Okay, I know it may sound ricey to some but I can't afford Brembos or anything and just want to do some misc stuff with my free time.

So have any of you painted calipers before? What's the best stuff to use (brand) and how involved is the procedure? How long does it usually take to dry?

(I don't have a floor jack or jackstands so if it requires that I have all 4 corners with the wheels off and off the ground, I'll have to pass)....

Thanks

 

Take a look at my gallery, I've got pics of the entire process. Some good high heat motor paint is good, or get them powder coated.

 

Eastwood sells a brush-on paint that comes in lots of colors, red, yellow, blue, purple, etc. About $50.

www.eastwoodcompany.com

I don't know of any way to paint the calipers other than jacking up a corner and taking the wheel off.

Paul

 

I have a white 03 and painted mine red. I used a spray can of engine block paint (Ford Red color) its high heat resistant to 500F.
Used my stock truck jack without jack stands,one at a time. I did the fronts one day and the rears another day. I did the fronts in about 3hrs. I would suggest buying some jack stands and floor jack if you do any more mods. Pep Boys sells stands for $20 a pair, and a 2 ton floor jack for $20. I was there the other day and saw them as a kit for $39.99.

 

I agree that you should buy the jack and stands; how do you plan to rotate your tires, I mean when your rear tires are bald from burn outs and you want have more fund you will need to slap them good fronts on the back for some more rubber.

But back to your question; I have the eastwood kit myself, and you will need to do them all at once. I actually did my calipers in red and everything else that was rusty in black(also eastwood kit). It is holding up very very nicelly. You don't even have to remove the calipers from the truck; just take the wheels off.

Mine are red on a Black 02'

 

I agree you should spend the $20 on a set of jackstands. Even if you don't plan on working on your truck, just to be able to crawl under your truck to safely "inspect things"

While Iam sure the Eastwood Co $50 paint kit for the calipers is a great product, I just purchased a $2.99 can of Dupli-Color High Heat Ceramic paint in DH1612 Blue. Works for me

BTW........you have to pull the wheels to paint but you can paint the calipers on the truck with a little tape and paper

 

I painted my calipers on my eclipse and then they did nothing but sqeuaked after wards, not really sure if thats the reason they squeaked but they did, any one else have this problem?

 

So you just slide the newspaper under the caliper and cover off the rest of the brake and then just spray on the paint?

Do I want to apply it in every little crevice in the caliper or will that effect heat dissipation, etc. (effects the operation of the caliper?)

Phillip: looks great and I hope to be doing mine soon. How long did you wait before taking the newspaper and everything off to move on to the next corner? Any problems with the paint dripping?

 

http://www.msu.edu/~nawrock3/caliper.jpg

I painted only the cliaper bracket.
Took it off cleaned it spotless, and used High temp spray paint from Summit racing.

I didn't want to do the entire caliper.

I took it off for overspray reasons. didn't want it on the slotted/cross-drilled rotors of the carbon fiber pads!
Also the $10k in paint.

Do it right, take it off, spray it, dry it, spray it , dry it put it on.

to clean all I had to do is spray it with water.

 

More pictures here: caliper painting

 

that looks like a lot of work...

same result though

 

Yep...best stuff I've used yet.

--wes

 

Well, I jacked up the rear and put jack stands under the axles, and did the rear all at once. I got one side all preped, and put on a coat, then preped the other side and put on a coat, then back to the first side and another coat, waited for them to dry and put about 4 even coats, letting each dry good. I Took out the shop towels from the gaps right when I was done, but left the newspapers untill completely dry. You would have to go ape chit crazzy to get overspray on the truck, if its in a controlled environment, you should have no problems, just be carefull. If you do get paint on the rotor or A arm or any other part, accetone takes that off really good. On the rotor, where you can see the back of the pad, I taped it off the best I could then painted. I have had friends take off the pads and callipers to paint, but seems like much more of a hassle unless you need to change pads. For cleaning, Accetone a wire brush and some type of scotch brite pad cleans them up really good so they will be ready to paint. I have had mine on for almost 6 months now, and they still look as good as the day I did them. Just spray them off with the pressure washer while washing truck and they should last good.

 

You dont have to do all that to get it perfect. I used the engine 500 degree paint as well. I did mine in white to match my truck's paint. These are the steps I took.

1. clean calipers and rotors with disc brake cleaner spray.

2. Use semi hard wire brush to scuff up the coating on the calipers

3. clean them again with disc cleaner, repeat scuffing and cleaning again.

4. I used a small piece of card board to shield from drastic over spray when painting. (You will get some but dont worry,it comes off easy)

5. Apply several thin coats rather than a few thick ones, allow 15-20 min dry time inbetween.

6. I used the hard wire brush to get all the rust off the mounting surface, then spray it with disc cleaner.

7. I painted the mounting surface as well, do not paint unless you remove the rust first.

8. Let the last coat dry for an hour or so, then clean off any over spray on the rotors (or anything for that matter) with some laquer thinner. Dont forget to turn the rotor and clean all of it off. the back rotors are a lot harder to turn than the front just so you know.

9. Once any over spray is gone, spray disc cleaner on the rotors whiel you turn them. This cleans them and the pads at the same time.

10. Wait for everything to dry before puting your wheels back on, be sure not to hit the back of the rim on the painted areas when re-mounting them.

Total time for me was 3 hours for the fronts one day. Then 2 hours for the rear the next day.

Good luck, and remember prepping is always the most important step to painting something. So take your time and dont rush or it will come out wrong.

 

a harder time with the paint sticking to the rears? I was told that the rear rotors are already coated or something that causes the paint to not stick or at least not want to stick to it...