Painted Calipers
Written by Rob Friday, 08 May 2009 17:00
It was time to straighten out the brake calipers on this car. I was debating on a couple of different ways to do it. There are the aluminum caliper covers you can buy
or I could do the regular paint. The aluminum ones are expensive, and I did find some plastic ones on eBay that were a lot less money, but I know that you get what you pay for, and $200 for caliper covers is out of the question at this point. So lets get down to business.
WARNING! Always have the vehicle under inspection on level ground, in park with the emergency brake on. Always wear protective eyewear, gloves and necessary clothing before inspection or work begins. Always have an operational fire extinguisher close by, obey all first aid instructions in the event of an injury. Never move a car without proper brake pedal operation.
Also, this tutorial is less on how to change your brake pads and more on painting the calipers. I found a great tutorial on changing the brake pads on this website, and thanks to them for letting be borrow a couple of pictures. Credit has been given...
I bought the Duplicolor Caliper Paint at my local auto parts store.It was about $16.
First I removed the front wheels (only the fronts are done at this time, the rear are for next weekend). I needed to clean them up. I used the supplied brake cleaner, followed by a wire brush on my grinder. This cleaned them up really good, but make sure you wear a respirator or something to protect the air- you'll be releasing some yuckies and you don't want to breath any in.
Once you have them clean, you can start dissassembly of the brake system. It is only 4 bolts total. The first two bolts remove the caliper, then two bolts to remove the caliper mount.
When you remove the caliper, DO NOT just let it hang by the brake line. It's heavy and you'll cause damage to the line if you do. Damage to the line can be fatal... Use something- wire, or I used really heavy duty tie wraps to anchor it up and keep the pressure off the brake line.
Now two bolts hold on the pad retainer unit. Undo them. You can then pull off the caliper mount, then once it's off you can pull out your brake pads. Make a note of how the pads are installed. Look at the wear indicator on the inside pad in particular, and if you need to, now would be a good time to change out the pads. Carefully remove the pads, the pad support plates (the little clip-like things at the top and bottom on each pad), noting the way they are installed and their sequence. The pad support plates may be stuck to the calipers with grime and crud. Gently pry them out. Clean any crud from the caliper in the area where the caliper mounts go. Clean up the caliper mounts.
Start painting. Follow the instructions in the package. Use lots of coats. Wear rubber gloves.
I used no less than 6 coats of paint on all these parts- a little more than half the can of paint. I left the rest for the rear calipers. You need lots of coats, because the paint goes on splotchy, and you need to keep adding coats to even it out and smooth it up. Wait 15-20 minutes between coats, and don't wait more than an hour or you'll have to wait 5 days for the VOC's to escape the paint.
Once you got that straightened out, wait overnight and let the paint set. The next day- put it all together in reverse of how you took it apart. A while ago I got some Brembo decals off eBay. I used them on this project. However I do have some new Mopar decals coming so they'll be going on instead. I had a comment on the decals and I agree with what they said. I've been meaning to change them out but needed the motivation to get it done.
View a slideshow of all these photos in a higher resolution.
REAR CALIPERS
One week later I did the rear calipers. Here are some photos.
