Painted calipers - brake cleaner

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I've contemplated painting the brake calipers on my car, either black or a 'cast iron' (silver, grey, etc) color - something relatively subtle, not red or yellow or anything like that ! When people do this, how do you deal with using a product like Brakleen when doing brake work ? I've already contacted Brakleen and they said it will probably remove the paint. I'm not talking about factory, powder-coated brake components as that's technically not "paint".

I could see avoiding spraying the caliper itself but something like the caliper bracket would be pretty unavoidable.
 
If the paint was applied to a clean surface, the brake clean solution should not damage it in any way, however if there was any oil / dirt on the metal before the paint was applied, these areas might lift off.
 
It will dull the caliper paint.

Just an fyi, factory calipers are either painted or anodized, not powder coated (if we're talking about the nice floating calipers.) I haven't come across one that came powder coated from the factory.
 
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I painted my calipers using VHT Caliper Paint, and after using brake cleaner I only noticed a slight dulling. If you're careful, I'm sure you can avoid getting it on anything too noticeable.
 
I find that with most caliper paints that are formulated as actual caliper paint (not just random paint) they resist brake cleaner. The key term here is "resist" not impervious. The other thing I noticed is that if the paint is fresh, it's easier to remove or damage it with brake cleaner. Once you've had the caliper paint on for weeks or months, it's pretty much extremely resistant.

I used the POR-15 caliper paint in the little pint cans. Once that's been on for months, I could spray brake cleaner directly at it and even rub it with a towel and the only thing that comes off is dirt.
 
Originally Posted by NoNameJoe
I used the POR-15 caliper paint in the little pint cans. Once that's been on for months, I could spray brake cleaner directly at it and even rub it with a towel and the only thing that comes off is dirt.
Originally Posted by P10crew
Por 15 and follow the directions on the can to a T and you will be plenty pleased.

I've considered using the brush-on paints and this POR-15 looks nice. Did either of you use the full-blown kit with the degreaser, metal prep, rust preventative, and the paint itself or just the paint only ?
 
That is the kit that I refer to. It's a cleaner, pickeling juice, por 15 and their top coat. The finger drag test is critical because you need the base por 15 to have some bite left for the top coat. I've only used the black kit and I can tell you for sure that brake fluid will not attack it.
 
I did not follow the directions for POR-15. I was looking to do it quick and dirty LOL.

If you follow the directions it should come out even better. Since I didn't basecoat with POR-15 like the instructions said, I do get small amounts of rust appearing every now and then, I just brush it off and paint another layer on from the same can.

I didn't use the rest of the stuff either. For prep all I did was brush all of the rust off with a brass and steel brush and degrease. No etching, nothing. Then masked it and away I went.
 
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