hey all... I just wanted to share some pics of what I was able to get done this weekend Many thanks to rotoboy661 and dgeesaman for their help and advice on the lip work, and for a lot of folks on the caliper advice. They both turned out pretty well.

Here's some before shots of the lip and the caliper. I also did the plastic underbody diffusers just fore of the rear wheels (proper name?).

 

here is the before shot of the caliper... they looked like a$$!!!

 

here's the finished product... I think it's a big improvement over what it was prior... The work to do all this wasn't all that bad... just took me a day or so...

 

sweet stuff

 

Looks good.... although I would have done the calipers black. The red may start to look orange over time and will look funny compared to your red paint.

If not, good job!!! They definitely look better than before.

I was at the Porsche/Audi dealership last night with my dad to pick up his A6.... the calipers on the Porsche.. GAWD.

 

We don't have enough sun in Wisconsin for that to happen.

 

nicely done on the caliper project, looks very professional!

 

Thanks guys... yeah, I was going to go black, but I saw a few folks with red FD's too, and they had red as well, and it looked fine... looks great IMO I don't race or autox or track my FD, so I don't think my calipers will fade that bad. If they do, I'll just paint them again...

oh, as far as the lip goes, I actually washed and cleaned it first, then applied plastic adhesive spray (to aid the paint adhesion), then finished it off with SEM bumper coat paint, landau black for color. Worked really well. Filled in the scratch areas...

 

Thanks! I learned from the folks here on the forum. I just love how we're all one big family

I used the duplicolor kit. I got my own brushes though, since I heard the one that came with it sucked. The sanding of the mazda emblem was probably the toughest part...

 

hey Diablone, where in WI are you? We gotta get together... I agree with the no sun comment, although it's been gorgeous here lately!

 

Caliper looks great!

Did you pull them off to paint or paint them while on the car? I'm thinking about painting my calipers and if you can get those results from painting while on the car, then I reckon that might a goer.

 

Yes looking great

 

Take those rotors off, strip off the rust, and paint them with high temp aluminum colored paint. Your newly painted calipers look better when they're not mounted to rusty rotors.

 

I just painted them while on the car... really simple. The kit just calls for it to do it while mounted. It's a brush-on kit... so a little masking tape around the edges you don't want painted, and you're good to go. Some folks take 'em off and do the spray paint though.... it's totally up to you.

 

nah... the rust will just come off when I brake Besides, I might just get new rotors then, if the need arises. I haven't heard anyone use aluminum paint on rotors. Who here has done that?

 

I hope he doesn't mean the braking surface. I painted the hubs red to match the calipers. Looks pretty nice. I don't seem to have any pics of my hubs on this computer, but here is a pic of a caliper. I taped the letters then spray painted VHT high temp brake paint.

Steve

 

I did it four years ago and my rotors still are rust free. I put some enkei 18" rp01 rims on at that time which made the rotors more visiable and I didn't think rust was a good look when looking through the spokes of the rims. Any paint you get on the braking surfaces will scrape off the first time you use the brakes.

 

Yeah, get the rust off those hats and paint 'em bright silver like your rims.
That rust looks ghetto, and really detracts from the nice work on the calipers. IMO

After painting/clear coat and rims mounted, drive around for awhile and then take the rims off again. Clear away any paint that grinds off at the contact point between the rim and the hat.

Painting the rotors??? Reminds me of that guy on VWVortex that followed some joke advice as if it was serious...anyone remember that one? hehe

 

^^Can someone show me a pic of what's mentioned above and in the one above that too? Painting the "hat's" silver... I would like to see that. I have not seen this done yet. Thanks.