Painted brake calipers--Updated with pics

[mjparme]

I painted my brake calipers this morning. I have a pewter Camaro and I painted my calipers blue. It isn't a paint scheme I have heard of much but I was fairly certain it was going to look good. I wasn't disappointed, I think pewter and blue go together quite good. I also put the Camaro brake decals on that I got from http://www.afterthoughtsauto.com

I know this thread is pretty worthless without pics so I will see if I can get some tomorrow.

The only complaint I have is that the paint system I got has a reactant that you mix with the paint. According to the instructions you have 4-6 hours of work time (with the recommended ambient air temperature of 56-70 degrees F) after you mix the paint and reactant together. I did the front calipers and I let it dry for about 1.5 hours and then put the decals on. Then I put the front wheels back on and got the rear wheels off (set it on jack stands). By this time it had been 2 h 45 mins since I mixed the reactant and paint. I open the paint again and it was already a big glob of blue goo. What happened to the 4-6 hours of work time?

Anyway, I am extremely happy with the looks of this paint after it was dry (got it from Ecklers, which is a Corvette aftermarket place) but I am not happy that the paint wasn't workable in the 4-6 hours it said in the instructions. So I got my front calipers painted but not the rears. I really want to paint the rears too but the paint system is $40 and I am not sure I want to pay another $40 since the first $40 should have resulted in both the front a rear calipers getting painted.

[ July 29, 2004, 12:56 AM: Message edited by: mjparme ]

[BLLDOGG]

sucks it didnt work. nothing like a spray paint can

[mjparme]

Actually the paint worked quite well on the front calipers, I am very happy with the appearance of the paint on the calipers.

I am not happy that less than 3 hours later, when the instructions said I had 4-6 hours, the paint was already a big glob of blue goo so I was unable to get the rear ones painted.

I would actually recommend this paint system to people. I would just mention that you probably don't want to pause between the front and rear. So you would probably want to put the car on jack stands and take all four wheels off at once. Or immediately put back on the first two and the remove the other two (being careful not to touch the wet caliper).

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...2QESVS7RTJ27C2

[mjparme]

I contacted the manufacturer of the paint system and they are sending me a replacement kit!

[smcruikshank]

that's always nice. Is this a dark blue? I have been wanting to do the dark blue color scheme on my pewter maro too, just haven't gotten around to the appearance mods yet

[BLLDOGG]

well, i guess i should consider the blue on my pewter. ive always just thought to do red

[mjparme]

Hmm, I am not sure if you would consider it a dark blue or not.

I will see if I can't get some pictures of it that way you can see it for yourself.

[Steve Caroccia]

I know I wrote this on here before, but what is wrong with the $3 Wal-Mart special, as long as they have the color you want? Any enamel seems to work fine. My red has been on for about 18 months, and although I do not drive in the ice, snow, and salt of Buffalo NY, the paint has been resilient.

[Linxs]

no pictures yet?

[mjparme]

I know I wrote this on here before, but what is wrong with the $3 Wal-Mart special,

Not heat resistant. I am surprised your paint has lasted that long. Plus I live in Omaha so driving in snow is a fact of life.

no pictures yet?

I am still working on it.

[mjparme]

Here are the promised pictures:

http://members.cox.net/mjparme/

The first page that displays is dial-up friendly. I have drasitically reduced the size of the pictures for the thumbnails. Once you click on the thumbnail image the enlarged images are about 100K-150K each. So dial-up people might have to be slightly patient for those.

My fiancee put the caliper decals on for me. She does crafty stuff and I figured she would be good at it, I wasn't wrong, she did awesome on those.

I got the decals at:

http://www.afterthoughtsauto.com

Little pricey there for only getting two ($20), you might be better off at:

http://www.caliperdecals.com

They charge $10 for 6 of them which gives you some leeway if you mess up.

[ July 29, 2004, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: mjparme ]

[BLLDOGG]

looks good. now i dont knwo if i want red or blue accents

[mjparme]

I think I considered red when I was thinking about it. Then someone mentioned blue and I thought that might look good too.

Red will probably look good too. It will probably standout a lot from the Pewter. I think the blue is a little more subtle against the Pewter

[BLLDOGG]

well i wanted blue wire looms but didnt consider blue calipers, so i was going to do all red, know i think i'll do blue :D

[Radcat]

Doh I'm not the only one with blue calipers anymore [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I just went to autozone and bought some 1200 degree engine primer, paint and clear coat. Painted mine Ford blue. Did the front and back for about $12.