Caliper Paint?

Hey guys, while Im waiting on my damn seat covers to get here im planning my brake repair. Im going to rebuild the calipers. Since I have the standard C5 calipers , which only differ from the Z06 calipers by some pretty red paint and the way they are cast, I figured Id paint them up red when I had them apart.

Original plan was powder coat but everyone is too slow (3-4 days), too expensive ($200), or too far. I think 200 is a little steep to powdercoat 4 calipers that require no prep or dis assembly (Ill already have them apart).

So now Im planning on painting them. If I paint it I want to do it right, and Im not sure if I should primer them or what. When I see them done on nice cars they are primered then painted. I have no idea if this is done for durability or for aesthetics.

I pretty much want the OEM look, which isnt super glossy or smooth. Its red and durable, and thats what I want. I dont want to be touching up chips all the time.

Pictar for Reference. mine look just like this minus the color.

Hmm... I have absolutely no advice to give you on this subject. That said, I can't wait to see what you end up doing/how it comes out, since I'll be doing my calipers in blue when I do the M3 brake upgrade

I'm no expert on paint either, but I think it's because primer is more durable than regular paint, and you often have to use multiple coats of paint on items that are outside or will get heat put on them. If a fairly large number of car guys have red calipers in your area, I would go with a different color, like yellow or black. I bought black Wilwood 4 piston calipers because red is over-used. I just need to buy another car to put them on.

What everyone else in my area is doing has no bearing on what I do to my car. I woulnt care if every car on the road had red calipers. I like the OEM look, and Im gonna go ahead and do the red, just want to make sure its durable.

I painted the calipers on my SAAB silver with a "brake paint" spray can, I think it was duplicolor, but I'm not totally sure. Its aged OK, but not great, I think primer and/or more coats would have helped.

Opti wrote: What everyone else in my area is doing has no bearing on what I do to my car. I woulnt care if every car on the road had red calipers. I like the OEM look, and Im gonna go ahead and do the red, just want to make sure its durable.

Good call. I feel the same way about doing mine blue.

2 Friends used the Duplicolor brush-on in a can. Still holding up decently. One DD's the car. I'd still do the bracket in black if at all possible.

Yah gonna do a black bracket just like factory.

What do you mean brush on in a can?

I powdercoated the gixxer calipers on the Fiat

underneath the brake dust they still look great years later. Those sintered pads give off brutal amounts of dust.

The Toyota calipers for the Triumph were sandblasted and treated to The finest rattle can of VHT caliper paint that $5 could buy when it happened to cross my mind.

It is a lower gloss finish.

A co-worker used a red duplicolor kit that was applied with a brush. It turned out a bit too flat for my tastes. The bonus with that method was supposed to be not having to disconnect the line and therefore not having to bleed the brakes afterward. It looks fine a year later. Even through some very open 5 spoke wheels you would be hard pressed to spot any flaws.

I am considering stripping the calipers for the Triumph again and having them yellow zinc plated. A 35lb plating batch is $65 locally and only takes a week.

Plating is the standard treatment we give all our customers cars

Clean, clean, clean. If they've been used on a car, clean them again. Brake dust is nasty for paint. I'd nail it with brake cleaner at least until I saw the fluid go clear, then use de-natured alcohol to was away any brake cleaner. Use the high heat stuff.

I used Rust Oleum in a brush-on can from the hardware store. Did lots of autocrosses and a few track days and the only issue was a few chips from changing my tires. Touch up on occasion fixed that. Race pad dust was dirty, but brake clean and a brush fixed that. Still looked pretty decent after 10 years and 40k miles.

I did the brush-on with ceramic on the xB, after enough coats it was very smooth and looked factory. For the Subarust when I had the wheels off to swap the snow's on for rallycross I used the Duplicolor spray becauseracecar. Looks ok, holds up well to heat and dirt, and if you DON'T want smooth/shiny, maybe this is it.

When I rebuilt my calipers on the Mini, I wanted the zinc plated look like Ditchdigger posted, so I rattle canned them with some gold paint. That was at least 6 years ago and they look ok still (once cleaned off), but I don't put that many miles on the car.

I just used a can of black Krylon, and it's held up well. However, I don't track my car or anything so I don't get the brakes all that hot.

I've had good luck using Dupli-Color engine paint on brake calipers. Fairly tough stuff, and holds up to the heat just fine. Dries to a not-too-glossy not-too-flat finish.

Like everyone else has mentioned, it's all in the prep. I will usually use a steel or brass bristle brush and brake cleaner to scrub them up. Make sure they are clean, clean, clean before you spray them to make sure the paint sticks.