Painting brake calipers - but which colour?

Which Colour?

  • Red

    Votes: 38 50.0%

  • Blue

    Votes: 2 2.6%

  • Yellow

    Votes: 19 25.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 17 22.4%
  • Total voters
    76
im bringing this thread back to life. I painted my original calipers graphite grey and well i just dont think they stand out. Still playing with colours Ideally i want them to stand out but not too much if that makes any sense I cant see anything other than red working.
I like the lime green but ive tried photoshopping it but i dont want it to look like ive just been to halfords.
 
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My car is viper green. Was thinking ford RS blue.
Screenshot 20180528 184329
 
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Excuse the crudeness, my editing skills are legendary. Just a representation of the blue on green.
Screenshot 20180529 202229 1280x720
 
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Not really my taste, I would have thought black would be best really (with carbon mirrors too ;) )
everytime I see those alloys though I want a set of 18" version!
 
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What colour suits best scuba blue?
Red?
 
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I'm going safe with red calipers on my Nogaro blue i think, done the hubs black already
 
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I think red looks best. My old Skoda VRS had green callipers but that was a silver car. My S3 has factory black because I've never had time to paint them red and I'm not sure what to do about decals.

Gratuitous pic of old Furby which doesn't even show the green callipers!
 

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Im considering doing the hubs black and calipers red on our A3 S-line. What type of paint do you guys use and what do you do to prepare the surfaces for painting. Ive seen some heat proof enamel paint in halfords, would that be the sort to use ?
 
Scotty75 said:
Im considering doing the hubs black and calipers red on our A3 S-line. What type of paint do you guys use and what do you do to prepare the surfaces for painting. Ive seen some heat proof enamel paint in halfords, would that be the sort to use ?
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Hammerite every time for me, the finish as with any painting is all in the prep.
So have a wire brush and some wet and dry sandpaper ready.

Alternatively you can spray them but by the time you have masked everything up you could have hand painted them.
 
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Is this the right stuff for painting the calipers?
Screenshot 20180614 195917
 
Seems right to me mate, can't go wrong with that stuff. Although Halfords do sell a red enamel paint for engine parts and it's around £7 a tin .
 
Scotty75 said:
Seems right to me mate, can't go wrong with that stuff. Although Halfords do sell a red enamel paint for engine parts and it's around £7 a tin .
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Can only seem to find red enamel not high gloss red enamel from halfords, unless youve got a link mate ?
 
You don't need such a large tin for painting calipers, even the 250ml tin will do several cars! It's worth checking online as I've often found Hammerite cheaper on ebay etc than Halfords/Homebase.

I've had various colours of caliper over the years... On the Dolphin Grey A3 I've gone for a subtle gold, along with a few other gold accents and gold/yellow fogs.

IMG 20180607 164819425 HDR 2
 
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TitaniumTom said:
You don't need such a large tin for painting calipers, even the 250ml tin will do several cars! It's worth checking online as I've often found Hammerite cheaper on ebay etc than Halfords/Homebase.

I've had various colours of caliper over the years... On the Dolphin Grey A3 I've gone for a subtle gold, along with a few other gold accents and gold/yellow fogs.

View attachment 158012
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Found this in halfords
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/pa...al-treatment/hammerite-direct-to-rust-metal-p
 
As above you won’t need a big tin I did 2 coats on all 4 calipers with the smaller tin of hammerite. Also buying the big tin won’t gain much for the future as hammerite has a tendency to set in the tin once opened and exposed to the elements. I always keep a tin of black in my garage but I don’t know why as I have to cut away about a cm off the top where it has set each time I come to use it.
 
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Yeah that size is fine. You can save a pound or so on that if you have a Halfords trade card.
 
Is it acceptable to do all four corners or just the fronts? Bearing in mind I have a Viper green car.
 
Yeah do all 4 calipers. It's only on cars with rear drums that you wouldn't do the rears, or paint the drums black to hide them lol.
 
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@Leevr What colour are you going for? And have you thought about what you’re doing about the caliper plate with the s3 logo on?
 
randy4 said:
@Leevr What colour are you going for? And have you thought about what you’re doing about the caliper plate with the s3 logo on?
Click to expand...
Painting all four red. Going to leave the caliper face black with the original logo as I've seen on other S3's that have red calipers.
 

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Leevr said:
Painting all four red. Going to leave the caliper face black with the original logo as I've seen on other S3's that have red calipers.
Click to expand...

Think they did offer red ones on the FL, not sure if that was from the beginning or after a while. If I do decide to do mine I shall paint the caliper plate and remake the logo
 
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just phoned Audi. the only option for the face plate with the S3 logo is black. also the decal is not available separately from them. £37 each. mine are showing signs of wear, im taking due to heat , brake dust and age. im going red calipers and i suppose ill have to settle for black fronts.
 
@-Ju- . did you paint your own calipers? did you bother to swap out the decals or face plates?
 
Leevr said:
@-Ju- . did you paint your own calipers? did you bother to swap out the decals or face plates?
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No they are factory optioned in red.
I actually prefer the black clips against the red calipers tbh, the logo is a little worn though 3 years on

Sent from my Note 8 using Tapatalk
 
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Anyone got experience of changing out the S3 caliper face plates. As I've eluded to mine are showing their age. Want to know if it's a viable option to swap them out. With painting the calipers, don't want to end up removing half the paint gouging it with the face plate clips.
 
Leevr said:
Anyone got experience of changing out the S3 caliper face plates. As I've eluded to mine are showing their age. Want to know if it's a viable option to swap them out. With painting the calipers, don't want to end up removing half the paint gouging it with the face plate clips.
Click to expand...
Yeah they pop out dead easy with a flat blade screwdriver, you can wrap a bit of tape around the end if you want to be ultra careful

Sent from my Note 8 using Tapatalk
 
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