For those who painted their calipers...
 

I know there's a ton of threads as to how to actually paint them, but I'd like to know where you painted them. As in, did you remove them entirely, or did you just paint them on the car? Also, did you just paint the front of the caliper? outside half? Whole thing?


I'd like to paint mine, and I don't mind doing a little extra work but it seems quite difficult to get the whole assembly off. Would I also need to replace the seals in the calipers once I take them apart?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Devan

Take them off the car and clean thoroughly - all traces of grease, etc must be removed. In fact, if you want it done professionally you need to take the caliper apart so the caliper body is completely detailed prior to paint (good time to install a caliper rebuild kit, which is what I'm doing now)

The rebuild kit is only about $35

I'd also like to hear more opinions on the best paint to use (in terms of longevity), most of the threads on this topic are pretty old.

I got mine powder coated i think it was 30$ for the pair. Also get yourself some speedbleeders while your at it. Make bleeding your brakes a lot faster.

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I took mine off, painted them with high-temp Krylon...maybe Fusion?....paint. Then sanded down the top of the MAZDA lettering to show silver, then clear coated them.
After 10 years....they still look pretty good but ARE faded a bit.

If I was to do it again, I take them off and apart and get them powder coated.

Since I knew I was replacing my rotors, I left my calipers on the car and painted them with silver high temp spray paint that I picked up from Eastwood. I then used high temp gloss black paint, also from Eastwood, to show off the the MAZDA lettering. Then I changed out my rotors. When I am ready to rebuild my calipers, I will powdercoat like Force13B.

Have you painted the rear ones as well, or just the fronts?

Do you remove the whole caliper assembly, or just the outer half?

I painted my calipers black around 2005 with Testors model paint - brushed it on, sanded the Mazda logo down so it's silver. Still looks good, the black has faded a bit, but I can easily touch it up with another $2 bottle of model paint.

Did it on the car, I've done MANY RX-7's this way. Looks great, easy to do, lasts a long time. And, if you need a touchup, it's also easy to do as well.

Doing the hats of the rotors, this is easiest with the rotors off the car. I painted mine when I got new rotors. The brake pads quickly took care of the overspray.

IMHO, it's not worth pulling them off for powdercoating unless you're building some crazy show car or something. Factory Brembos (like on new Evos) are powdercoated, and Evo guys go nuts when their nice red calipers fade to pink. Testors model paint, you can pick from a world of colors, brush it on thick, and if you nick the finish or it's fading over time, just brush some more on. Easy, looks great, cost effective, and good for the long term.

Dale

^^Ditto that Dale. I have also used Testors brand model paint on more than one car and always had good luck/longevity with it. It takes YEARS to fade and like Dale mentioned it is stupid cheap.

I will admit, the last time I did my calipers on my FD I did actually go buy a small can of caliper paint and used that instead for the red. Then I used the Testors paint to do the "Mazda" in white. And I just painted them on the car with a paintbrush after a VERY thorough cleaning. Turned out great.

The advantage to the powder coating is when cleaning the brakes later you do not have to be as careful with brake cleaner. Whereas with just paint the brake cleaner will eat it off.

Caliper Paint from local autoparts store.
Removed Calipers, cleaned, sanded and painted. Sanded down Mazda logo reinstalled and called it a day... It has been 2 1/2 yrs and 8K miles with no issues. I use a brush to touch up chips if they occur... Not hard and can be accomplished with out removing anything from the car if you want.....

Attachment 722908

I did a set of calipers(300ZX) on my 240SX over ten years ago with a Folia-Tec product. It was a 2 part, and brushed on. I can't believe how well it has done. I have put on over 100k miles and been through a few sets of pads and they still look like I just painted them.

The paint does go on thicker than the Tester's and flows out so it looks smooth like the powder coated ones. They are even just as shiny as the powder coated ones. No fading whatsoever either.

I will be doing my RX-7 calipers in the near future, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Looks awesome. How much of the caliper did you paint?

I'll look into the Testers. How did you prep them? Just clean off the caliper with a Dremel first? Any primer or anything?

That product can be hard to find, is it much different from G2?

Not sure, I bought a few sets when I bought so I have some. I haven't looked for it lately. I remember that prep is the key. If you can, I would solvent tank/ultrasonically clean them . Originally I just used a lot of elbow grease, brake cleaner and a wire brush. WHEW...

I painted all four in the car, cleaned throughly with brake cleaner and a brush, made sure they were dry before painting.

I used Testors Model Paint and some paintbrushes. I painted thick, just the front part of the calipers (the visible part) and with a dremel and a sanding wheel polished the Mazda letters on the fronts after they were dry. That was over 5 years ago and they still look great!

I saw this method somewhere, tried it and so glad I did!

edit: Just saw Dale's post! This is the easiest method!!

^This for me as well. I just found it easier to remove the calipers.

Not sure if directed at me but I will respond..:lol:

I had all 4 calipers off the car and they were painted completely all around. I find it easier to remove them for painting BUT you don't need to. I am very picky about how things are done so I taped off all the rubber seals and bleeders. I made sure they were smooth with no runs or imperfections.

Good luck and enjoy...

what thread size is needed for our cars?



I removed mine from the car, cleaned them and then painted them with the rattle-can spray-on caliper paint. After that I used a rotary tool to sand the paint off the Mazda logos:

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0379_large.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0412_large.jpg

more pictures here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/261632...a-rx-7/page-36

I used Testors model paint (it is enamel paint, just like a lot of the "caliper paint" out there), brushed on. I filed the paint off of the "MAZDA" script with a flat file to expose the aluminum and then clear coated the caliper with IIRC Duplicolor enamel clear-coat. So far there doesn't seem to be a compatibility issue between the Testors and Duplicolor paints. I did this all off of the car, and my calipers had been bead blasted so they were very clean to begin with.

James

Note to self, I want speed bleeders

Bought Caliper paint at Auto Parts Store, masked off and sprayed several coats. Then sanded the MAZDA to a nice silver. Did not clear coat, but probably would next time.

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Front = SB8100
Rear = SB7100

If anyone knows the correct size 1 for your clutch i'd love to know. I've done lots of searching and never found a confirmation on it.

I painted both fronts and and rears. I left the caliper assembly on the car, cleaned thoroughly first with compressed air followed with with brake cleaner, let dry and then did the job.

I've painted calipers on and off the car. IMO, there is no need to remove the calipers for painting only. If you are going to remove the calipers, do it to rebuild them (and the painting just becomes an optional task). You can paint all the "visible" parts while the caliper is on the car.

I left mine on also and used the G2 kit from tire rack. Still looking good after about three years.