Brake Caliper Painting

[smooth1]

Here's a very budget minded mod that really adds alot of visual impact. There are several ways to go about this, and I'll try to cover those as I go along. I have done it several different ways, I just chose to do it this way this time.

I really like the Stop Red color, but you can choose any color really. It's up to you. If you choose to use heat temp. spray paint, (Duplicolor is a popluar choice), in this case, I really suggest removing the calipers from the car, pulling the pads out, and taping it off to go this route. Alot more work, but if you want a different color, it's probably the best way to go, other than sending the calipers in to have them powder coated. I have done that also with great results. Usually will cost in the area of 35-50 bucks each to have them powder coated, unless you have a freind in the business to help you out there.

So, I used a Ceramic Brake Caliper painting kit :

You will also need a can of High Temp Clear coat spray paint, 4 peices of tin foil about 6"x6", and an extra can of brake parts cleaner. Your also going to need a few sheets of 120 grit sand paper, a roll of painter tape, some old towels, (clean), and optional Lexus caliper decals, some old newspaper, and a comfy low chair to sit on. :)

1) I use a floor jack and 2 jack stands for safety and lift the front 2 wheel off the ground. Remove the tires, and clean the calipers off.

2) Put the newspaper on the floor under the brake caliper and place the towels over the fender above the caliper and around the entire wheel well. Using the 120 grit sand paper, your essentially going to scrub the caliper off and make sure you get in those smaller areas where breakdust can build up. The better you do at this, the better the paint will adhere to the caliper, and the fewer chips and cracks will show up later. take your time, do it right now, and you won't have to come back and do it again later. Sand it down, and then "rinse" the caliper off with the brake parts cleaner. It should look like this:

3) Now using the painters tape, you'll need to tape off the parts you don't want to get paint on. Like the pads, clips, hoses and bleeder valve on both sides of the car. Taping both sides off now will give you the right amount of time to stay productive while waiting for paint to dry.

4)Replace the old newspaper on the floor under the caliper to be painted and put the 6x6 peice of tin foil on the front corner of it. I also taped off the rotor and the hub cause I can get a little messy. , But just make sure you don't get any paint on the rotor. It's a ceramic paint, and it can glaze the pad. So just be careful.

5) Using the brush apply the paint. I really reccommend a really light first 2 coats. Don't even try to make the caliper red yet. Just distribute the paint, evenly, and as thin as you can. With about 5 minutes between coats. Do this on the tin foil also. Then on the third coat, go to a medium thick coat. Wait about 15 minutes, then with the 4th coat, take your time and give it one last medium coat, along with the tin foil also, and try to get all the areas. If you go to heavy right away, it's going to loose alot of the nice sharp lines the caliper has. And it will have a strange coated appearance to it, rather than a nice clean finish to it. Don't glop it on.

6) You'll need to let the final coat harden for about 45 minutes to an hour. Don't wait any longer than that though. So, seeing as how you already taped off both sides, you should have plenty of time to go to the other side of the car and paint that caliper up now. Once you finished painting the other side, you can come back to this caliper. Now using the tin foil, test it to make sure it has hardened enouph to apply the decal. I use my finger and just press on it hard. If it leaves a print on it, then you may have to wait another 15 minutes or so. Using the painted tin foil to determine the paint is hard enouph, now apply the decal to the caliper.

7) Once the decal is on, now very lightly apply a very thin coat of the high temp clear coat. Wait 5 minutes, and give it another very light coat. Now wait about 10-15 minutes and give it another light coat. Then wait another 10-15 minutes and now you can give it several medium coats of clear with about 10-15 minutes between coats. the reason for going with super light coats first is if you apply a medium or heavy coat to the decal right away, it will saturate the edges of the decal and get under the adhesive, which will raise the edges of the decal up. And that's not going to look good. By keeping the caots light and thin, they will dry really fast and seal the decal first. Then you can give it some good medium coats after that. YOu also don't want any rund and drips at this point. So again, just be patient, and give it a few even coats.

Now do the rear calipers the same way.

The finish results:

[flop170]

sweet! but i thought you were gonna do black and sand the face??? i like the red tho!!!

[smooth1]

Yeah, that's why I started this with "I did it this way this time." I just wanted to see what this would look like first. Once I get my new wheels, I might decide to have a friend powder coat them black and do what we talked about. I just thought I'd use this as a How to and an experiement, cause I really like the red too. ;)

[flop170]

ya i like the red too... but you had me curious as to see what the other was gonna look like..... bad smooth... bad! lol... good write up tho!

