Hey guys, ChrisFix here
Are you rusty, old brake calipers ruining the look [of] your car?
Does it mess up how your brake system or your rims look when it's on the car?
Well, today I'm gonna show you how to paint your brake calipers
to make them look really nice.
These rusty calipers are still in good shape,
they just don't look very good.
So I'm gonna go through the process and how we're gonna prep it,
and then spray it with high-temperature spray paint,
which you can pick up at any store for 5 bucks.
Since we'll be doing this on the car, so we don't have to bleed the brakes,
we're keeping the brake line attached,
we have it off to the side,
I have a box on top of a bucket to kind of keep it supported,
give me a nice platform,
I want to cover all this stuff, because I don't want to get high-temperature paint on this.
So I'm just using a garbage bag
to completely cover everything.
With everything covered, we can start the prep on this.
To do this job, we're going to use some high-heat spray paint,
so up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.
We have some isopropyl alcohol
that cleans it off when we're done sanding and everything
I have a metal wire brush
some 230 grit sandpaper
and then some 600 grit sandpaper.
And that's all you need — let's get to work.
Remember, when you're sanding this and when you're spraying this,
make sure you use some type of protection for your lungs
and protection for your eyes.
So the first thing I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna take the wire brush and just
everything on here that is metal, hit it.
Watch out for the rubber on these guide pins
and also watch out for the rubber on the brake line
and be careful of the rubber down here on these pistons.
So remember to take your time doing this
It's all in the preparation
The better you sand, and the better this is prepped,
the better it's gonna come out. I know you'll be excited
and you just want to start spray-painting
but try to take some time
to do this right.
You can see all this rust and everything that got taken off with this
That's good.
I forgot to mention, you're going to need some brake clean
next step is going to be to hit this with brake clean, get it all cleaned up.
After this is dry, we're going to move on to the sanding with sandpaper
this is 230 grit.
Depending on how rusted your calipers are,
you might not need to use this,
if you calipers are still really smooth and look good
then you can just move up to the 600 grit.
Mine are kind of rusty, so it needs this coarse sandpaper
to get the rust spots out of here.
Make it a little bit smoother.
Okay, I sanded all the spots on this that I wanted to get to
with the more coarse sandpaper
so now I'm going to move to the more fine sandpaper
600 grit.
Now the level that I'm going to do this for my truck will be different from the level I would do this for my Corvette.
I just want to get a nice coat on here, make it look halfway decent,
and prevent the rust,
that's the goal for me, rust prevention. For you it might be the looks
so then you might want to be more detailed.
You might want to take the caliper off
and open it
You might want to get the brake pad clips out of here
and get the paint under there
For me, that's not super important
So just remember that there [are] different levels that you could do this to.
Now, take your time with this last step,
and we'll be spray-painting in no time.
Okay, this is coming out real nice,
it's ready to be hit with one more thing of brake clean
and then we'll use some rubbing alcohol and clean it off completely.
Now it's time to use the alcohol.
Before I touch this caliper again, I'm going to change out my gloves
so that they're clean
The alcohol step is the last step before paint touches this
so you want to try to be as clean as possible now.
Now use a paper towel, a lint-free towel would be best
and some alcohol
pour it on
and then just clean this off.
You're gonna get a lot of stuff off from doing this.
Even after brake clean has been used.
After you clean it off with the alcohol and it looks good to you,
let the alcohol evaporate,
After it evaporates
we'll start spray-painting.
Make sure you read the instructions on the back of your can.
Make sure you're within the temperature range, make sure you're at the right distance and stuff
With this stuff, I'm going to try to use three coats
I'm going to do this side first
I'm gonna wait two minutes between coats
and I'm gonna spray about a foot away.
So just as I start painting,
I forgot to mention, you should use some tape
on any parts you don't want to get paint on.
In my case, I don't want to get paint on these two rubber pieces here
so I'm gonna use tape on them
I already spray-painted a little bit, but I caught myself so it's not a big deal.
So now that I caught myself, I'll continue spray-painting.
Let that sit for two minutes.
After a few minutes, you can see it's basically dry
so I'm gonna hit it with one last coat of paint.
Okay, good, now I'll let this dry for thirty minutes
and then it'll be dry to the touch.
So then I can flip this over and do the other side.
With this completely dry, let's flip it.
Now we're gonna spray this side
I'd say the only thing you're gonna want to worry about on this side
is the piston right here
Probably don't want to get too much paint on this piston cover.
You want to be extra careful, and might want to tape that off.
Okay, good, now we're gonna let this sit for two minutes
and do two more coats.
I'm skipping forward, this is gonna be my last coat.
Looks good, I'll let it dry for half an hour
and then we can put the brakes back on the car.
Okay
Put everything together, got new brake pads in
Got the new brake rotor
The painted brake caliper
And even the brake rotor, I painted the hat
With the spray paint that I used,
I'm gonna want to bake this on here
So to do that, what I'm going to do is I'm going to drive the car
for 15 minutes.
And I'm gonna let it cool for half an hour.
And what that's gonna do, is it's gonna bake on this paint
Not only is it gonna look good but it's gonna function well
because I'm not gonna have any rust on here.
Here's a before and after picture:
On your left is before, and on your right is after.
Hopefully this video was helpful!
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