Finally painted my calipers

[whitemp5seattle]

I bought a can of duplicolor caliper paint. which means spraying...I might try to find some brush on paint tomorrow though...seems brushing is the easier way to go...

 

[altspace]

With brushing you have more control and do not need to mask off anything.

 

[CTt3P5]

Go red and black like I did. It's more subtle and not so in your face with all red. Hard to see in this pic though.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking....thanks for the visual. And the brake paint on the RX-8 looks damn good.

I opted for the folia-tec which is also a brush on. Like the feeling of having control over a brush vs. masking/spraying/wind. Now I just need some good weather so I can put her up on stands and get artistic.

 

[Tasty]

So can you re-paint already painted calipers? OR, if you do so will it look like crap and come off easily? Mine are red (when I bought the vehicle), but I would like black or silver instead. Red doesn't go with the laser blue IMO.

 

[DeadGeneration]

I have never had any luck with brush painting things. With a brush you need have an absorbing surface, like a paint canvas or a wall of a house. Since metal it just sits on there and you can push around globs of paint then it has to dry. Paint always wants to stay in a bubble or a sphere and with spray painting you get alot smaller particles, where as the brushing is just kinda like molding one big goop of paint. Plus with brush on painting you should allow it to dry longer between coats since you are going to be going over it again with a brush which might break the hardend surface only to reveal wet paint below. I think about it kinda like this, they don't hand paint cars - they use air brushes. Smaller particles of paint FTW even if they do go every where - powder coating same thing.

 

[CTt3P5]

^^^Will have to disagree with you on this one. I used the folia-tec brush on and application was easy. It was very similiar to painting drywall and the paint went on nice and smooth. Only time I had big globs was when I had too much on the brush, but that was easily spread out over the caliper. Maybe it is different from the duplicolor kits as the folia-tec has a hardening agent you mix with the paint? (dunno)

I present the evidence.

 

[MP3Performance]

So can you re-paint already painted calipers? OR, if you do so will it look like crap and come off easily? Mine are red (when I bought the vehicle), but I would like black or silver instead. Red doesn't go with the laser blue IMO.

I recently painted my calipers red on the blue MP3, and think it looks great. But I think the caliper color should also depend on what color your wheels are. (shrug) (I only have this pic with the front caliper, but the rear are also painted)

I have never had any luck with brush painting things. With a brush you need have an absorbing surface, like a paint canvas or a wall of a house. Since metal it just sits on there and you can push around globs of paint then it has to dry. Paint always wants to stay in a bubble or a sphere and with spray painting you get alot smaller particles, where as the brushing is just kinda like molding one big goop of paint. Plus with brush on painting you should allow it to dry longer between coats since you are going to be going over it again with a brush which might break the hardend surface only to reveal wet paint below. I think about it kinda like this, they don't hand paint cars - they use air brushes. Smaller particles of paint FTW even if they do go every where - powder coating same thing.

On my last car I spray painted the calipers, but this time I used the brush. I think the brush is much easier since there is little to no taping needed. Also I used a caliper paining kit from duplicolor (small can of paint, brush, break cleaner, tape). I think the paint that they included was very good, since it included some kind of ceramic crap in it. It was much thicker and easier to work with then normal paint and did not drip. I put 3 coats on and after 2 days it dried to a rock hard finish.

 

[Don Juan]

2 days? I have to work.

 

[DeadGeneration]

2 days? I have to work.

walk

 

[iLisa]

So can you re-paint already painted calipers? OR, if you do so will it look like crap and come off easily? Mine are red (when I bought the vehicle), but I would like black or silver instead. Red doesn't go with the laser blue IMO.

I painted mine red first.. then grew tired of it and painted orange over it.

 

[MP3Performance]

2 days? I have to work.

I did it over the weekend and had my freind drive me around for that time (painted my wheels at the same time). The instrustions say not to use the brakes for 24 hours. So you only need one free day.