Painting brake calipers

[Agent_Trig]

Now that I have had my nice new brakes installed, I would like to paint my calipers to make them stand out a little more.

I'm not a mechanic so was wondering how good a job can I do WITHOUT taking the calipers off to paint? I had a look up close and they look a little fiddly to paint around without getting any paint on the pads or discs.

What do other people do? Should I just take them off? If so, how easy is it to remove the calipers and replace? Is there a guide anywhere?

Cheers

 

[brough74]

Just put some masking tape on bits you want to keep the paint off, just take your time and its fine as ive done a few of my cars now

 

[sparki]

I painted mine in place, didnt even mask them off, just used to brake cleaner first with a brush to remove all the brake dust then painted with a steady hand gave them a couple of coats and there lovely and red

 

[ste]

hi, its easy enough to remove your calipers, you just have to clamp the brake hoses but will need to bleed the brakes when you refit the calipers but tbh your better off painting the calipers on the car. its a bit fiddly but with a bit of patience you can make a decent job of it.

 

[Agent_Trig]

Superb, that's what I wanted to hear guys - nice and easy

Are there any particular brands of caliper paint I should go for and any I should avoid? I dont want to spend a weekend doing this only to find the paint flaking off a month later.

 

[brough74]

Hammerite, thats what i use. It comes in a wide range of colours

 

[Wozski]

This is a job i have actually done! So if i can do it anyone can lol.
I used a wire brush attatchment on a drill to get any rust off and then cleaned thm with turps. Then i used hammerite smooth silver with an artists type paint brush ( kids one ). Take your time and it will look the mutts!!!

 

[Shane.]

As above, easy enough to do on the car have done past couple of cars this way. Masking tape/rag everything you don't want paint on and then some in case of over spray, wire brush them to get any rust off then clean them off then use some hammerite or similar and spray away. Only pics I took while doing them:
Before:

After front (shows masking):

After back (again shows masking):

Hope this helps

 

[Agent_Trig]

What did you use to clean up the brakes after giving them a good scrub with the wire brush?

 

[Shane.]

A solvent cleaner such as turps or a dedicated brake cleaner spray (available from halfords the alike) I used some cable cleaning wipes from work as they'll remove most things and seemed to do the trick