Painting the Brake Calipers
I've always liked the look of the Big Red brakes featured on the 928 GTS and other Porsche models. Since I didn't feel like paying the small fortune to actually purchase and install that brake package, I decided to just paint the calipers in bright red. I purchased the brake caliper paint kit from Tweeks for $40. The kit included a can of caliper cleaner, paint, paint hardener and an applicator brush. Using a kit that included a brush appealed to me because I wasn't interested in masking everything off or removing the calipers.
Here you can see the "before" pictures. The calipers are so dark and dirty you can barely see them. First the front wheel.
A shot of the rear wheel.
I started by jacking up the car and removing the rear wheels first. Make sure you've blocked off the front tires.
After spraying the calipers with the included cleaner, they didn't get clean enough. It was time to break out the car wash soap. I figured I ought to clean the wheels since having bright red calipers and dirty wheels didn't make sense.
Well, the calipers were about as clean as they were going to get. Rust was already forming after 10 minutes of the rotors getting wet.
Before cleaning the inside of the wheels, I cleaned the outside too. Using stock pads, the dust adds up quickly.
The insides really cleaned up well! Here's a nice before and after.
The first coat is done on the passenger side. Two coats are needed.
Although the directions said the paint needed 4 hours to cure, I didn't want to wait that long. My wife's blow drier sped up the process so I could put the wheels back on and start working on the front calipers.
Second coat done.
Wheels back on. You can seen how nicely the inside of the wheels came clean.
Be careful not to let the wheels hit the calipers while the paint is still tacky.
The front calipers are now done, too. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to wash the whole car. It's supposed to take 24 hours before the paint is completely dry, but using the blow drier got them dry to the touch in less than 5 hours. I only used the drier for about 3 or 4 minutes on each caliper. Overall, I pretty happy with the outcome!
