Thread: Painting Brake Calpers

Prep and paint.

Use a high quality paint that will hold up to the temperatures that the brakes can reach. Something at or above 1200* paint would be good. But if its in the 500* range that will work as well.

I never had much luck with spray paint, or brush on paint. The up keep was just stupid, and wasted time, and in between upkeeps, you could tell they were "self done" paint jobs. Now I just completely disassemble them, have them sand blasted which cleans then entirely of built up brake dust, and have them powder coated. Reassemble/rebuild them myself using new GM parts, and install them and forget about them. When they get dusty, they clean up perfect with a towel, no scrubbing. But if the dust get caked on well, then I can can scrub them with never worrying about the paint chipping or flaking. Costs some money to do it powder coating style, but money well spent if your going to keep you car for more than 3 years down the road.

Here is a stock rear caliper I rebuilt for a guy who had one seize on him. It was powder coated and fully rebuilt.





Here was a pair of powder coated ones I ran on my car before I built up a set of the F-bodies.


(bad camera picture...they are as red as the rear one above)

Here is a powder coated F-body brake today on my car:


~F~

How much did the powder coating/ sand blasting cost you? Did the shop know what they were doing or did you have to set it up?

Originally Posted by y1a3o

if i take the brake calper off, how easy is it to put it back on? i just dropped 500 on new brakes and i dont want to mess any of this up. if i take them off, will i have to worry about my brakes??

If you can remove it, you can put it back on, and get the bracket bolts tight~!

If you don't feel comfortable doing them...ask for some local help to come by, or pay somebody qualified to do it. Brakes are kinda a safety thing...I would be more worried about them failing than messing them up.

My $0.02 on the matter.

~F~

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

How much did the powder coating/ sand blasting cost you? Did the shop know what they were doing or did you have to set it up?

I think I was charged around $75.00 a set for powder coating, blasting added in.
Example, fronts, 4 pieces total = $75.00 add in rears + $75.00 for a total of $150.00 for a full set of 4 calipers with brackets.

Yes, the shop knows what they are doing. They do Big Dog Motorcycles (google it) bike frames. They do about anything, and know what should be and what should not be coated. They have done hundreds of brakes for me, and recently a few M90s for people wanting that done. I drop these parts off never worrying about them.

All i do is disassemble them myself, give them a quick washing in solvent so they dont have any brake fluid in them, and are sorta clean to handle on the out side, and drop them off. Once done, they get a washing to get everything cleaned out of them before they are reassembled.

Replacement parts, such as seals etc. runs around $88.00 or so total for the full set for a set of stock brakes.

For ME to do up a set of brakes, labor of $62.00 ($31.00 a set) and parts of $238.00 or so usually runs around the $300.00 mark when its all said and done for a set of stock brakes.

F-bodies are different, cause I will prefinish the aluminum by hand before it gets power coated, and at owners request, drill and tap the mounting brackets to accept the stock W-Body caliper bolts since I am against using washers/spacers, and smaller bolts on these.

~F~

Originally Posted by heat

Is there anyway to clean the rotors on cars without buying new one's..my car's rotors are rusted and if i'm gonna spend the time on painting the calipers I want them to look nice to...

Yes.

You can remove the rust/or ugly build up from the "rotor hat" and then prep it for paint, and use BBQ grill paint, yes, bar-ba-q grill paint. It has a dull black finish that stays around for many years if you prep them well. They have a very high heat range on it as well, so it will never fade, crack or peel. The area where the pads run will always be shiny, so when you spray, attempt to mask off the area where the pads will run...getting pain on the pads is not a good idea, but some over spray will not hurt too much, thats why I said make an attempt. Seen to many people go nuts with silver paint on the rotors, and wonder why their brakes feel the way they do or have remature pad failure.

~F~

Depends on how bad they are. You want them clean enough to eat off of, or else your paint will not hold on worth a crap.

Some take a light scrubbing...some take more.

When I do mine, they all get sand blasted, so that pretty much removes anything and everything from the material of the part, and adds a nice rough texture for paint or the powder coating to grab onto for a strong secure bond.

~F~

I can get a caliper rebuild kit for $8 each for the rear calipers (each kit only services one caliper) from Napa. Can't ever find the fronts (Impala/Monte fronts), but I can find them for F-bodies which I'm switching to anyway.

Now I gotta do some calling around. Thinking about going black on the brackets and silver on the calipers.

There ya go, two tone is kinda cool for paint colors.

If it matters...I don't even waste my money on parts store replacement/rebuild parts for the rebuilds I do. I just don't trust them for the quality you get. I use only GM parts. Costs more, but knowing whats in there lets my mind at peace.

~F~

Originally Posted by GR8racingfool

Costs more, but knowing whats in there lets my mind at peace.

~F~

Fair enough. I'll consider that when it comes time for me to do it.

Anyone ever Polish a set of calipers and brackets? I think that would look pretty damn good, never seen it done yet though

I used the red Dupli Color brake paint kit from Canadian Tire, left everything intact and painted with the suplied brush. Only time will tell how long it lasts before it needs another coat of paint

Originally Posted by Iron Indian

Anyone ever Polish a set of calipers and brackets? I think that would look pretty damn good, never seen it done yet though

There is a F-Body upgrade thread on ClubGP where someone was showing their polished calipers:
ClubGP Message Forum troubleshooting

As for painting them, I have never had any issue using regular rattle-can paint. I always have folks insisting that high-temperature paint is required, but I have painted about a dozen difference cars' calipers with regular spray paint and they all hold up just fine. I will agree that powder coating will hold up much better than any paint job, though!

Pull wheels, 2 bolts in back of calipers holding them on, disassembly takes the most time.

If you are going to leave them connected to the brake lines and then paint them while your holding them a couple of minutes to remove the brake pads and clips and then about 10 minutes to paint (use a jack stand to hold the caliper so your not holding it the whole time while you paint it.

If you plan on disassembling them and you know what your doing 20 minutes. If you don't know what your doing plan on the car sitting still for 2 days. Of course if your going to completely disassemble them you probably would want to rebuild them too!

While you've got the brake calipers off painting them you definitely want to pull the rotors and sand the hat area, then clean off excess dust and tape off the brake pad area (10-15 minutes ea). Then paint (5 minutes not including drying time).