Painting Brake Calipers : The Ultimate Guide

Tape Off What You don't Want Sprayed

It's pretty obvious that just spraying the calipers wide open with spray paint will LEAVE A MESS on things you may not want painted. For instance, all the brake lines, the actual metal on the rotors, and lots more. This is why we TAPE THINGS OFF.

In the image here, they did not want that section of the rotor being painted. Just an helpful hint, good masking tape really pays off here. With this area of the automobile being somewhat dirty and gritty with lots of different things, it makes for a tough surface for tape to stick to. So quality really helps here.

Next, were going to want to cover up the control arms and the inner parts of the steering parts. In the image here, an actual piece of cloth was used. An old rag or towel really wraps around those components very nicely.

Just make sure to know that if you don't tape off the rotor section where the pad rubs, THERE WILL be a grinding sound for a good while when you go to brake when everything is re-installed. I see this mistake happen all the time. The just paint everything without taping things off and put it all back together and wonder why their brakes sound super funny.. It's because you put paint in your brake system, when it's suppose to be just metal on metal. Now you have metal on metal with paint mixed.

So there you have it. This section is real basic and there isn't much to get into depth here. You can either take the little extra time and tape and cover the needed stuff up or just paint it anyways and deal with it for a little while in the brakes. You may find that painting a little more than just your calipers can really add a look cool look that many haven't seen before.

Next Step : Primering Calipers

Cleaning Brake Calipers and Prepping For Paint

Now that you have got your wheel removed, you are ready to prep calipers for paint. This is a pretty basic tutorial, and gets right down to the point. So read, learn, and enjoy!

You should be to this stage here ( Image Below ).
Note: This caliper has already been painted and is just being RE-PAINTED

I will repeat again, that is caliper in the image has already been painted before. The paint looks like crap, so we are going to repaint it in this tutorial. Hopefully the wheel came off nice and easy for you. Once you get the wheel off, this is what you should be looking at. The image is of an Eagle Talon if you are wondering.

Getting Started:

Enough blabbing. You now know where you should be at so lets get started.

Your going to want to find a wire brush. Plain and simple wire brush. I tiny one is not going to do that great, but then again too big of one will not work good either. Take and scrap the heck out of the caliper. The idea here is to get all of the rust and dirt and what not off of the calipers.

In this image, we are removing all of the old paint and trying to get down to bare metal. Nothing sticks better than paint to bare metal. Using compressed air can really help get some of that grime and dust out of there as well. Just remember..

The prep work DETERMINES how well the final project actually turns out.

It's a lot like a car paint job, the better the body is before the paint the better the paint job will look. More than half of your calipers turning out really well is in the prep work, so really pay attention and don't cut corners here if your looking to cut corners.

What else works GREAT is a..

A wire brush on a grinder works great too. A grinder can sometimes get out of control though.

REMEMBER, to watch out for brake lines and other harmful lines that you could puncture while using this big powerful grinder. I would suggest a brush wheel on a drill instead. It is less torque and just easier to not mess up around the brake area.  The better they are cleaned, the better your paint brake calipers job will turn out, and that is all honesty.

Finished Product:
-Bare Metal
-Clean Of Dirt
-Clean of Grime
-Almost Ready For Paint

Image Below

Just browsing websites here on painting calipers and I have ran into an important question. I WANT TO KNOW, do you think it is fine if I leave my caliper on the entire unit and spray everything like my rotors and my calipers all in one? I want the inside of my rotors painted because they are bigger rotors and my rims do not cover all of them and I think that would look awesome. Is this ok??

Jessi Y.

Answer:

Thanks for sending in the great question Jessi. There are a couple of aspects to take a look into when doing something like your idea. Again though, what a great question and we are happy to receive it.

Number 1 : Paint Left Over On Rotors

People will argue that this left over paint on your rotors will make your brakes never stop like they did before. If you have ever heard of the tricks of putting certain things or chemicals on your brake pads before installing them to work best.. thing of painting slippery dry paint on the rotors where your pads want to rub to stop your life and your entire car.

Yes, this is somewhat of a nit picky idea and I myself am not that picky of a person.. but I'm just stating a major flaw I have heard to this idea you talk of.

As far as the reason behind you doing it, all the power to you because I can imagine a set of the rotors being painted with the rims head on them. I can especially see a set of the bigger upgraded rotors looking like since they have a lot more room to see than most of the stock rotors and such.

Would I do this method myself? On any of my vehicles?

With the idea of me having disc brakes in mind, would I do this on my own to one of my rides? For the reason you have stated..? ..

