's Superlite4R is very similar to the AP Racing 8350 in looks and performance, while being half the cost, just an FYI ;) 

I was thinking a big difference (and what I remember from multiple uses of Wilwood calipers) they don't have the external dust seals on the pistons like you see on a stock caliper, or higher end calipers like AP/Brembo. 

I used the actual caliper paint available at the FLAPs a few times, as well as Duplicolor Wheel Paint, both held up fine for years in normal applications, but both will eventually get fairly chipped up in motorsports applications after a few years.

Toyman! said:

I powder-coat mine. 

Usually with brake dust. 

hahaha! I mean... yeah.