[dcfish]

Looking Good Smooth, One of these days I will paint mine, Either silver or caution yellow, What do you think ?

[smooth1]

Looking Good Smooth, One of these days I will paint mine, Either silver or caution yellow, What do you think ?

Hmm, you have a black GS right? I would do yellow for sure then. (Pittsburg Steelers colors!!) LOL!!!! Honestly, yellow would be really nice. If your gonna do silver, I would have them powder coated silver. Silver paint allways just looks like a grey color that doesn't seem to match anything else. (Unless you paint it the same color.)

[chanlidavid]

i want to know how did you put or paint the lexus logo on the break caliper??

[smooth1]

The Lexus emblems are vinyl stickers. You can get them from several places. I get mine from JVD Graphics. Heres a link:JVD Graphics

I've ordered from there more than a few times, and this little envelope shows up about a week later with the stickers in it. They allways work perfectly, and he includes 2 sets of each in case you mess up.

[Tango]

sweet! but i thought you were gonna do black and sand the face??? i like the red tho!!!

Like this:

[tjlazer111]

The Lexus emblems are vinyl stickers. You can get them from several places. I get mine from JVD Graphics. Heres a link:JVD Graphics

I've ordered from there more than a few times, and this little envelope shows up about a week later with the stickers in it. They allways work perfectly, and he includes 2 sets of each in case you mess up.

Hey, where did you get those mudguards? They look pretty sweet. I've got a black IS also. Do you have them on the rear too?

[rishithen7]

I would have gone with black BUT that would def. not been a good choice. Red simply looks awesome!

[smooth1]

sweet! but i thought you were gonna do black and sand the face??? i like the red tho!!!

Like this:

Yeah, see yours looks great with the black Volk's. The polished face of the caliper shows up great with black. But I have Work polished rims coming in, so I don't know how the polished caliper face would look behind the rims. So I went with the red until my rims come in and then decide afterwards. ( I told you I might swipe your design for those! ;) ) But after I did the red again, I'm really thinking this what I want and will just stick with the red. the Obsidian Black just looks so good sitting on those red calipers.

@re*BLEEP*hen7, thanks.

[JENunnez]

Finally got around to take some pictures of my calipers. I did them around two months ago. Painted them black to work with the tungsten pearl. Red or yellow would have kind of clashed with the silver of the car.

They turned out pretty nice.

Not very good pics but..... B)

[smooth1]

Yeah, that looks nice! But I need a profile shot of the entire car also please....

[JENunnez]

Ok Smooth, ask and you shall receive...........

Here's a better shot.

And one more that I like. B)

[smooth1]

Now that's what I'm saying! The black is a perfect color silver! They look great! Maybe we can get a nice database going here with pics of all the different combos.

And btw, great looking shine on that ride! And brother your in Miami and no tint?

[JENunnez]

Thank's Smooth. I worked hard for that shine but I'm still not done yet.

On the tint I'm passing it on this car, it's not that bad in summer. The A/C takes care of the heat pretty good and the factory tint isn't all that bad, it does a pretty good job filtering the UV.

Thank's again man, I'm proud of this ride.

[bartkat]

I'm inspired. Just ordered caliper stickers for mine.

[smooth1]

I'm inspired. Just ordered caliper stickers for mine.

What color paint and decals?

[bartkat]

I'm inspired. Just ordered caliper stickers for mine.

What color paint and decals?

Black with white decals. Figure it might look like ghost decals floating in there. :D

[JENunnez]

That going to look nice with the matador red. Also make sure you got plenty of time, that old adage, "It's so boring, like watching paint dry." fits this job to a tee. Also I got as many coats of clear on as I could, makes it sparkle.

[smooth1]

I'm inspired. Just ordered caliper stickers for mine.

What color paint and decals?

Black with white decals. Figure it might look like ghost decals floating in there. :D

So is this done yet? Wheres the pics? Slacker....! LOL!!

[NicLX470]

I like the black with the white letters, red with black letters. You think it would look good on my 09 IS350, smokey granite micha. Or maybe even that IS-F blue would maybe look nice.

[NicLX470]

Smooth1....

You used the brush and everything that came in the box?

And what kind of clear coat did you finish it with?

I'd like to try this some time.

Anyone have suggestions on what color would look best on my car that is Smokey Granite Mica?

[xbox360badrose]

Can anyone suggest a good place in Los Angeles to get my calipers painted with logos?