Yes I would. I like my brakes to look nice and this would really do some wonders. I'm not sure if I myself believe that whole method of not being able to stop as good as I ever had before hand.. but I think it might effect the braking for a week maybe. Once that metal on metal action has grinded down what it has.. there is just no room for paint there to exist.

There you have it, thanks for sending in the great question again Jessi! Please visit again and don't be afraid to tell your friends about us!

What Is The Best Paint For Painting Brake Calipers?

When someone asks me this question, one things comes to mind. Are you craving a professional finish or a descent finish that will last a good amount of time? There is a variable that comes into play here too.  The whole idea of Money versus less money really comes into play as well.

Asking this question is like asking "who is the best football team in the nfl right now?".. We all know there is going to be ten different answers, and they are mostly based on opinion.

Let's tally Up Votes Across Forums !!

It wouldn't be fair for me to just tell you what I think is the best because that would be boring and one opinion is pretty much not AS GOOD AS A POPULAR VOTE.

1. HondaTech.com - Best Caliper Paint Picture Thread

-Duplicolor Caliper Paint Kit - 1 Vote
-Duplicolor Caliper Spray Paint- 2 Votes
-High Temperature BBQ Grill Paint- 1 Vote
-High Temp Engine Enamel- 1 Vote

2. PtCruiserlinks.com - Brake Drum and Caliper Paint

-G2 Performance Caliper Paint- 1 Vote
-Duplicolor Caliper Paint- 1 Vote

3 CorvetteForums.com - Paint Brake Calipers?

-Any High Temp Caliper Paint- 2 Vote
-G2 Brush On Stage Caliper- 1 Vote
-General Motors Caliper Colors- 2 Votes
-Folia-Tec caliper paint kit- 1 Vote
-Griots's high temp aluminum paint- 1 Vote
-Duplicolor Caliper spray- 1 Vote
-Por15 Caliper Paint- 1 Vote
-Plasikote 900degree caliper paint (Wal-Mart $3.79)- 1 Vote

4. SaabScene.com - Brake Caliper Paint

-Halfords brake caliper Paint- 2 Votes
-Humbrol Enamel paint- 1 Vote
-Plasti-kote enamel- 1 Vote
-Hammerite Paints- 2 Votes

___________________________________________

So there you have it. The votes of the top forums I could find and  the ones Google seems to rank the best. To sum up all the votes, I would say it's mostly scattered into a break up of them all. I would say if you were to take out something from all of the votes, is that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. And to make sure you use something that is rated for high temperatures. Also a lot of them refer to using filler primer when painting brake calipers. But you can relate to that guide we host if that interests you.

Sorry I couldn't come up with just one answer but there are so many different brands of good reputable paint companies out there.

Maybe we can keep the voting going though..

Using Filler Primer To Hide Imperfections

Modding cars leaves us with so many things to do. One thing leads to another and there is no way around it. For example, you can't be repping the nicest rims on the block and have the nastiest brake calipers out there.

When it comes to painting brake calipers,  there are so many options and so many different tricks to getting the job to turn out with different results. Some just splash a little paint on em and call them good, while others don't sleep at night if they are starting to flake or scratch.

Now we know that our site here hosts numerous different tutorials and they are all somewhat different methods, but we would like to talk a bit about using filler primer to help the turnout on painting your brake calipers. There is no reason why doing a little research to have them turn out breath taking is wrong. A lot of people like to research things before hand to make sure they can do it the best possible. As I like to say..

Why Do Something If Your Not Going To Do It 100% ?

About Filler Primer, and Why It Works

Filler primer works pretty much like a thin coat of body filler. Some even use actual body filler, but that might work better for you with major imperfections in your calipers.

Those of you with regular calipers and not huge imperfections, filler primer is your best bet. What is great about filler primer, is that it seems to wanna bond so darn well to things. I'm not sure why filler primer loves to do that but it is great!

Prep Work And Spray Methods

Prep work for filler primer is the same as any other prep work for a spray painting project. I'll give you a rough outline for those of you that may not know or just want to know what I do.

1. Wire Brush - Used to get rid of larger pieces or dirt and such
2. Sanding- Flexible paper helps, No lower than 80 grit. In my opinion
3. Degreaser Agent- Paint thinner, brake cleaner, carb cleaner. NO RESIDUE

Once you are ready to spray, go for it! Just hold the spray can the right amount of length away to where your getting your moneys worth on spray and not too close to where your getting drips. This can be a bit thicker since it is filler primer and not your usual spray paint.

Finishing Up

To be completely honest, I love filler primer and I would tell anyone to use it. For how much the stuff helps the turnout of the paint job, it is totally worth it in my mind.

If you think otherwise.. feel free to share.