Brake caliper clean up and paint....

[bootneck_max]

Have a few days off work, so thought i'd have a go at giving the calipers a clean up and a bit of a paint, as they've definitely started to look a bit crappy and rusty!

So here looking a bit worse for wear:


And after a bit of a scrub and some brake cleaner, managed to get the majority rust off, the good thing about hammerite is you can spray over most of it! used the smooth black by hammerite.

Also got myself some Quattro vinyls off ebay to go on the calliper.

And they turned pretty nice I think!



But as you can see from my oily arches, my cv boot as split! :-/ so ordered a set today to fit at the weekend!




Not bad for a couple hours messing around!

 

[MrLapou]

Nice job. Do the vinyl's not burn off when the caliper becomes hot?

 

[bootneck_max]

Apparently not, there specifically for brake calipers and are high temp resistant. Well I hope they are!

 

[OVRA3]

Look great my next move I think not sure about the vinyls personally but the black calipers look great 😊

 

[scotty0189]

Look good. I had some Calliper Decals on my old-old car, they were on for over a year - never had any problems.
Still considering doing yellow callipers again, like my old A3...

 

[bootneck_max]

Yea I had red calipers on my old a3, but the OEM look has really grown on me, and I think the black really sets off that look! Looks clean and tidy!

 

[rosso rocket]

Have a few days off work, so thought i'd have a go at giving the calipers a clean up and a bit of a paint, as they've definitely started to look a bit crappy and rusty!

So here looking a bit worse for wear:
View attachment 6845

And after a bit of a scrub and some brake cleaner, managed to get the majority rust off, the good thing about hammerite is you can spray over most of it! used the smooth black by hammerite.

Also got myself some Quattro vinyls off ebay to go on the calliper.

And they turned pretty nice I think!

View attachment 6846

But as you can see from my oily arches, my cv boot as split! :-/ so ordered a set today to fit at the weekend!

View attachment 6847
View attachment 6848

Not bad for a couple hours messing around!

Nice job, Bootneck, they look good.

What did you do then? Remove wheels, scrub up caliper, mask and paint? What worked best to clean & prep the calipers - wire brush?

Presumably you brushed the Smoothrite on? Or can you buy a spray version then?

Thanks for your help.

 

[rosso rocket]

Also, just a quick thought, how does the Hammerite fair in terms of high temperatures when brakes are used? Any signs of burning yet?

 

[OVRA3]

Nice job, Bootneck, they look good.

What did you do then? Remove wheels, scrub up caliper, mask and paint? What worked best to clean & prep the calipers - wire brush?

Presumably you brushed the Smoothrite on? Or can you buy a spray version then?

Thanks for your help.

Good questions id like to know too

 

[A3_Adam]

Great job with the callipers, really need to get round to doing mine at some point.

 

[bootneck_max]

Nice job, Bootneck, they look good.

What did you do then? Remove wheels, scrub up caliper, mask and paint? What worked best to clean & prep the calipers - wire brush?

Presumably you brushed the Smoothrite on? Or can you buy a spray version then?

Thanks for your help.

Yea took the wheel off, and gave it a good Going over with a rust removal brush. Then rinsed of the residue. Leave it till its completely dry, then I mask of using a old newspaper, basically to cover the brake disc and suspension, and taped off the little bits the newspaper couldn't cover.

Then gave the calipers about 4-5 coats using the spray. It's alot quicker then brushing it on. Aslong as the brakes all mask up properly, there's no dramas! I brush painted my old audis brakes, and it didn't look nearly as good as these have turned out!

Good thing about the Hammerite, is tht it's really quick drying! So waited for the paint to get to a tacky stage, then applied the vinyl stickers! With the paint being tacky you can lay the vinyl on the caliper before you take the backing off of the vinyl, to make sure where you want it!

Then once the vinyls had been placed on and the paint was a bit dryer, I took it for a gentle drive to warm the brakes up to help, guess you could say bake the paint on? Seem to work well for me!

I haven't put any lacquer over the vinyls yet, but think I will today, just to give them a bit more protection!

Oh yea also the spray version can be bought at halfords, it's a bit more expensive then the halfords own version, but Hammerite is good for going over bits of rust you can't seem to get rid of!

 

[bootneck_max]

Also, just a quick thought, how does the Hammerite fair in terms of high temperatures when brakes are used? Any signs of burning yet?

No signs of burning at all, went for a little bit of a blast down the windy country lanes, and they look just as good! An also the vinyls show nice sign of burning or melting.

 

[bootneck_max]

This is the vinyls I bought. They also sell a couple other ones. RS3, S3, AUDI ect...

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=260870360600&index=8&nav=SEARCH&nid=69422364665

 

[ruffrida]

Been thinking about this for a while bud, but now i am convinced, nice job looks really well.

Will be going for a bright color as me rims are gloss black on the inside so ya wouldn't really notice em, nice decals to, will be checking them out on fleebay

 

[bootneck_max]

Been thinking about this for a while bud, but now i am convinced, nice job looks really well.

Will be going for a bright color as me rims are gloss black on the inside so ya wouldn't really notice em, nice decals to, will be checking them out on fleebay

Cheers mate, yea really worth doing! Just made everything look alot cleaner! also gave me a chance to give the alloys a good clean in and out!

