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So my brother, who had not seen my 996 was pretty enamored with it. However he did say you should paint those calipers red (mine are black), it will really make the car pop.
So I decided I would undertake the effort. Mind you I changed the windshield washer pump which was inop - and that sucked!! I only state this to show that I have been around and work on cars regularly. In fact I have done 3 resprays on paint to date.
I bought the G2 paint system from Amazon and bought the Porsche stickers there also. (One side note on the stickers, they came from Europe and I didn't receive them after a month. So I sent the vendor an email and he said "I didn't know you still wanted them" Well **** he took my money and charged my card, of course I f%$^&* want them!)
The G2 directions said to jack the whole car up and paint all four calipers at the same time. Once, I started cleaning them, I found this to seem unrealistic. I figured it would take me at least 10 min per caliper, but you are supposed to repaint after 15 minutes. So I poured half the paint in another container and half the activator, and I painted two calipers at a time. This work well, and I was not in a hurry to get everything painted. I had extra paint brushes on hand like in the kit, Harbor Freight $2.
If you go with this kit, I recommend changed brushes for each coat. The paint started to dry on the brush, and the second coat was not at smooth as the first. I had plenty of paint, and probably have 1/5 to 1/4 left after finishing.
Now that they are painted I am relatively happy with them. The paint evened out some, given that it is brushed on, however it is some what wavy up close and is probably a two to three footer. I think a spray would look better, however removing the caliper and brake pads to paint, then to bleed all brake lines and reinstall is more than I was up for.
Look very nice! You should definitely clearcoat them.
When I did the caliper painting on my Boxster, I completely removed them and spray painted them using high temperature paint. It held very well and looked shiny even after 6 years when I sold the car.
If you have the white decals, I would recommend NOT clear coating over them.
I clearcoated over my red painted calipers with white PORSCHE decals, and after a track day, the front decals yellowed a bit. On closer inspection, it seems to be the clearcoat that yellowed. It was high-temperature clearcoat.
The slight yellowing isn't noticeable on the red calipers, but on the white, it is noticeable. I imagine it wouldn't matter on a black decal.
Yeah, painting the uncoated rotor hats is definitely an upgrade. That's the ONLY thing that made my Boxster not look brand new when I bought it, and easily rectified.
I did not clearcoat over the letters - but I did apply the decals while the caliper paint was just the slightest bit tacky, so that may have helped them stick. They still looked perfect after three years when I sold the car.
I just painted my black ones red too. Used the VHT paint and clear coat paint. It calls for a 200 degree oven bake for an hour but I did the 24 heat lamp bake which brought the surface temperature to 130 degrees. I think they turned out ok.
02-12-2015, 10:42 AM
Brake Caliper Paint
