METALCAST ORANGE Caliper Paint Project Pictures - my.IS

hatzipri · 10-01-2006, 06:44 PM

Thanks and hats off to the IS netters here that inspired me to do this project and even though the project took about a month (and the car was on jackstands the whole time), I am very happy with the results.

I had done this back in June, but haven't gotten around to posting the results until now. I removed all calipers, clips and brackets, cleaned them with brake cleaner, then with soap and water, and applied three coats of each of the following duplicolor paints but applied the stickers before the engine enamel clear coat. I also painted the rotor hubs shiny black with high temp engine enamel.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliperaero.html SILVER
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html ORANGE
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/engine.html CLEAR COAT

I didn't want any of the traditional colors (red, black, silver, etc.), and I was actually going for the bronze look, but overall I think it came out good. After 3-4 months of driving, the paint seems to be sticking well, except for a few chips for when a friend of mine banged two calipers together in a box. I also installed stop tech brake lines since I had everything all apart anyway.

I sprayed the silver caliper paint on all calipers prior to the Orange metalcast in order to achieve the anodized look (waiting 5-7 days for enamel to harden) and then after multiple coats of the Orange metalcast, applied the silver lexus stickers from flatline, and waited another 5-7 days and applied 3 coats of the clear coat. The clear coat looks a little milky initially but then turns out real nice once it has dried. I know some of you have had complaints about the duplicolor paints, but all in all I am pretty happy.

Enjoy the pictures and hope you guys like them.

Chigger · 10-01-2006, 07:29 PM

Nice job, the color/calipers look great!

BTW, how hard is it to take off the calipers? I've done it myself, I might wanna take mine off the next time I paint them. +rep for info!

hatzipri · 10-01-2006, 07:43 PM

The calipers are not that difficult to take off, off the top of my head, I can't think of the link -tutorial that explains it, but you'll have no difficulty at all. Once you remove the calipers, tape off the parts that slide or the rubber slider pin boots in the front caliper case. Also, I took off all the clips that the pads sit in, and taped off the areas that they go in too. Before putting back everything, I cleaned the pins, relubed them, and sanded the pad clips so that the rust was gone.

In addition, on the rear calipers, I taped off the areas where I thought the pads would slide since getting paint on them probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

Even after cleaning and lubing all the clips, slider pins and places where the pads would move, the "clack" noise from the brakes still came back after 1-2 months.

It's not that hard of a project, just that you have to wait 5-7 days between coats so that the paint dries and hardens. This means your car is sitting on jacks for that amount of time, and you can't drive it. I luckily have a winter beater that I drove around until I put everything back.

Let me know if you or anyone else needs any more information.