Brake Caliper Repaint

PrettyBoy

Has anyone here had their brake calipers repainted? I want to sort out a set that were given a bad DIY job a while back and return them to the standard black colour. I'd rather give it to someone that knows exactly what they're doing instead of attempting it myself.

Any idea how long it would take and what it would cost?

I'd like to hear from anyone that has recommendations for a place in Dublin that can do it

Stavros Murphy

Good luck with that at any sort of reasonable price, very tricky to find somwhere. Someone on here may have a reccomendation though.

Between me and my two lads, we spend ages fixing up old components, there's always somthing being gone over/restored/repaired and a big problem is getting cosmetic items looking good. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a decent shot-blasting cabinet so that we can blast and paint stuff, calipers, springs, the usual stuff that gets scabby and needs bringing up. There isn't really anywhere practical for us to bring it to that offers that service. I already have the compressors in work so I'm going to put the blaster in there too, it'll come in handy for a lot of things. First up is a set of Ek9 Civic lowering springs and calipers off the young lads car that have layers of gack paint and rust on. I'll do them this evening and see how they come up.

dr.fuzzenstein

Not all of us have shot-blasting cabinets, though. :P
I have painted callipers before, both with Hammerite or just regular spray paint, it's just a matter of cleaning it up as best as possible with a brush and some white spirit, sandpaper and maybe go over it with a wire brush.
Of course you want to be careful of rubber seals and not washing/degreasing bits that shouldn't be.
You can do this in situ, but for best results you may want to remove the calliper.
This would be handy when you're doing the brakes next, because then you can remove the calliper altogether and maybe, while you're at it, get a rebuild kit and fit new pistons and seals.
Worst you could do is bring the car to a paint shop and tell them to repaint them, you're saying goodbye to a few hundred at least.

PrettyBoy

Had this on my to do list for a while and now the time has come when I need to get the calipers on my car repainted. I've looked up various DIY videos but I'd prefer to leave it in the hands of someone that knows what they're doing.

Can anyone recommend a reputable place in Dublin that paints brake calipers?

kdevitt

Tallaght Powder Coating will strip and powdercoat them for you. They did a great job on a rocker cover for me recently, will be getting them to so some calipers for one of my projects.

obezyana

I wouldn't bring my calipers to be repainted it's an easy job to do. I only done my front ones last week. Very easy to do. Get a 1/2inch paint brush a wire brush and some heat resistant paint. Below attached is mine

PrettyBoy

kdevitt wrote: »

Tallaght Powder Coating will strip and powdercoat them for you. They did a great job on a rocker cover for me recently, will be getting them to so some calipers for one of my projects.

Cheers kdevitt, I'll give them a call tomorrow

MortGoldman

Tallaght Powdercoating quoted me 160 euro to strip and powder coat my four callipers. Haven't done it yet, but I will soon

obezyana

MortGoldman wrote: »

Tallaght Powdercoating quoted me 160 euro to strip and powder coat my four callipers. Haven't done it yet, but I will soon

That's nuts when you could do it yourself for under 20euro.

kdevitt

obezyana wrote: »

That's nuts when you could do it yourself for under 20euro.

Not really. A painted job will look not compare to a caliper that is properly stripped and powdercoated.

MortGoldman

obezyana wrote: »

That's nuts when you could do it yourself for under 20euro.

I did paint mine two years ago, and I've regretted it each and every day since!

obezyana

MortGoldman wrote: »

I did paint mine two years ago, and I've regretted it each and every day since!

Did you use heat resistant paint? If not then yeah it would turn out bad after a while.

obezyana

kdevitt wrote: »

Not really. A painted job will look not compare to a caliper that is properly stripped and powdercoated.

A good prep job followed by a good paint job via DIY is still a good cheap option. 160quid on paint for calipers is madness IMO.

MortGoldman

obezyana wrote: »

Did you use heat resistant paint? If not then yeah it would turn out bad after a while.

I did. But I had red callipers as standard from factory, and it looked far more even and 'nice'. So I'm assembling all stuff I need for full brake overhaul now, and sorting my callipers out!

obezyana

MortGoldman wrote: »

I did. But I had red callipers as standard from factory, and it looked far more even and 'nice'. So I'm assembling all stuff I need for full brake overhaul now, and sorting my callipers out!

Why did you regret doing it? Was the old paint striped back? I honestly don't see the sense in paying big money for painting calipers if it can be done just as good by DIY.

MortGoldman

obezyana wrote: »

Why did you regret doing it? Was the old paint striped back? I honestly don't see the sense in paying big money for painting calipers if it can be done just as good by DIY.

1. I went for a ****ty colour.
2. It just doesn't look 'factory', it looked obviously painted and not like it was supposed to be that colour.
3. The paint doesn't resist brake dust as well as the original coloured metal.

PrettyBoy

obezyana wrote: »

That's nuts when you could do it yourself for under 20euro.

I have to stress that I'm looking to correct a poor DIY job that was done by the previous owner. I wouldn't consider myself a good painter by any stretch - I'd imagine that if I attempted to paint them myself I wouldn't do a great job and I'd end up getting a pro to do them anyway.