painted brake calipers

[lateralus]

over the weekend i got around to painting my front and rear calipers red. it took me half of saturday to disassemble the brakes, properly clean and prepare them, then give the first couple of coats of etch primer, then a bit of sunday giving them a few coats of caliper paint. put everything back together monday night, bled and flushed the brake lines.

they look fantastic and are already turning heads :D first pic is the front, second is the rear

[DJKOR]

Very clean. I wanted to spray mine as well and do it properly by taking everything apart, but I'm not confident on the whole ABS brake bleeding procedure. Good work though.

[lateralus]

the bleeding procedure is pretty straight forward, just never let the fluid get too low, especially so that the actuator doesnt get air in it otherwise you're looking a lot of stuffing around. i don't know about the aurions, but the front calipers on mine are only single piston but the bore is pretty bloody big. so throughout the whole procedure i went through a bottle of brake fluid, topping up after each corner (did each corner twice), but didn't let the level get lower than half way between min and max.

[pimp-tivo]

they look really good man, i guess for like $30 of paint they look a million bux lol, what did u clean them with to get rid of all the road grime?

good job

[1rocky]

they look great

Something i also would like done eto my car :D :D

[Whip Cracker]

Looks good mate,

They make ya look at the rims... adds more colour to the car :)

[mbruce]

Thay look very nice lateralus, well done.

I do believe that the callipers fitted to the Aurion are the same, or very similar as those on the Gen 5, as the pads are the same part number from Bendix. http://www.bendix.com.au/ReverseLookup.aspx?SetRefNo=DB1474

Edited May 27, 2009 by mbruce

[mr ke70]

very nice man. im thinking of the same but i dont know if it worth it coz i want to paint mine black coz i have the green silver sportivo with black badges and black rims

[lateralus]

thanks guys! :)

for the road grime/brake dust build up i originally bought a can of cheapo wheel cleaner for $2, as the cheaper ones are generally more acidic. it didnt work very well, it was more like a glorified shaving foam. so i went to a hand detailing place and bought a bottle of undiluted acidic wheel cleaner, sprayed it on the calipers (when they were off the car), left it to soak for a minute, and then went at it with a wire brush. got them spotless in a couple of minutes! (wear gloves though, stings like a bitch on cuts and scratches)

[AUR30N]

Yeah painted calapers all ways look cool with the right rims might do mine this weekend. :D

I thought i may add the colour i was thinking off white so it suits the body of the car and get noticed throught the goldie rims.

AUR30N

Edited May 28, 2009 by AUR30N

[1stKill]

very nice man,and well explained about the bleed on ABS. :)

[DJKOR]

I do believe that the callipers fitted to the Aurion are the same, or very similar as those on the Gen 5, as the pads are the same part number from Bendix. http://www.bendix.com.au/ReverseLookup.aspx?SetRefNo=DB1474

Yep, they sure are. Thanks for posting that as well. Made it so much easier when I had to get myself some new brake pads in a hurry yesterday.

I thought i may add the colour i was thinking off white so it suits the body of the car and get noticed throught the goldie rims.

If you do paint them white, you do realise they will get dirty easily right.

very nice man,and well explained about the bleed on ABS. :)

Yeah, lucky for this thread as well, I could go through the process of bleeding my brakes after I changed my pads, without worrying about stuffing up the ABS.

[Lupetto]

Hey mate

Very nice

You inspired me to do mine this weekend :P ive been putting it off.

Did/do you have to get your front wheels re-alighned after you did the work?

[lateralus]

i had my wheels aligned about a month ago, so there's no differences felt here. but seeing as you're only taking the wheel off, and as long as you put the same wheel back on the same axle, you shouldn't have any alignment issues.

just a quick note, make sure you get ALL the fluid out of the calipers. i used a plank of 4x2 pine to depress the piston back into the housing to drain them, or you could use a g-clamp. if you have a bit of fluid left in there and it drips onto the paint, you'll have to strip it back to nothing and start again, as the paint just wont stick. i'd also recommend you hang your calipers by coat hangers with the banjo bolt facing the top, at least that way any remaining brake fluid will sit in the bottom corner of the chamber inside the caliper and not be likely to leak out.

and remember to clamp your brake lines! not as messy that way.

Edited May 29, 2009 by lateralus

[Lupetto]

i had my wheels aligned about a month ago, so there's no differences felt here. but seeing as you're only taking the wheel off, and as long as you put the same wheel back on the same axle, you shouldn't have any alignment issues.

just a quick note, make sure you get ALL the fluid out of the calipers. i used a plank of 4x2 pine to depress the piston back into the housing to drain them. if you have a bit of fluid left in there and it drips onto the paint, you'll have to strip it back to nothing and start again, as the paint just wont stick. i'd also recommend you hang your calipers by coat hangers with the banjo bolt facing the top, at least that way any remaining brake fluid will sit in the bottom corner of the chamber inside the caliper and not be likely to leak out.

and remember to clamp your brake lines! not as messy that way.

Ok thanks for the heads up > might see if i can do it with the calipers still on... I did my mates 200sx with POWER BLUE with them still on... didnt have too much trouble, just allot of newspaper and tape

[AUR30N]

I thought i may add the colour i was thinking off white so it suits the body of the car and get noticed throught the goldie rims.

If you do paint them white, you do realise they will get dirty easily right.

DJ I knowut what other colour would you paint it? it would look pretty silly i can paint then gold but then it would be hard to see the the gold rims.

I will paint them if i find that seeing them dirty looks wrong then i will hit them with black coat.

trial and error i suppose.

AUR30N