hey forum, looking to either paint, put covers on or change my calipers to a red color.......... what would you recommend , was thinking the covers might be the easiest but will they stay on nice and tight ? any thoughts out there.............tony

 

Hi Tony,
I have just done mine with aluminium coloured high temp engine spray paint. I prefer the painted original look rather than a fake cover.

This is just my opinion, it's your car so do what you feel is right.

 

If you want to do covers, go with MGP powder coated aluminum covers, not the imported plastic glue-on trash on ebay.

 

I've recently spent some time researching this, I'd ordered G2 product that will work well, but then I saw the covers, I have a xkr and the fitment isn't right for the mgp. So I'm still considering but something to think about is you can paint, order some decals (use ebay) and put a logo on them, then most people clear coat them after. That said I'd also thought about rebuilding the caliper if I remove them from the car, you don't have to but.. One last item was some thought painting the backs of the pads looked better than just the caliper.. do a search in the forums and read before you spray.. also utube has some vids on doing it that were helpful also, post some pics when your done I'd like to see the result.

 

Here you go.
I did my wheels about 2 years ago with the G2 high temp paint, I also did the engine and supercharger.

The prep is the biggest deal of all, must get wheels and engine clean and rust and grease free not hard just some elbow grease.

They look as good today as the day they were painted. I used 2 cans for the 4 wheels, 2 for the engine and 1 gold for the hubs.

Big bang for the buck, 100 of them total.

Took 2 days had to let them dry over night.
Jacked up the car, removed the wheels and painted the calipers right on the car. Put decals on and sprayed with clear coat.

Have fun, it's a good project.

And remember
Happy Motoring...

 

thanks for the info, everybody ... gona make it my next project...............tony

 

Eastwood (eastwood.com) has a line of excellent high temperature paints for brake calipers. They include 'original casting', red, yellow, blue, etc.

I used red on both drum and calipers on a restoration more than 5 years ago and they look as new today.

 

Just to throw this in the thread... I serviced my brakes and wanted to brighten up the stock calipers a tad. Cleaned then off using brake clean and a wire brush while doing a routine brake service. Then sprayed then with Krylon Dull Aluminum. Looks nice. Now been on there about a year, and still looks perfect. I also did a customer's XJR and it still looks great! I know it isn't high temp or anything special, but the results are very good!

 

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thanks for input..... i'll be in poughkeepsie at the grandview on the 23rd of august (wedding) about an hour from my house ( bronx, country club area ) thanks again

 

Neat job.

I've read a few posts about applying decals to the calipers and was wondering how well they lasted in use.

Graham

 

From the research I've done the key to longevity is paint, apply decals then clear coat (multi clear in some cases) this protects the decals well according to several people who'd posted. Decals are cheap $5 on ebay.. this is in my todo list, maybe wait to see Tony in Aug if we can hook up...
Tony, I'm about 5 miles from Grandview and if you take the Sprain/Taconic Parkway (best ride in East NY) I'm just off the Rt55 exit, pm me when the time gets close I'd like to see your results.

 

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that would be cool................ hopefully they'll be done by then.would like to check my abs sensors at the same time, abs light comes on once in a while ( they might be dirty )..anyway even if nothings done yet we can meet for a couple of min. check out the cars then i'll go to wedding...........................tony

 

went for blue callipers to match my blue car. i used hammerite smooth blue which after one coat looked very bright so the second coat i mixed in a little black hammerite and got a pretty good match.