Ok, I finished painting my calipers RED. I think they turned out rather well. Hopefully it will be durable. It feels like the red paint added 10 - 12 HP!

 

Tim, those calipers look brand new!! Did you brush them or spray them?

 

Yes more infor as I have wanted to do this for a while, I just didnt want to spend the $700.00 and the down time.

 

Me too. Did you just use some descent caliper paint? And as for the decals, did you put some kind of clearcoat/protectant over them? What about removal of the old material?

 

I'm thinking about doing the same on my car, I have the same color exterior and red calipers look great against the car. Let us know how you did them.

 

I have two words for that:

NICE!

good idea to get a layer of your favorite sealant wax over those once they've cured. I've seen this mod deterioate after a few months of exposure to the elements. I've been using the Michelin brake dust repellent lately on my wheels and calipers and its cut down the cleaning time.

 

Wow! These look great!!
After reading another related post/thread, I bought the caliper paint set from Pepboys (~$15). It's a brush set (not spray). However, I have not used it yet. What paint did you use? Was it spray or brush? Are the letters painted or sticker? If sticker, who did you get them from (prob. eBay, right?)?

JM

 

Guys - thanks for the nice comments! I used the Dupli-Color kit I got at Autozone for $15.00. It comes with an aerosol can of caliper cleaner. The paint is a brush on paint.

I used a brass wire brush with the caliper cleaner to help roughen up the OEM paint. Hopefully this will enable the new paint to adhere better. I bought a cheap 1" bristle brush at Sears and used that rather than the small brush that was included. It took 3 - 4 coats. The first coat will not cover well and will be spotty at best. Just follow the directions. Take your time taping the parts you don't want painted. That will really help with the final outcome.

I got the stickers/decals at Xenonmods.com. I bought the 3.25" decal which is actually .25 too big compared to OEM lettering. They do carry the 3.0" lettering also. Your can either dry or wet transfer them. I chose to do the dry transfer. I bought some clear Dulpi-color Engine Enamel spray to help seal the PORSCHE lettering, but I have not used it yet. The instructions said to spray within 1 hour of painting or wait 7 days. I finished painting late last night and waited until late this morning to put the lettering on the calipers. I'll spray the clear coat in about a week.

Hope this helps! Thanks again for the comments!

 

Good job Tim, after I completed mine I thought to myself "how come you didnt do this ASAP"...

 

Alex - Thanks. I decided to paint mine after you posted pics of your "paint job." I had seen a few other posts about 6 - 7 months ago and forgot about it. Then when I saw your pics, that pushed me over the edge. Just took me a while to get to it.

 

Tim,
Thanks for the info. The set I bought at Pepboys is the Dupli-Color set as well. I wasn't sure about the brush vs. spray. Now that I've seen your pictures, it definitely makes me want to do this mod real soon. Thanks about the Xenonmods.com tip. I'll check them out. I had read about the 3.5" vs. 3.0" letter size issue but seeing yours, it doesn't seem to make a big difference (at least not to me).
Great job!

JM

 

JM - You are welcome. I actually like the larger lettering because I always thought the OEM lettering was too small. Most people would not even know that these are a little larger than the OEM lettering. I'm really pleased with the way they look. Thanks for the kind words!

 

Well done. Looks really nice.

 

Turned out fantastic! Good job!
Did it take long? Did you remove the caliper to get the job done?

Now you've got me interested in doing this!

 

Riad - Thanks for the kind words.

Dub-U! It probably took 6 to 6.5 hours. That includes getting the car up on jacks, wheels off, clean, paint, lettering, wash & wax wheels, re-mount wife... er, I mean... re-mount wheels, get car back to earth. That was spread out from yesterday afternoon until this morning and I was also doing some other stuff around the house too, so the time could be +/- 45 to 60 minutes.

No, I did not remove the calipers. I painted them in place. I removed one from the disk but did not remove the pads or disconnect the brake lines. I didn't think it was going to help much with the painting, so I re-installed it and then proceeded to clean, mask, and paint. Hope this helps.