painting calipers

[Luke and Debs]

just thinking about painting brake calipers

is there anything speacial about bleeding breaks on bongo i need to know when i put them back on.

also anybody tried it

cheers luke

[daveblueozzie]

Why take them off, just remove the wheels and clean and paint whilst on the bongo. thats what i did, and i bought special heat resistant paint to do the job, still looks good after two years.

[Luke and Debs]

just been reading about doing that. did u use paint or spray. how long did it take u

[mikeonb4c]

Keep meaning to do mine, just a bit wary of warnings not to get the special paint on brake hoses etc. Also needs to dry for quite a long time before car can be used. Can't see any advantage to spraying as surface of calipers is rough anyway. I'll go for discreet black if I do mine

[Northern Bongolow]

bleed the furthest away from the master cylinder, rear n/side, then rear off side, then front near, then front drivers.
nothing special about it, good idea to thoroughly bleed the lot so you end up with all new in.

i use the black lead stuff used for blacking solid fuel stoves, spray or paint on.

[Simon Jones]

Brake fluid should be replaced every 2 to 3 years, so removing the calipers for painting would be an opportune time to do this. It's on my to do list to paint my calipers along with fitting new discs and pads. I was thinking of going with a dull silver finish rather than anything too garish.

[daveblueozzie]

just been reading about doing that. did u use paint or spray. how long did it take u

I used paint, not a spray, i had a batch made at a paint shop, the paint is specially formulated for calipers and they mixed it to the colour i needed.
Cost me £8 for a tin with enough to do the job another couple of times when needed.
It took me about 3 hours to clean and paint all the calipers, (i took my time) then you have to let the paint dry for a few hours.
Before painting.

After painting.

[M 80NGO]

sprayed mine vauxhall star silver, just gave them a good wire brush, degreased with some thinners made a cardboard template to sheild the disc from overspray, beauty of using spray is that you'll build up thinner coats so that it drys quicker.

Another tip is to drive the van just before spraying to get heat in the brakes to give the best optimum spraying temperature

[mikeonb4c]

sprayed mine vauxhall star silver, just gave them a good wire brush, degreased with some thinners made a cardboard template to sheild the disc from overspray, beauty of using spray is that you'll build up thinner coats so that it drys quicker.

Another tip is to drive the van just before spraying to get heat in the brakes to give the best optimum spraying temperature

Like the cardboard template idea, but can it really protect everything, and is that paint heat resistant, as I thought you had to use special stuff?

[M 80NGO]

sprayed mine vauxhall star silver, just gave them a good wire brush, degreased with some thinners made a cardboard template to sheild the disc from overspray, beauty of using spray is that you'll build up thinner coats so that it drys quicker.

Another tip is to drive the van just before spraying to get heat in the brakes to give the best optimum spraying temperature

Like the cardboard template idea, but can it really protect everything, and is that paint heat resistant, as I thought you had to use special stuff?

Yeah if you make the cardboard template big enough and your not a ham fisted baboon then overspray isn't an issue, spray downwards with a sheet on the floor and rotate the disc so that you always spray downwards, also have all 4 wheels off together that way you can get them all prepped and keep going round each corner applying constant thin coats to build it up and by the time you've gone round the first one is dry and ready for the next coat the last couple of coats could even be clear laquer to give some protection then leave for a couple of hours in the warm sun to harden, i have always painted my brakes on all my cars, my pet hate is nice rims with rusty cruddy calipers behind as for special paint i've never used any special paint, the beauty of using normal spraypaint is that you can have any colour you like, it's all down to prep and remember that the brakes will be one of the few painted components that get heat generated through them regularly which will stop rust reappearing i supose that the first couple of coats of spray paint could be finnegans rust proofer

[M 80NGO]

Oh and while your prepping leave your spray cans in a bucket of hot water to ensure the paint is lovely and thin when you come to use it

[M 80NGO]

Bongo brakes


bmw brakes


Mini brakes

[Luke and Debs]

thanks guys

great response. like the idea of a template

also thought i wanted red but silver looks good

think i will still be red on black wheels

[mikexgough]

I took my time too...... spray brake cleaner over them, wire brushed and used my airline to blow out the rest of the crud before painting...... Black....

just been reading about doing that. did u use paint or spray. how long did it take u

I used paint, not a spray, i had a batch made at a paint shop, the paint is specially formulated for calipers and they mixed it to the colour i needed.
Cost me £8 for a tin with enough to do the job another couple of times when needed.
It took me about 3 hours to clean and paint all the calipers, (i took my time) then you have to let the paint dry for a few hours.
Before painting.

After painting.