calipers

[Lucky eddie]

Do you have to take the brake calipers off to paint them or can you get a good finish painting them on the car.... I'm not very mechanically minded if so any tips on painting them

 

[oscar]

leave them on if you wish, just mask off the brake disc and whatnot and don't get any paint on the frictional surface of the brake pad or on the brake disc

 

[singlespeed]

You can probably get a better finish with them removed and it would be easier if you were planning to use spray paint. However, I can almost guarantee that you will scratch some of the paint on the front ones when refitting the spring clip.

I've always brush painted mine in situe as some brush marks are hardly going to be seen behind a wheel.
The cleaner you can get them, the better the paint will last, so get some nitrile gloves (tend to be much better than latex) a couple of cans of brake cleaner, a stiff wire brush for the flat accessible areas, a fine wire brush for getting into the tighter parts and go mental.

Unless you can do them all quickly in one swift hit, get four cheap 1/2 inch and 1 inch brushes means you could do one caliper at a time as the paint dries fairly quick.

As said, just keep off the disc surface or clean off any mishaps before driving.

 

[Lucky eddie]

Ok thanks for the info I have a kit which has a spray cleaner and the paint I might get another can of cleaner then and extra brushes as mentioned thanks

 

[flowerpowerdave]

Or take the car to a paint shop and get a pro job in any colour, and get them to to put a clear sealent over them, makes them look like oem, miles better than diy.

 

[Lucky eddie]

That would be nice bet the price is nice to

 

[oscar]

most of these kits you can freely buy are perfect, the brush on ones are more than fine. your calipers going to get filthy, deal with it....!!!!!!!!!!! you are also never going to be close enough to the caliper to spot the difference in professional painted / brush or can 'done it on a saturday when i had a spare hour' type job. i wouldn't have my crappy standard calipers painted by a garage. firstly you'd have to pay to remove the calipers which means brake fluid top up and bleed, not to mention the increased cost of having to use a high temperature paint as well as the heavy duty clear coat which will be ruined within 2 years anyway

 

[singlespeed]

I've used brush on engine enamel paint. The small tin only cost a few pound and has done three years, doing a touch up each year or as required whilst the wheels are off.

There not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but driving 12k per year (or six months being as I work away six months) I'm not too bothered about someone getting down and having a close look and spotting brush marks and noticing that the callipers are dirty.