Painting Brake Calipers

[KrisZ]

Caliper heat reduction was measurable with the Goldline coatings vs any other coatings, or even bare calipers.

Isn’t that what the study I posted, which you dismissed as old, indicated? Paint actually helping with heat dissipation? That study actually tested different coatings and they all had different effect. Even the color of the same paint type had different effect.

So perhaps that gold line coating or whatever they market it as, is better than others, I’m not here to argue their claims. But my point is that paint has little to no effect on caliper thermal performance.

It is simply a non issue.

 

[Vermess]

@Shel_B

Depends on how "painted" you want them. You can just prep them, mask off the booth, bleeders, lines, prep and paint on the car. Be careful if it's a sliding caliper, I'd go "thin" on the pads where your brake pad clips/shims go.

Personally, I take them off, clean them, take out the bleeders, put a plastic cap in the bleeder hole, prep and spray or brush away. I don't worry about the boots or caliper seals as I put new ones on.

 

[Vermess]

I have never had an issue with painted calipers on track. Seriously, if you need special coating on a caliper to dissipate heat, you need to revise your entire brake cooling.....or you just spent over a grand on 20 or so seals and some pretty paint and trying to justify it and think you have something special.

 

[Donald]

When I was in HS I did the calipers on our 91 Escort GT in red rustoleum, did just a wire brush and paint thinner for prep and they stayed pretty good for years. The car was silver but had some red pinstripes so the red matched the car well. The stock wheels didn't have huge gaps and the caliper was tight to the wheel so you couldn't see the whole caliper either. The biggest pain was trying to keep the caliper clean as now dust and dirt showed up... I did some autocross but it never heated the brakes up enough to discolour them.
For my cars now I would do the calipers in black rustoleum and never touch them again. Probably the paint will stay on but if not, it won't look any worse than no paint.

When I was in high school my car had drum brakes and I did not pain the wheel cylinders. Rusty or not no one can see it. Half the time the wheel cylinders were covered with brake fluid on them.

 

[Randol]

Honestly I have never used anything but plain old Rustoleum paint with proper prep. 40+ years and no issues. If you are smoking the paint off of your calipers on a street car you may have other issues. Most recent job was the rotor hats in my Mini F56, a year ago, still nice and shiny. No disco paint used here , although I have considered trying some.

 

[jetman]

Is there a special preparation involved in painting brake calipers? What about special paint? Techniques? Has anyone painted their calipers? What have your experiences been?

Painted the new rebuilt calipers I put on our 07 Denali. Sprayed them with brake clean then caliper paint.

 

[97prizm]

Is there a special preparation involved in painting brake calipers? What about special paint? Techniques? Has anyone painted their calipers? What have your experiences been?

I did on my RX-7 race car years ago. I wanted a bright color. I ended up finding grabber green which is a Dodge color as I think the original chargers were available in that color. I went to Autozone and picked up spray paint for brake calipers as I think it didn't require a primer coat. I cleaned the calipers and it was really easy to spray on.

 

[meep]

Used VHT here, probably prepped with spray, wire brush and a rag. Masked with tape. I stayed with black paint, and that was a good choice for me - as a pretty color would require more cleaning!

 

[Cujet]

I used hammer finish bronze rustoleum on my replacement calipers. Holding up well after many years.