I just painted my calipers - questions for others

[Tom M]

who have done it...

It seems like the clearance between the wheel and the calipers is very small, about 1/4 inch. This is not a problem except that when I put the first wheel back on it scraped the paint off the caliper. Luckily I had some left over that had not hardened up yet so it was easy to fix. I managed to put the last 3 wheels on with out any problems.

The paint had dried overnight so it wasn't fully set up yet but it must have been pretty close. Anybody else have this problem? Am I going to have this problem forever or will it get better?

Tom M

PS I used G2 caliper paint.

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[tbird]

Email me a picture.

 

[Gobird]

TomM, I take it that is some kind of heat paint, I don't know but I thought about getting the paint that was left over from my incounter with the PT a few months ago from my body shop man. Don't think he wil have many Blue TBirds to paint in the future. I just didn't know if that paint would hold up on the calipers. Just asking.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
Live Long and Prosper!

 

[Tom M]

tbird:

I will try to get you a picture in a day or two.

gobird:

Brake caliper paint is a 2 part paint that you mix before applying. It's not heat cured.

Tom M

 

[Gobird]

TomM, Thanks.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
Live Long and Prosper!

 

[RTBRD]

Tom M,

I had mine painted red. I did not do it myself, I had it done at the same time I had my windows tinted. However, I don't like the color they used, I wanted red but it is a more orangey-red so I am going to redo them myself in a blue as close as I can get to the blue in the TBird wings.

I don't think that the calipers get hot enough to discolor regular paint but I will let you all know when I redo them.

 

[ls1bmw0]

DO NOT USE REGULAR PAINT on the calipers!!!
Brake calipers in normal driving get up to about 400-500 degrees F. In hard driving it's not uncommon for them to be in the high 600-700 degree range.

You want to use high-temperature paint only. The downside is that there aren't many colors to choose from, mainly red, yellow, black, aluminum.

If you use regular paint there's a good chance that you'll be dripping paint after the first long drive or at least, having calipers that look significantly different than when you took the first drive.

 

[LON O'CONNELL]

RTBRD before you paint the calipers blue I would remove the red paint. At some point the thickness of the paint will not allow the calipers to disapate the heat and you could have a brake problem plus heat damage the paint.

I found that out years ago when a friend of mine primed and sanded and primed and sanded the 454 engine block & heads on his inboard V-Drive boat. He then painted the block & head castings bright yellow. It was real pretty as there were no casting marks or nothing, just smooth yellow paint. His engine constantly overheated and that was even with constant fresh cool lake water going through the engine. He pulled the engine out of the boat, stripped the paint and primer and then just painted the engine yellow. No more overheating problems from then on.

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Yellow/Yellow Prem. 02 Bird w/full accent
1999 F150 Super Cab 4x4 Off Road
1998 Taurus SE Sport 24V

 

[tbird]

Bump for Pics.

 

[JW in Dixie]

The Birds are too classy to have contrasting colors on the calipers, IMHO. I have a silver 04 - maybe silver calipers would look okay. Red would look out of place. Cheers

 

[DrSarabi]

I have mgp caliper covers. They look great and are holding up well. No problem with clearance on my after market 18" wheels

 

[JW in Dixie]

Dr, your car, your choice. On my silver 04 I would use silver to conceal them. Probably doesn't come in silver.
Beautiful ride! Cheers

 

[DrSarabi]

Dr, your car, your choice. On my silver 04 I would use silver to conceal them. Probably doesn't come in silver.
Beautiful ride! Cheers

You COULD custom order them in silver . Thanks for the compliment!

 

[SeanPwnery]

I have mgp caliper covers. They look great and are holding up well. No problem with clearance on my after market 18" wheels

I was looking into a set of those, do you know if they'll clear the factory 17's or not before you got the 18's?

 

[DrSarabi]

I know others have installed them under stock 17 -7 spoke wheels. My 18s have the same offset and there is plenty of clearance.
They help keep the brake dust off the rims. The guys at my dealer installed them for me and there was no comment about tight clearance problems.

 

[Docsouce]

New here. Just parked our 2004 in the garage for the winter. Picked it up in early September and have been enjoying it since (48,000 miles, black on black.)
One of the projects I would like to do is to paint the rotors. Has anyone tried the vinyl heat shrink rotor coverings? I saw this product this morning and it looked interesting. 3m and Vivid offers this covering.

 

[Deohge]

New here. Just parked our 2004 in the garage for the winter. Picked it up in early September and have been enjoying it since (48,000 miles, black on black.)
One of the projects I would like to do is to paint the rotors. Has anyone tried the vinyl heat shrink rotor coverings? I saw this product this morning and it looked interesting. 3m and Vivid offers this covering.

New to me, never heard of it. Sounds interesting.