Lady's "TUIT" Project
Donna asked me sometime back to paint her calipers on her Solstice yeller to match the car. Heck I've been working hard on it for some time! Last year (or was it the year before?) I ordered the paint! Since the Classical Glass show is coming up this Saturday and they have a "daily driver" class she can show "Lady" off. For the occasion I decided to git er dun and paint the durn things. I was feeling guilty because I remembered telling her I would paint them when I could get around to it. That brought back memories of when my daughter, Sheri, was young she'd always give me that line. So one day I laid a round coin on her table that was simply stamped "TUIT". She found it and asked me what it was for and I told her now she had one so quit stalling. It took her a minute or two but she finally figured it out. Didn't do the stuff I asked her to do but she did figure it out.
So I asked Donna to bring her Solstice in the garage and I pulled the rear wheels and painted the calipers. Replaced the wheels and pulled the front wheels and painted those calipers. Job done! Well it was a bit more of a project than that because we took the opportunity to detail her car inside, outside, topside and bottom side to give her an opportunity to compete for a trophy. Classical Glass judges primarily on cleanliness so it was 2 days of work but she has a pretty clean car. Clean enough? Find out Saturday I guess...
For those of you that want to try this there are two methods to use. Before you start... a word of caution, make sure you use high temperature paint! Your brake calipers can get very hot during hard braking. A sudden stop at high speed or a run through autocross and those puppies can be glowing red hot! Standard paint will bubble or burn right off.
The first method is spray paint. I have used this and it does a great job. VHT makes brake caliper high temperature spray paint in several colors including red, blue, yellow, black, orange and gold. The advantage of this method is a smooth finish without any brush marks. The disadvantage is that you have to mask off and cover virtually the entire car to avoid any paint drift going where you don't want it. Remove the wheels either one at a time or an entire side at a time if you have sufficient jacks. Clean the calipers to be painted by spraying them with brake cleaner and wiping with a clean rag. A final wipe off with alcohol helps. Mask everything carefully because spray paint will drift on everything! Once masked, apply several light coats until you are happy with the coverage. Remove all the masking and replace the wheels. Most auto stores carry VHT paint. Cost including a can of brake cleaner just a little over ten bucks. http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/caliperpaint/
The second method is using a brush. Dupli-Color makes a caliper paint kit available in red, blue, black, silver and yeller that includes a can of brake cleaner, a can of paint, a small roll of masking tape, a stir stick and a brush. Prepare as above except once the calipers are clean there is very little masking required unless you have the shakes from going through detox or from breathing all the brake cleaner and paint vapors! I'm lazy so I usually chance it and hang the masking tape over my work bench. Next carefully brush the paint on the calipers avoiding paint on any parts meant to freely move over each other in operation and keeping it off your brake rotors. Several coats are needed. Coat about 5 minutes apart. You'll be surprised how quickly this stuff dries. I apply it rather heavily because it tends to flow into itself and hide the brush marks. After several coats you'll begin to smile because you'll start to get a rather professional looking job. When you have a nice thick and uniform coating you can stop. Do pay attention to the instructions which are to coat after about 5 minutes and no longer than an hour apart. If you don't finish that day and need to recoat later you need to wait 5 days or otherwise your base coat will crack and possibly lift off. Annual touch up for any nicks works well so if you have some left over paint, save it. Cost is about twenty bucks.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliperPaint/
Both methods work well and I have used both. I prefer the Dupli-Color method because it is quicker and easier as you either don't have to mask or need to mask very little. Also you can do the Dupli-Color in your garage by simply putting some cardboard underneath the wheel area to catch the drips where the VHT method will paint half your garage with the overspray. Use a fan though because this stuff dries fast and thus has strong vapors that will give you a headache so you need to route in as much fresh air as possible.
Editors Note: Lsdy did win a first place trophy at the Classical Glass Show -- so all of the above was worth it.
So I asked Donna to bring her Solstice in the garage and I pulled the rear wheels and painted the calipers. Replaced the wheels and pulled the front wheels and painted those calipers. Job done! Well it was a bit more of a project than that because we took the opportunity to detail her car inside, outside, topside and bottom side to give her an opportunity to compete for a trophy. Classical Glass judges primarily on cleanliness so it was 2 days of work but she has a pretty clean car. Clean enough? Find out Saturday I guess...
For those of you that want to try this there are two methods to use. Before you start... a word of caution, make sure you use high temperature paint! Your brake calipers can get very hot during hard braking. A sudden stop at high speed or a run through autocross and those puppies can be glowing red hot! Standard paint will bubble or burn right off.
The first method is spray paint. I have used this and it does a great job. VHT makes brake caliper high temperature spray paint in several colors including red, blue, yellow, black, orange and gold. The advantage of this method is a smooth finish without any brush marks. The disadvantage is that you have to mask off and cover virtually the entire car to avoid any paint drift going where you don't want it. Remove the wheels either one at a time or an entire side at a time if you have sufficient jacks. Clean the calipers to be painted by spraying them with brake cleaner and wiping with a clean rag. A final wipe off with alcohol helps. Mask everything carefully because spray paint will drift on everything! Once masked, apply several light coats until you are happy with the coverage. Remove all the masking and replace the wheels. Most auto stores carry VHT paint. Cost including a can of brake cleaner just a little over ten bucks. http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/caliperpaint/
The second method is using a brush. Dupli-Color makes a caliper paint kit available in red, blue, black, silver and yeller that includes a can of brake cleaner, a can of paint, a small roll of masking tape, a stir stick and a brush. Prepare as above except once the calipers are clean there is very little masking required unless you have the shakes from going through detox or from breathing all the brake cleaner and paint vapors! I'm lazy so I usually chance it and hang the masking tape over my work bench. Next carefully brush the paint on the calipers avoiding paint on any parts meant to freely move over each other in operation and keeping it off your brake rotors. Several coats are needed. Coat about 5 minutes apart. You'll be surprised how quickly this stuff dries. I apply it rather heavily because it tends to flow into itself and hide the brush marks. After several coats you'll begin to smile because you'll start to get a rather professional looking job. When you have a nice thick and uniform coating you can stop. Do pay attention to the instructions which are to coat after about 5 minutes and no longer than an hour apart. If you don't finish that day and need to recoat later you need to wait 5 days or otherwise your base coat will crack and possibly lift off. Annual touch up for any nicks works well so if you have some left over paint, save it. Cost is about twenty bucks.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliperPaint/
Both methods work well and I have used both. I prefer the Dupli-Color method because it is quicker and easier as you either don't have to mask or need to mask very little. Also you can do the Dupli-Color in your garage by simply putting some cardboard underneath the wheel area to catch the drips where the VHT method will paint half your garage with the overspray. Use a fan though because this stuff dries fast and thus has strong vapors that will give you a headache so you need to route in as much fresh air as possible.
Editors Note: Lsdy did win a first place trophy at the Classical Glass Show -- so all of the above was worth it.
