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Caliper Paint - any recommendations

Hi,

Done this twice now.

First time I used a black high temp base coat (fireguard paint) and then red brake caliper paint from Halfords. Did the type R logo with a little pot of black high temp paint and a fine brush.

This looked a bit dull.

Second time I used the same red paint as a base coat and heat cured with a hot air gun. Several coats. Detailed the R logo with the black paint and fine brush. Then did a final high temp lacquer coat.

This looks much better and stays brighter for longer (see pics here https://www.dropbox.com/sc/nwtl5zrw07lwhse/AAD6eOxckLXeD4i7qGiJrRfXa ).

Tips:

- Get them as clean as possible before coating. I spent at least 30-60 mins per caliper cleaning with a wire brush and fine steel wool for the tough to reach bits.
- Use masking tape on the bits you don't want to coat. For the brake disk, splash guard, suspension and anything else larger; I found tin foil is much easier to secure than newspaper for large area masking.

Good luck!
 
I use hammerite, have done for years. Easiest and longest lasting thing I've ever used. The only problem I've had was when one of my back calipers started binding badly, and then I left it for months..... It eventually changed colour and started to flake, but that was only after the brake had eaten an entire set of pads and a rotor.





The bad caliper. These were painted on the car (so outside only, just the blue bits you can see) about 2 years before this pic.
 
Nice job Jimbo. Proper job that. I was a bit lazy not taking the whole caliper off. Would get better results doing it that way I reckon.
 
Jimbo you got any suggestions for doing it an off the books colour? I've seen people(YouTube;'murica) use high temp primer and laquer with any colour you fancy of normal car paint in between but struggling to find somewhere that does them!
 
RobbinsMC said:
Nice job Jimbo. Proper job that. I was a bit lazy not taking the whole caliper off. Would get better results doing it that way I reckon.
Click to expand...

Cheers! I wanted to refurbish the entire system, plus I was off work with a broken arm, so I went to town on them. It's all in my build thread, post 507 onwards.

RichE91 said:
Jimbo you got any suggestions for doing it an off the books colour? I've seen people(YouTube;'murica) use high temp primer and laquer with any colour you fancy of normal car paint in between but struggling to find somewhere that does them!
Click to expand...

I do indeed! eBay is your friend here. Here's a couple of links to the things I was researching a wee while ago:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAKE-CAL...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item3f167027d5

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thermacur...987?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51cd9af6d3

I never really found a good answer to the primer question. I'm not really sure how hot these oem brakes get, although 250 degrees C would be a conservative guess. Maybe more if you're running an aggressive set up. So I would definitely stay away from normal paints! It looks like stove/BBQ paint is the only affordable option, but I've never tried it.

I stuck with hammerite in the end because it's tried, tested, quick and easy. There's loads of good colours of hi temp paint available on eBay, most don't require primer.
 
Thanks Jimbo, video I was referring to (with correct time so you don't need to watch it all) https://youtu.be/xual1AwgnGc?t=72

I reckon I'll have to stick to red or something slightly less boring than the blue I want to do, don't think I'm going to find anywhere that does a light enough shade
 
LOL. What in the name of all that's holy did I just watch? I couldn't decide if it was a joke or not.....

He did get those brakes hot on the second test right enough, but I imagine that a few heat cycles will ruin normal paint. I think the sonic blue or Cadbury purple on that ebay link would look great. What colour are you wanting?

If you need help I'm only an hour away.
 
Sorry for hijacking this thread here Crowds: you ask a good question though!

Yeah I'm not sure if I feel like a tube or not by considering taking advice from that video, but you can only ask (right?).

Thanks Jim might hold you to that! The color I fancy is Botticelli Blue, a colour Citroen use on the C1; Plan is replica mugen spoiler(ebay scares me so maybe knightracer) In that colour (I think its one of the few that might go with cosmic grey), and toying with idea of having the calipers in the same colour. Would obviously get dirty mega fast but only one way to find out!
 
That's a cool colour! When I win the lottery I want to paint my EP baby blue with the current wheel colour.

Hanford do Ford Bermuda blue which is pretty close, probably worth getting a can so you can see how it looks against the CG.
 
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