 

[ruffrida]

I have a 8yr old for me wheel cleaning, lol

This thread has defo started a craze, got a few of me mates onto it aswel, the guy on ebay will be over run, hahaha.

Still cant get over how good the black looks, think i will be going for the Red, but not sprayed i prefer the Hammerite smooth paint, restored loads of old bikes with this, and it leaves a really good finish, even did me sills in it when i first bought me 8L, not brave enough with a spray can, lol

 

[bootneck_max]

I have a 8yr old for me wheel cleaning, lol

This thread has defo started a craze, got a few of me mates onto it aswel, the guy on ebay will be over run, hahaha.

Still cant get over how good the black looks, think i will be going for the Red, but not sprayed i prefer the Hammerite smooth paint, restored loads of old bikes with this, and it leaves a really good finish, even did me sills in it when i first bought me 8L, not brave enough with a spray can, lol

Haha fair one, I'd get my mrs to clean them, but I think I'd trust a 8 year old more then my mrs!

Yea like I said I did it with the brush of Hammerite last time and it came out real nice! Was just trying to save some time, using the spray can!

 

[WAFTER]

Have painted numerous callipers over the years with Hammerite & whilst cars not raced but driven hard paint never burnt off. Never bothered to mask up and spray, by the time you have faffed about you could have hand painted. Mmm unsure about decals, a bit too like the flash Ferrari & Porsche factory items with their boastful 'look at me, and in case you missed the body badges I'm a Ferrari/Porsche'. Not sure 'Quattro' or 'Audi' is worth shouting about.

 

[bootneck_max]

Everyone to there own I guess....

 

[bootneck_max]

And to be fair masking up took me all of probably 2 mins, and a well aimed spray helps...

 

[OVRA3]

I'm doing mine tomorrow!

 

[olibattman]

I know an old thread.... But planning on doing this soon. So has everyone who's used the hammerite spray had no problems with burning or any kind of tarnishing? Got a denim blue A3 and i was originally thinking of going orange - favourite colour, but i wen toff that idea as they're standard brakes and not much to shout about. SO then went on to black for the OEM, subtle look. But someone mentioned matching the calipers to the body colour... any thoughts people?
Just had alloys completely refurbed, so would be nice to have some smart looking calipers behind them!

 

[s3facelift09]

Nice job, but the disc surrounding is pretty rusty, you could solve this also.. I'm in a process as we speak..

 

[WAFTER]

It's amazing how many people having painted/sprayed their callipers don't then notice the grotty state of the hubs.
Bright silver looks good, carefully applied by hand you cannot tell its no sprayed. Have never bothered with special heat resistant paint as the hub doesn't get that hot under normal or even hard road use. Don't forget the disc edges - now they DO get hot.

 

[s3facelift09]

It's not special heat resistant paint. I used a special heat resistant paint last autumn on the back 2 hubs, a special paint for exhaust pipes. The problem was that this paint could only be dry if it was under 500-600 celsius for half an hour. I could not achieve this temperature, and the paint fell off immediately, just not on the edges.. As you say they must get hot a lot. And now I decided to use normal paint for rims. I've put primer paint, bright silver paint and the high glossy finish. And now we'll see what will happen? I'm a little bit scared for the edges. But I think that on the back 2 wheels the hubs don't get that hot as they do on the front.. We'll see..

 

[JimC64]

Have a few days off work, so thought i'd have a go at giving the calipers a clean up and a bit of a paint, as they've definitely started to look a bit crappy and rusty!

So here looking a bit worse for wear:
View attachment 6845

And after a bit of a scrub and some brake cleaner, managed to get the majority rust off, the good thing about hammerite is you can spray over most of it! used the smooth black by hammerite.

Also got myself some Quattro vinyls off ebay to go on the calliper.

And they turned pretty nice I think!

View attachment 6846

But as you can see from my oily arches, my cv boot as split! :-/ so ordered a set today to fit at the weekend!

View attachment 6847
View attachment 6848

Not bad for a couple hours messing around!

Great job, thanks for sharing, I do mine too using the same process.

When I do mine though, I also use stock silver and paint the hub part of the brake disc. I find these get dirty / rusty and if the wheel is clean and the caliper painted it looks great BUT the rusty / dirty looking hub detracts from the overall appearance!




Just noticed a few comments about discolouration and burn off.

I can honestly say that mine always hold up really well with normal, even fairly spirited driving now and then.

Once, a few years agO, I did rally her for a short while REALLY using the brakes HARD & OFTEN.........Do this and yes then expect to suffer with some discolouration and burn off, but otherwise they'll be as good as gold

 

[Carlos73]

I'm doing mine tomorrow!

Hiya, sorry to drag up an old quote, but i have just joined the forum as i am thinking about painting my calipers, i have just bought the car a 57 plate A4 S-line and the calipers look ****e, all covered in rust :-( i was just wondering if you managed to get yours done, and what you ended up using? did you use any cleaning solutions?
I'm not very mechanically minded so i wont be removing the calipers only the wheels ( i think i should be able to manage that, Ha)