So I'm pulling the calipers off this weekend to paint them blue. Any reccomendations on which kind of paint to use?

Also, any LS guys here on B&G springs (w/pics)? Wanted to see how low i'd get.

 

I used G2 caliper paint and loved it!

 

Use a high temp paint, and make sure you get the calipers spotless - no oil / brake fluid / loose flakes of whatever. Good prep = good paint

There is a lowering spring comparo thread in this section, pretty sure there were some fe1 cars on b&g's in there....

 

I used G2 caliper paint too, but you have to order that and wait for shipping. If your doing a common color like blue, go to autozone and buy their caliper paint. I used that on my mustang about 4 years ago and its still good no chips in the paint or anything.

 

Yeah, my buddy's dad is helping me pull the calipers, and he'll certainly make sure i don't find a way to **** up the painting part. Thanks for the tips! I'll check that comparison thread again too...

 

you dont need to pull the calipers off. Just mask off the area really good around the caliper and paint. Taking off the calipers is gonna be alot of work.

 

The guy that is helping me rebuilds old fiat x9's in his spare time... Pulling some calipers off will be a breeze for him.

 

ok well the job will be nicer with the calipers off, sounds like you got it cased.

oh and if you care, I used high temp engine enamel for mine (spray paint). But prep is everything for this job so i sanded down my calipers first and sprayed on some etching primer.

 

He must be some kind of masochist (sp?), working on those little Italian boxes make brain surgery look easy

 

Do you remember what grit you used?

You're telling me... I got under there with him once, and I kid you not, there is no such thing as "bolt on" for a car like that... all welds baby. There's a lot to be said for the guy... he's got an original motor in one with all new internals, and cylinders with a different compression ratio; his wife says whenever she follows him in their scion TC, she gets dusted every time.

Thanks for all the tips guys... I'll try and post some pics once everything's finished.

 

I dont remeber exactly, it was just rough enough to scuff up the surface

 

To remove the calipers all you have to do is remove two bolts and they are off(but still connected to the hoses).

 

well yeah i did that, but i think he is talking about completely removing them from the vehicle

 

I may still leave the hoses connected, depends on how high his jackstands are.

I think i'm picking up some black paint for the drums too... might as well do it while it's up.

 

Leave them connected if you undo them you will have to flush the whole brake system.

 

Are there not bleeder valves on our brakes?

 

I'm not sure on this one, I haven't gotten into my balt's brakes before this. I'll have some updates once I get it all pulled apart tomorrow.

Pics will be up as soon as I find a camera that actually works.

 

Sorry, I meant bleed them, not flush... although if you flush them you could use dot5 brakefluid.

 

Ok. I can imagine a flush being a big job, but if you are just pulling the calipers and reinstalling them, the bleed process is pretty easy. If you clamp off the brake lines properly, you are only refilling the calipers with fluid, bleeding out a very small amount of air.

 

So we got them pulled this saturday, and we did end up re-bleeding the brakes. However, I'm completely satisfied with the final result. I'll have better pics up as soon as i have access to a camera that isn't a cell phone...

 

Sweet!

What kind of paint did you wind up using? Spray or brush paint? What progression of grit did you use to prep them?

I'm really interested to here how you wound up doing it, cuz I want to do my front and rears soon.

 

I wanna paint my calipers gold, but i wanna know if theres a how-to on painting SS/TC Calipers or if i should brush on the paint. heard of people having problems reassembling the Brembo.

 

I actually ended up using some paint labeled "engine enamel" from pep boys, because they didn't have caliper paint in the color I wanted. Same heat rating and all. I bought the spray on kind, which actually worked out very nicely. The drying time between coats wasn't more than 15 minutes.

Pulling the calipers itself was pretty easy, just a couple of bolts to pull and a clip to take off. Disconnecting from the lines was a little harder, we ended up plugging the banjo bolt with some rags until we re-bled the brakes.

The cleaning was pretty simple too. Once the brakes were off, I used a spray can solution that was just labeled "brake cleaner". The cleaner pulled off most of the dirt. Then I used a regular scrub pad to smooth it down a little. Repeated a couple of times until everything was completely clean. For the rusty spots, we brushed on some stuff called "rust converter" (if you don't have it, get it).

After that we taped them up, laid them out and got to spraying. 3 coats later we were looking good and ready, so we re-bled and hooked everything back up. Brakes are still a little soft, so we're re-bleeding again this saturday and I'm going to paint the drums black while I'm at it.

I can't speak for the brembos, but you definitely wouldn't wanna do spray-on if you aren't sure about disassembling them.

 

Thanks for the info's!! So you didn't wind up sanding them? What about a primer and clearcoat?

 

I'm not sure what the grit would be, but it was a green scrub pad like you'd use in a kitchen sink (only much tougher). All of this stuff can be bought at any auto parts store. We didn't need primer or clearcoat, just 3 coats of the spray-on was plenty. I think the paint is a ceramic base, but it definitely has a glossy look by itself.