Painting Brake Calipers

[WilliamH]

I've just had the bodywork of my IS300 Sportcross sorted and it looks amazing.... but it's let down by the wheels and calipers.

My plan is to have the wheels professionally refurbished and while they are away being done I will clean and paint the calipers on the car.

So what I want to know, please, is:

1. How best to jack the car up so I can remove all 4 wheels and support the car for a couple of days. I've got the Lexus jack, a heavy duty scissor jack, a smallish trolley jack, and 2 axle stands. Where are the safe jacking and support points?
2. Has anyone got experience of Foliatec Brake Calliper Paint? I prefer to brush paint and plan to use the Carbon Metallic colour, but has anyone got tips how to get the best result?

Thanks!

[J Henderson]

Personally, I would spend £20 or so and get another pair of axle stands to remove any doubt or anxiety of having the car off the ground.

Regarding the Foliatec kit. I used this to paint my calipers 2 years ago and was impressed with how they turned out.
I had a chance to have a proper look at them again a few weeks ago when I swapped back to summer wheels and they still look great.

For application, I made sure the calipers were properly cleaned-up beforehand. The kit does come with brake cleaner and a small wire brush, but I also used a larger wire brush and bought another can of brake cleaner so I could go over them multiple times until I was satisfied they were as clean as they were going to get.

I then just followed the instructions to mix the paint & hardener together and applied multiple thin coats allowing them to dry inbetween - by the time I was finished doing the rear calipers, the fronts were dry enough to take another coat, and so on.


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[WilliamH]

Thanks. That's the encouragement I need to go ahead and buy the caliper paint. Good point about having 4 axle stands.

[Venator]

I did mine earlier on this year, I decided to get a more unique colour, and found this paint: ebay link - the paint in the tin was good quality and has held up well.

To prepare it, I used these drill wire brush - Cheap and I got a better finish in minutes with them, than I would have done if I had to actually work hard and manually use a wire brush 😛

 

[steve2006]

I watched a “Wheeler Dealers” type programme the other week and the guys had a set of 4 callipers rebuilt and repainted, they cleaned them, shot blasted them, removed all the casting marks then repainted them before fitting new pistons and seals. The cost however was £750.00.....you could have bought new I think at that price even from Lexus!

[WilliamH]

Thanks guys for the tips and links. Plenty to think about. Will post pics when I've done the calipers - probably not for a few weeks yet.