How To: Paint Calipers (new method)

[GregFarz78]

Much much better method than spray painting your calipers. Spray paint you have to mask everything off around the wheel well, remove the calipers, and make sure you get no overspray on the exterior of the car b/c we all know spray paint gets all over the place.

Well I helped a friend of mine paint his calipers a few weeks ago and we had a much easier method. Heres what you need.

-Brake Cleaner
-High Temp Engine Spray Paint
-Acid Brushes (home depot/hardware store)
-Plastic Cup/Bowl

Of course first off spray some brake cleaner on the calipers and take a wire brush clean them really well. Then spray some paint into the cup till you have enough to dip the acid brush into. After that just brush it on in thin coats, takes about 6-8 coats to get a nice finish. But the best part no masking off, no removing the calipers, and no overspray! Hope that helps someone.

[ALEROone]

Sounds like a decent method. I am going to redo mine some time soon and I just might have to try it this way!:thumbs:

[WhiteGAGT2001]

Yea, that way seems better, especially for a person like me who doesnt want to take a chance on taking it apart and having no clue on putting it back together.. :) Thnx

[StarFire]

That's the way I was going to do it since everything on my car (that is painted) was painted by hand. :)

I love getting the brush strokes in the paint...looks too cool. Plus seeing the texture of things (not necessarily the calipers) underneath the paint is cool.

I'm putting up a pic now of what I mean on my link. Check it out in a few minutes.

-=StarFire=-

[Jeremy]

... or you can wait a couple more days for a new method to paint them.....

<teasing you guys>

[qwik99gt]

No fair teasing, Guru:( . Tell us now or we'll put pics of your car in all those Electric Supercharger auctions on Ebay! I can see it now...

"My Grand Am ran 18.1 second quarter mile times before I got the Ramtastic-Chargerator 5000. Now I run 11.2 seconds on street tires and the gals love me! My mileage went up, too!" -Jer lol

Or at least give us more teasers....:thumbs:

[GregFarz78]

Originally posted by GrandAmGuru
... or you can wait a couple more days for a new method to paint them.....

<teasing you guys>

Hmmmmm :confused: :confused:

[Macleod52]

Well I have a feeling the Guru doesn't have a new way :( Oh well... No matter what I do I can't seem to get all the oil and grease off the calipers :( The paint doesn't stick all the time. I am going to try this method next time just to see if it'll work. Brake Cleaner does not take the paint off my calipers for some reason. Is there any other solution I can use to help take it off? I want to get as much off as I can and re-paint them. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. Do the paint strokes look bad?

[RedGrandTour]

When I re-painted my calipers the brake cleaner caused the old paint to drip off. I had to wait for it to dry before I could re-paint.

[GregFarz78]

Originally posted by Macleod52
Well I have a feeling the Guru doesn't have a new way :( Oh well... No matter what I do I can't seem to get all the oil and grease off the calipers :( The paint doesn't stick all the time. I am going to try this method next time just to see if it'll work. Brake Cleaner does not take the paint off my calipers for some reason. Is there any other solution I can use to help take it off? I want to get as much off as I can and re-paint them. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. Do the paint strokes look bad?

Dont worry about getting the old paint off when I repainted mine from yellow to red I put a coat of primer down before the high temp engine paint. Worked great for me. Oh the primer wasnt high temp paint either it was just regular krylon primer.

[IrateSpeed6]

Shoot, I'll just wait untill I get the powerslots rotors, take the calipers off... grind 'em down real good with my die grinder... heck, you'll never see another set of calipers with a better shine... I'll have to learn the whole process of bleeding the brakes though, I've been hearing about people having problems...

[edit] hmm, that's funny. I didn't think the site would bleep out "****s" I meant the powerslOts but... dang

[tenspeed]

Why spray paint into a cup? You pay alot extra for the convience of sprayable paint.

If your going to use a brush, buy a real paint brush and some paint in a can. Much better coverage, no need for eight coats because it's made to use with a brush.

