DIY Painting / Powdercoating brake calipers red - anyone done it?

[A Ward]

Hi

I'm going to be doing some servicing on the car next week - gearbox oil change, oil + filters change, renewal of brake/clutch fluid and I was thinking that with the clutch/brake system drained off it would be an ideal opportuntiy to remove all the calipers and convert them from black to a nice deep red.

Has anyone carried out this modification themselves and if so have they got any advise or recommendations for doing this job? I am toying up between spraying and powdercoating the calipers. Has anyone used either of these methods themselves (not paid a company to do it) - and if so what are the likely problems I may come across?

I'm also looking for recommendations for products to use to carry this task out - anyone know any good suppliers of the high temperature paint for spraying them, or a DIY powdercoating kit that they have perhaps used to carry out this task?

All replies gratefully received.

Many thanks []

 

[tim court]

I repainted some red calipers that were badly chipped. Stripping the paint was a job I will never repeat. Because the chambers and fluidways contain brake fluid remnants (despite repeated attempts to fully empty) each time a paint application was made some area or other ended up pickled and needing touching up.

The existing paint is so baked on it is almost part of the metal. Nitromors is expensive and needed many repeat attempts to get the last of the paint off. I wanted to get it all off as the new paint recommended total strip to avoid incompatibility issues.

I ended up buying a gallon of cheapo brake fluid from halfords and immersing the calipers for a few days which finally did the trick.

HT Spray paint is available from the likes of ebay/car spares shops and has proved robust but my advice is leave it to the pro's!

 

[A Ward]

Thanks for the reply - I was thinking of sandblasting the calipers as I have the necessary kit to carry this out...I can see what you mean about the paint stripper being an expensive route to go down!!

Sandblasting should give me a nice surface to start from and I was going to use some etch primer for the initial base coat - followed by some high temperature smooth red - decals - then clear high temperature lacquer to finish off.

Thanks for the warning about the brake fluid - will try to ensure that they are fully cleared out before attempting the spraying.

Will take some pics if I do go ahead - so everyone else can have a good laugh if I cock it all up!! Hopefully it will all go smoothly though - including the finish!!