1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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Hello again everyone!
For my 88 "carlson" project, I'll have the entire car apart, as i swap out the old stock parts on the 88 with some of the parts form my 90...
...so it's a great time to re-do some of the older crap.
on my 90, i had 17's at one point, and they looked great, the cross drilled rotors looked OK underneath the wheels as well , but only when they weren't rusty or dis-colored...
BUT...
the calipers...
WHOOO-BOY...
they looked like CRAP! ;)
Always rusty, and grungy, it was hard to keep your eyes of them, they looked so bad. In fact, i think if you picked at the outer layers of rust on the calipers, they would flake off in your hands. not cool...
So...
on ebay the other day I won an auction for two loaded front calipers tha twere remanfactures by kelly-hayes, and had already been painted a light gold color.
I decided to go for it and paint them red.
I read up on here and saw some people trying to spray paint them, or even BAKE them in the oven... and i figured... screw that. It's freezeing cold up here, I don't want to spray spray outside in the cold, which wouldn't work anyways, and the oven method... well... it's controversial but I'd tend to think it would bake the rubber seals too.
SO...
i went to good old autozone and picked up a "duplicolor caliper paint kit" which comes with everything you need to do 4 calipers, and it was under $30.
It came with caliper spray cleaner, which degreases as well as loosens up debris and brake dust... a small 8oz can of paint (comes in black and blue as well as red), a crappy brush and some crappy masking tape.
Throw the brush and the tape away, get a nice brush and some nice painters tape... they suck, trust me. the bristles kept falling out on the caliper and getting stuck in the paint, the tape didn't stick to anything, or even come off the roll for that matter... but for a cheap kit, all i wanted was the paint.
The paint is 500 degree C tolerant... although it says (intermittent) on it, which i guess means it can't handle a 500c contast temp...
but i'm not worried about that i guess. I'll be using ATE premium one rotors with grooves, should help with heat?
ANYWAYS...
It's a fast job, IF your calipers are "new" and off the car, and clean up easily. Sprayed with the cleaner and wiped them down in 20 minutes, outside (stuff smells awful, gave me a headache, use outside ONLY!)
then once dry, You apply a coat of paint every 15-20 minutes... but wait NO LONGER than an hour before applying the next coat of paint.
I had both calipers completely painted with four coats in a few hours.
I decided not to use payers of primer since they had already been painted a light gold color before, and i figured there was enough good surface to bond to. I decided also not to use any sealer, because after talking with some people, they pointed out that too many layers of stuff will limit the caliper's ability to conduct heat.
Wether that is true or not... or just un-important for the ammount of heat they're subjected to...
I'm happy with how they look, and i trust they'll hold out a lot longer than had i not painted them.
Entire project cost with calipers, shipping, and paint = $150 and 4 hours tops.
Picture links below.
http://www.geocities.com/griffin800/redc2.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/griffin800/redc3.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/griffin800/redc4.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/griffin800/redc5.JPG
-gavin
posted by 74.70.10...
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