[cavingman]

did mine that way, came out perfect. only did like 2 coats and it looks great still

[Panacea]

Wow, an old thread. Brings back memories. lol

[IrateSpeed6]

yeah, I remember when I painted my calipers yellow :rolleyes:

[Molson]

....so whats wrong with yellow calipers?

[IrateSpeed6]

Molson, you're a r icer!!!!!!

(it just didn't look good on my black car)

[Molson]

but it adds 5 hp per caliper.... Right?? :(

[Panacea]

Bah, yellow is da shiznit! I love the way it looks on black. Gotta have the emblems to go with it.

[cavingman]

ima re-do mine soon actually, just not lookin forward to getting the orange off of there :(

[Panacea]

Caveman, are you going to strip the paint off or something? I used Parks Pro Stripper to remove the paint on my calipers... Works wonders, just tape off the entire area around your car, cause if you get any drops of that stuff on your paint.... You can kiss it good-bye. It takes a while, but it's 10000000x easier than sanding.

[cavingman]

i just planned on using brake cleaner and a wire brush. i dunno if im gonna worry about stripping all of the old shiz off. maybe i should.

[Green99GT]

at advance duplia* color make paint on brake caliper paint. get the paint, cleaner and some other things for 15$ i think im going to try that, i just painted mine but they look orange.

[iceman]

if you've already painted em.. just hit em up with a wire brush and brake cleaner, youll be good to go.

[Panacea]

The main thing is to degloss the glossy paint, so using a wire brush is a good way to achieve that. I don't think a wire brush will strip the paint off. I can't remember if I used one or not? I did use some 400 grit sand paper.... yeah, didn't work too well. lol

[AaronGAGT]

This might be a stupid question, but if I still use the high temp spray paint method and just mask off the wheel well, what would happen if i got some on the rotor??? Masking the entire rotor seems really tedious and was just wondering if its really necessary to mask the whole thing off...

[IrateSpeed6]

your car will explode

[GTspeed]

i didnt take my calipers off, just masked real good. turned out nice if ya ask me.

[coupe]

I bought M3 caliper paint from pfyc.com. It is NOT a spray paint. Just mask it all off use the cleaner that comes with it. Comes with a brush, no spray at all.

[AaronGAGT]

your car will explode

no really... is it bad to get spray paint on the rotor or not?

[tenspeed]

no really... is it bad to get spray paint on the rotor or not?

I saw some instructions on how to paint the hub part of the rotor. They used High temp. paint.

Some overspray won't hurt anything but it won't look too good either.

[Panacea]

It's okay to get paint on your rotor's. It'll be harder to stop when the paints on there, but after a few miles it'll all come off and you'll be good to go :thumbs:

[AaronGAGT]

It's okay to get paint on your rotor's. It'll be harder to stop when the paints on there, but after a few miles it'll all come off and you'll be good to go :thumbs:

thanks buddy... just the answer i was looking for! :wave:

[Panacea]

^^ Yup yup, just make sure to not drive crazy or behind anyone that may be stoping quickly, cause there is no quick stopping until you get the paint off :)

[replica9000]

no really... is it bad to get spray paint on the rotor or not?

my friend painted his calipers while they were still on the rotors, after we just took the car down the highway and used the brakes till the paint came off.

[kristin04gt]

I painted my calipers with a kit from stylinconcepts.com. It has a lifetime guarantee. If the paint ever flakes or chips, just provide proof of purchase, and they'll send you another kit. It was incredibly easy to use, well worth the $40 or so IMO. It's a brush on, BTW.

[GTmonyPit]

I painted mine red and put on like 5 coats on each one so I would never need to paint them again

[izayn]

Does any body have cernaic brake pads.

If so tell me if they cut doen on the brake dust and will they stick to painted calipers they way regular brakes do to non-painted calipers?

[ga_fo_lyfe]

Are you guys painting with the wheels on?... I am thinking of taking a short cut and doing them with the wheels on....... I amjust going to take news paper anc cover the rims and paint the calipers red... Then I am going to shave the Grand Am Badges and get red vinyl to coover the GT badges..... Anyways just wanted to comment on that......

[jorge3281]

I wouldn't reconmend doing that. Thats just giving yourself a headache. Take your time and do it right. Thats what I think.