fg23knight

Hi Guys, I went to Canadian Tire and bought some auto spray paint. (Navy metallic blue) and was thinking about painting my calipers.

I notice that on the calipers are some metal pieces attached to it. I was wondering if I will have to take special precaution in not spray painting over those metallic pieces. I know the brakes works by haudrulic action, so I shouldn't have to worry about short circuiting any parts (since it's a metallic colour spray) but I was afraid maybe it'll effect my ebrake somehow

have anyone else painted their own caliper and might have some suggestions/tips on how to do this mod properly?

also I was wondering If I would need to coat the paint on the calipers with anything else? My spray paint can didn't mention anything about being high heat immuned

anyways plz advise.

I know Rick sells some of the calipers at his store, but I don't think I'll wait for a calipers to be delivered to me, nor have someone else's caliper ^^;
Althought I do love that s2000 logo on the calipers that I saw on one of the pix. anyhow, i am blub blubing again.

Thanks in advance.

StormBringer

Notion posted how to do it on the local so cal board.

But quickly you can spray the calipers but you will need to get high temperature engine block or caliper paint. lot of imprt shops sell paint specifically for caliper painting but I have found that i you are not tracking the car that the 500c engine paint is suffecient for the street,

MHK S2000

I just did mine this past weekend. You should definitely use a dedicated caliper/high temp engine paint. Most are rated to around 900 degrees. I bought mine from a local Miata/British Roadster parts store. It costed ~ $43.00.

A few things I learned......

I wish I had a small artist brush handy. A few of the smaller crevices were a pain in the _ss to reach with the supplied big brush. I masked off the brake rotors and had no problems painting. I avoided any of the plastic and other 'mechanisms'. I just focused on painting the cast portion of the calipers. I put about 3 coats for each caliper and it took approx. 4 hours. Not too fun when you're having back problems!

I like the overall appearance and it was worth the time and effort. But I still think powdercoating is the way to go. For normal street driving, it should be fine.

You should not have to coat it with anything other than the paint. It probably will not stay on due to the high temps anyway.

Good luck!

stockae92

just curious ...

where's that Miata/British Roadster store?

MHK S2000

Oh, it's here in Goleta...about 10 miles away from Santa Barbara. It is Moss Motors (www.mossmotors.com). They specialize in Turners, MGBs, and other British cars. They also carry some Jackson Racing stuff for Miatas. But that's about it. No S2k specific parts here.

I bought my caliper paint from them since it was nearby my office and one of my fellow co-workers bought the yellow caliper paint for his Miata and had good results.

1Y2KS2K

I bought the proper hi-temp paint from MG Racing for about $23, with the 10% s2ki discount. Comes in two cans - a hardener and the actual paint. You mix the two together. However, this is a lot of paint and most of it will be wasted. I suggest you mix a smaller amouunt of it in another container in the ratio of 8:1 (paint:hardener), then you'll have some over for touch-ups in the future. Use a couple of differnt width artist brushes. Clean off all the brake dust, and just paint the areas you can see. No need to do the pieces that you're never going to see. Oh - and mask off the brake lining parts.

The mixed paint will last about 1 hour before it starts to get lumpy and gooey - so work quickly or mix up another batch as you go along.

fg23knight

Quck question here
So should I be taking the caliper off? i think that would be a pain. Did any of you guys actually took the calipers off the rotor?

Or would it be sufficient to left it on, and err another stupid question: should I take the rotor and the attached calipers off the car? or can i just do it while it's still on the car ^^;

Indecision

fg23knight, you need to get high temperature paint. It should say so on the can "For Engine Header" - If I'm not mistaken Canadian Tire do not offer such a paint. I forgot the shop name that I got it from I'll look it up for you. The one from Canadian tire is not strong enough to withstand the heats.

When I did it on my lude I did not have to take off the rotor nor calipers, simple cover everything up with plastic bag and then a second layer with newspaper to obsorb the paint outside the target area. Be sure spray close to your target so that you will not hit anything else. Leave it to dry for at least 8-9hrs. That's all to it.

I will get you the shop name and paint brand as I'm heading out tomorrow to get a can for myself

wanabe

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fg23knight
[B]Quck question here
So should I be taking the caliper off? i think that would be a pain.

stockae92

can you tell us more about the seriousauto caliper paint? easy to use? durable? how good is the brake clean? (what's the brake clean exactly?)