I try to make all my car projects with some purpose or reason behind. I strive to do mods that are as aesthetic as functional. But this one in particular is mainly for fun, I just wanted to do some simple mod to my tacoma, some small detail yet that (at least for me!) makes a big difference.
Overview
I will show you guys step by step how I painted my brake calipers, this is (a tedious but) very rewarding project that will give your car a different look. I Managed to do this paint job without bleeding the brake line.
I chose yellow to make contrast with the dark colors of my car.
This project can be divided in 4 sections, which are cleaning, priming, painting, and sealing the calipers. And for this we will need the following items:
In addition to these, we’ll also need tape and lots of plastic bags! Let’s begin.
1.- Safely jack up your truck and remove the wheels
First, we have to lift our truck and place it resting securely on top of some jack stands, make sure that they are rated to hold more weight than your truck’s weight.
Once we’ve done that, let’s remove the wheel so that we have easy access to the brake caliper.
2.- Remove brake pads
Let’s remove the brake pads by pulling out the clips and metal bars that keep them in place.
Maybe you’ll find that the pads won’t move at all, this is because the pistons are currently pressing the pads against the rotor. If this is you case, just use a flat head screwdriver to pry the pad from the rotor, this way pushing the pistons into the caliper. For a visual explanation, please see video above.
You’ll notice that after prying with the screwdriver, the pads will come out very easily.
3.- Unmount caliper and use a thick wire to hang it from the car
Start by removing the bolt that keeps the brake line attached to the steering knucle, handle the line carefully as you don’t want to damage it in any way. Then start removing the bolts that hold the caliper onto the rotor. Please watch carefully which ones you are removing, as some keep the caliper in one piece. Please refer to the video above to see which bolts to remove.
The brake caliper is a heavy part, and as we are not disconnecting and bleeding the brake line, we need to make sure that the caliper doesn’t rest hanging from it in order to avoid having it bent or damaged, for this reason grab a thick wire and pass it through one of the holes where was the metal bar that held the brake pad in place, bend it in a way that it can hold the caliper hanging from any part of the car of your choosing.
4.- Remove the brake rotor and hold the caliper with more wires
Remove the rotor by tapping it with a hammer until it gets loose, sometimes this is a little hard, but if you need to tap it more heavily, try to use a rubber hammer in order to avoid damaging the rotor. This step is optional as it is only made to have more clearance to apply the paint into the caliper. But you could still do the paint job without removing the rotor.
With another thick wire, hold the caliper from another angle so that it remains suspended in the air and it’s not touching anything from any side. Put it in a way that let’s you access comfortably every side so that it makes easier the paint job. Remember doing this carefully so that the brake line doesn’t get damaged
5.- Sand the caliper until free of rust, adjust caliper position if needed
Clean the caliper thoroughly using a dremel, if you don’t have one then use sand paper. Sand it as good as you can, use brake cleaner generously and wipe down the excess rust with a microfiber towel, repeat this process until it’s the free of rust as possible. This is very important as it will determine how good the caliper will hold the paint.
Use more wires if needed in order to adjust the caliper position for easy access from all angles. Unscrew or loose any brake line from what it’s holding it if you need it, make sure to NOT DISCONNECT any of those.
6.- Mask your car and caliper pistons
Use plastic bags and masking tape to cover any place that may be stained when applying the paint to the caliper. Also, using masking tape, cover the brake pistons and brake lines as you don’t want paint covering those areas.
Give your caliper one last cleaning session using brake cleaner, you may use alcohol too if you want, remove any excess of dust or rust with a clean microfiber towel.
Let it dry before starting to apply the first coat of primer.
7.- Apply at least 3 coats of primer
Now that we’ve finished prepping the surface, let’s start the paint job!
First, apply at least 3 coats of high heat primer, starting with the lightest ending with the heavier coat. Follow the instructions in the can to know how long you should wait before applying the next coat, I like to wait from 45 min to 1 hour.
You can sand each coat using low grit sandpaper in order to have a smoother finish, however I didn’t do this as in my opinion, It wouldn’t make a big difference to the eye and also makes the project longer.
Make sure to use protective glasses and respirator mask.
8.- Apply at least 3 coats of high temperature caliper paint
Same procedure as step 7.
9.- Apply high temperature clear enamel
This time apply as many coats as you want, the more the better, however if you only apply one coat it should be good enough.
10.- Let it dry for at least 2 hours and check for any errors
While patiently waiting for the caliper to dry, I mounted the rotor back in place, did a few things here and there, and after around two hours, I inspected the caliper to see if I made any errors in the paint job.
I found a spot where I applied too much paint so it resulted in a huge drip right in the front side of the caliper. So in this case, I covered the rotor, sanded down the drip with low grit sandpaper, cleaned it with a dry microfiber towel, and reapplied the whole paint system in that area.
Do this as many times as you need (hopefully not too many!) until you get the desired finish. Let it dry for at least 2 hours.
11.- Remove masking, put caliper, pads, and wheel back in place
Once the caliper is dry to the touch, start removing all plastic bags used for masking; repeat backwards steps 2 to 4: Mount the caliper, put brake pads in place, secure them with the metal bars and aluminum clips.
All these steps must be done cautiously as you can damage the paint very easily. I took the chance to put new brake pads as the previous ones were already very worn out.
Put the wheel back in place and torque all lugs to the appropriate spec.
And enjoy your cars new look!
PD: Cure the paint job
Ideally, it would be better to use an industrial oven to cure the paint at very high temperatures. But for that you would have to remove the caliper and bleed the brake fluids.
So, in order to avoid this, just follow the instructions on the back of the paint spray to cure it. If there are no instructions, then try driving around town, in traffic, during hot summer days, the friction from the pads with the rotor should generate enough heat to cure the paint, avoid using any harsh chemicals like brake cleaner for at least a week, to have the paint as cured as possible.
Enjoy!!
