Prepping brake calipers for painting/epoxy
06-16-2007, 05:36 AM
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Prepping brake calipers for painting/epoxy
A friend of mine bought paint/epoxy to do his brake calipers. He asked me if I knew the best way to clean them so the paint will stick. He's not baking the paint, the stuff he bought works more like an epoxy. If anyone can give me some tips I'd really appreciate it.
06-16-2007, 06:07 AM
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This Project took me about 3 days total. This mod is not difficult, but is a little time consuming and tedious if you want to ensure a quality job.
Some have chosen to grind down the casting marks on their calipers before the G2 system and others have not. It looks good either way and is a personal preference. It all depends on how much time you want to spend. If you want your calipers to look smoother like a profressional powder coat job, then you should grind. Grinding will give you that "Porsche" smooth factory caliper look.
The materials used are as follows:
- G2 caliper paint kit. Red = $31.00 on sale (www.decalgirl.com)
- Bright silver metallic "S2000" logos = $11.99 (www.decalgirl.com)
- 2 3/4' wide Artist brushes = $2.99 each (Ben Franklin crafts store)
- 1 small pointed Artist brush (for more detailed/hard to reach areas) = $2.99 (Ben Franklin crafts store)
- 1 Sunday edition Hbg Patriot Newspaper = .50 cents (QT)
- 2 Hefty Trash Bags = .05 Cents (Walmart)
- 1 Dremel #953 Alum. Ox. Grinding Stone = $3.95 (Home Depot)
- 1 Dremel #932 Alum. Ox. Grinding Stone = $3.95 (Home Depot)
- 1 BrakeKleen Brake Cleaner = $0.00 (Included in G2 caliper paint kit)
- 5ft. standard Masking Tape from your basement = Free
Tools used/optional
- Die grinder with wheel. This is a fast and easy way to remove those casting marks in SECONDS! You need to be very careful if you use this tool because if you press too hard, you can ding the metal. If you don't have one of these, then the Dreme grinding stones will do the same job, but will take longer. (borrowed from neighbor).
- Generic dremel tool. = $9.99 with 60 attachements. (Harbor Freight)
- Sanding drums- came in the 60 piece attachment kit above, fit any hand/dremel tool.
Safety
- WEAR GOGGLEs and a MASK when grinding! You don't need metal fragments in your eye or in your mouth!
PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!
First, get your car up on jackstands. For best way to get your car up on jackstands, read the 2nd post here
Picture of my front caliper FULLY grinded down in all visible areas and smooth as glass. (5+ hours total for all four calipers over two days.
I put about 6 coats of G2 on the fronts and 4 on the rear. Instead of mixing the full amount of paint and reactor in one shot, I took 4 parts of paint using a plastic spoon, and 1 part reactor on a spoon into a small can. This small amount let me do 1 coat on all 4 calipers. I then, repeated the above until I got mutiple coats. I probably have enough left over to do one more coat on all the calipers. I'll save it for touch up down the road. If you mix it all at once like the instructions say, you will only have about 3 hours working time before the paint is hard and unusable.
Picture before logos:
Picture after front logos:
I did not put logos on the rear. To my eye, it didn't really look as balanced and I only favor them on the front - they look like they are made to go there....
Some full shots:
Some have chosen to grind down the casting marks on their calipers before the G2 system and others have not. It looks good either way and is a personal preference. It all depends on how much time you want to spend. If you want your calipers to look smoother like a profressional powder coat job, then you should grind. Grinding will give you that "Porsche" smooth factory caliper look.
The materials used are as follows:
- G2 caliper paint kit. Red = $31.00 on sale (www.decalgirl.com)
- Bright silver metallic "S2000" logos = $11.99 (www.decalgirl.com)
- 2 3/4' wide Artist brushes = $2.99 each (Ben Franklin crafts store)
- 1 small pointed Artist brush (for more detailed/hard to reach areas) = $2.99 (Ben Franklin crafts store)
- 1 Sunday edition Hbg Patriot Newspaper = .50 cents (QT)
- 2 Hefty Trash Bags = .05 Cents (Walmart)
- 1 Dremel #953 Alum. Ox. Grinding Stone = $3.95 (Home Depot)
- 1 Dremel #932 Alum. Ox. Grinding Stone = $3.95 (Home Depot)
- 1 BrakeKleen Brake Cleaner = $0.00 (Included in G2 caliper paint kit)
- 5ft. standard Masking Tape from your basement = Free
Tools used/optional
- Die grinder with wheel. This is a fast and easy way to remove those casting marks in SECONDS! You need to be very careful if you use this tool because if you press too hard, you can ding the metal. If you don't have one of these, then the Dreme grinding stones will do the same job, but will take longer. (borrowed from neighbor).
- Generic dremel tool. = $9.99 with 60 attachements. (Harbor Freight)
- Sanding drums- came in the 60 piece attachment kit above, fit any hand/dremel tool.
Safety
- WEAR GOGGLEs and a MASK when grinding! You don't need metal fragments in your eye or in your mouth!
PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!PICTURES!
First, get your car up on jackstands. For best way to get your car up on jackstands, read the 2nd post here
Picture of my front caliper FULLY grinded down in all visible areas and smooth as glass. (5+ hours total for all four calipers over two days.
I put about 6 coats of G2 on the fronts and 4 on the rear. Instead of mixing the full amount of paint and reactor in one shot, I took 4 parts of paint using a plastic spoon, and 1 part reactor on a spoon into a small can. This small amount let me do 1 coat on all 4 calipers. I then, repeated the above until I got mutiple coats. I probably have enough left over to do one more coat on all the calipers. I'll save it for touch up down the road. If you mix it all at once like the instructions say, you will only have about 3 hours working time before the paint is hard and unusable.
Picture before logos:
Picture after front logos:
I did not put logos on the rear. To my eye, it didn't really look as balanced and I only favor them on the front - they look like they are made to go there....
Some full shots:
06-16-2007, 11:11 AM
#3
Community Organizer
Can this be locked now? 
06-16-2007, 02:46 PM
#5
Community Organizer
Originally Posted by mikes2k,Jun 16 2007, 02:25 PM
Why? 
) After a write-up like that how could anyone possibly have more questions. 
06-18-2007, 07:46 AM
#7
Originally Posted by freq,Jun 16 2007, 06:46 PM
FFS Mike, it was a joke. (Note the ) After a write-up like that how could anyone possibly have more questions.
) After a write-up like that how could anyone possibly have more questions. 
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06-19-2007, 05:06 PM
#8
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What would you recommend to clean the calipers prior to grinding? My friend who's painting his rotors is doing it for an '85 BMW. They looked a little bit grimier than what I'd imagine you'd find on an S2K.
06-19-2007, 05:16 PM
#9
Registered User
Originally Posted by 1gatorfanatic,Jun 19 2007, 08:06 PM
What would you recommend to clean the calipers prior to grinding? My friend who's painting his rotors is doing it for an '85 BMW. They looked a little bit grimier than what I'd imagine you'd find on an S2K.
06-20-2007, 04:53 AM
#10
Community Organizer
Originally Posted by 1gatorfanatic,Jun 19 2007, 08:06 PM
My friend who's painting his rotors
