MustangEater82

alright guys I think I am going to do my calipers...


Ideally I woudl like ot paint them Navy Blue as close to NBM as possible and use silver Camaro decals... but might be willing to go silver with Blue or black decals...

I know I shoudl clean/wirebrush my calipers...

For Primer, what kind should I use? anything special? or regular wood/metal primer...

Next, Seems most reccomend engine paint, not sure I will be able to find it in Navy Blue so... think I should try mixing spraying black and blue paint into a container mixxing it up and seeing how it looks and apply it with a paint brush?

Or will another paint work?

Or should I jsut go silver engine paint

Also could I handpaint(paint bursh these) or is spray paint required.

Next, should I put the decals on, then cover them in clearcoat, or put the decals on top of the clear coat.


And would I be able to Zaino thes right?(I am a Zaino freak)

Aklaim

Okay, I just got done painting my fronts last weekend and have a few pointers. First things first, you MUST prime them, but in order to prime them properly you MUST sand them. If you have a dremel or a die grinder they work perfectly for this. You just want it smooth, it doesnt need to shine. Take your time, do it right and make sure anything that is going to be showing through the wheel is nice and smooth. Now that you have sanded the caliper front and its smooth you can go ahead and prime it. For primer I just used the primer that they had at Kragens. It worked very well for this. Let the primer dry for a few minutes and then go back and reapply to anything that wil be painted. I put 3 coats of primer on myself, you can put however many you like. Once the primer is dry, you can start painting. Hopefully you masked off everything when you before you started priming, if not do so now. Anything you dont want painted should be masked off and protected. Plastic grocery bags slip right over the front rotors, and for the rest I just cut up a trash bag and taped itup over everything else. This is where to fun starts.....with the paint can approx 8"- 10" back start painting the caliper with quick side to side movements. Dont worry about getting the whole caliper painted in one coat. Just do very light coats side to side, and then let it sit for 20 minutes or so to dry. Once its dry to the touch you can go back and add the next coat using the same technique. Let that one dry and repeat. Once it is fully painted with 3-4 coats, let it sit for an hour or so. Now its time to clear coat them so that they shine, and dont look like painted calipers. Some people say that the more coats of clear, the more it will shine. I dont think so. BUT the more coats of clear you have on, the more the paint is protected. I put 5 coats of clear on each caliper, waiting aprrox 5-10 minutes between each coat. Once the paint is dry, and I mean really really really dry you can reassemble the brakes and but the wheel back on VERY CAREFULLY!! Assuming you have painted both calipers and everything is dry and back on, let the car sit over night. Dont drive it. This just gives all of the paint more time to dry and cure. If you are adding decals to your calipers then i suggest you wait a week for the paint to completely cure and harden. Once that week is over you can apply your decals and add a coat or to of clear over them to protect them, and to help prevent peeling. Hope this helps you. One last thing, I bought all of my paints at Kragen for under $20.00 and they look great.

JJJ93z

i bout VHT caliper paint and VHT high temp clear coat

Can i use a sand blaster to strip previously painted calipers?

Aklaim

It would be better to sand them with a rotary drum type device. Not only would it strip the old paint off but it would leave the caliper nice and smooth, ready to be primed. But yes, i suppose you could sandblast the old paint off.

JJJ93z

what about the rear calipers? since they arent flat like the rears? how should i sand those? thanks

Aklaim

I havent done the rears yet, so I cant say for sure. But If you have a small sanding drum attachment for a dremel or die grinder, it should work just the same as the fronts.