Maxx's Red Shoes

On Monday September 23 Greg came over to Bill & Erika's house to oversee, and greatly assist, with the painting of Erika's C5 Maxx's calipers from the boring factory grey to a bright red. To start with Bill had purchased a caliper paint kit from Dupli-Color with the desired red color. This kit includes paint, paint brush, masking tape and caliper cleaner. At Greg's suggestion he had also purchased a second can of brake cleaner, which was needed. They also had some rubbing alcohol for using with final cleaning and a supply of paper towels handy. With Greg's guidance they got the passenger side lifted and on jack stands then the tires off to expose the project. The first item was to clean the calipers with the brake cleaner, liberally soaking them and then drying off with the towels. Repeating these steps multiple times until all of the brake dust and grease are cleaned off. Then a rag was soaked with alcohol and used for a final cleaning. Once all of this was done, it was time to paint. The paint used will need multiple coats, with the best way to do it is do one of the calipers and then move to the other one on that side of the car. Once finished with the second caliper, move back to the first caliper and add the next coat. Repeat the process until the paint is thoroughly covering the calipers, maybe as many as 5 or 6 coats. The key is to not let the paint dry too long, if it does Greg warns that it then can't be repainted for 5 days, otherwise the new paint will pull off the other paint. The box instructions also warn of this issue. Once done painting, Greg with a finger nail carefully cleaned the paint off of the "Corvette" on the front caliper's. He did this within a few minutes of our final coat, as if you wait too long it will pull paint from the body too. Repeat this process for the other side of the car. Finally, also take the time to clean up your rims, reinstall them back on the car and torque to 100 ft/lbs. Also, don't forget to remove your lifting pucks that were needed to properly use a jack under the car. Probably best to let the car sit for a day to cure the paint, but Greg says that it can be driven once done if you need to. The pictures show the change, and the main thing is that Erika really likes the new look of Maxx's Shoes.