Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Exterior Guides Brake Calipers - How To Paint

ANSWER: If you want to. This is mostly only done on import cars. This is to emulate the "look" of Brembo racing brakes which are bright red in color. Some argue that if a thick glossy paint is used, this paint may act as a heat insulator and prevent your calipers from cooling off properly. We have no data to prove this is true. Folks that have painted their calipers red don't report any problems.

If you are going to do this, make sure you don't put paint where it's not supposed to go (like into the piston or rotors). If you don't want to paint the whole caliper, next time you change your brake pads, you can just paint the backs of your new brake pads red (and leave the calipers stock), this may add an exotic look to your brakes if that is what you are trying to go for.

Doing this does not give you extra performance, it only changes the looks.

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Paint Brake Calipers
June 12, 2001 - By vnomura

Hi Everyone,

I finally finished taking pictures of myself painting the brake calipers and wheel hub. They started to discolor and fade after 1.5 years. I decided to repaint them and take pictures.

Step #1
Jack up the car and take the wheel off.

Step #2
Clean the brake caliper with a stiff old brush to remove brake dust and dirt. Use any brand of brake cleaner that claims to remove brake dust. You're going to have to try to remove as much as possible. If you don't clean it good enough, the paint may start to flake off.


Step #3
By now everything is wet and the brake dust is off and you need to get everything dry so you can paint. Go get a big bucket of HOT water. Pour the hot water over everything wet to rinse off the cleaner and dirt slowly. Keep doing this until everything gets nice and hot. Everything should dry in about 15 minutes or faster. You can see from the picture that after I cleaned my calipers, they look OK from the first time I painted almost 2 years ago. It is of utmost importance that everything is as clean as possible.


Step #4
The surface should be dry by now and clean now. Get your paint ready if haven't done so yet. I used high temp aluminum engine manifold paint. I used this paint not too much because of the high temp properties but because it's self priming. This means you don't have to apply a primer coat first to the bare metal.

I sprayed the paint into the cap and used a brush to paint it on. You could mask off all areas you don't want paint to stick and just spray it on.


Step#5
Start painting! I brushed it on because it was the easier way to go. You don't need to take the calipers off to do this. The paint is thin so you can't tell that it's been brushed on. Don't forget to paint the center hub area. This area usually gets a bit rusty. Don't worry too much if you get paint on the rotor area. It will be scraped off when you drive and use your brake. Try to avoid painting the rotor if you can. I also applied a bit of grease to the very center. That's why it looks messy. This makes taking the rim off easier next time.
BEFORE




AFTER




Step #6 let dry for about 30 minutes and put the wheels back on. I used about 5 coats and let each coat dry for 15 minutes before the next coat. I had extra tire jacks so I did all 4 calipers at once. I just move from one caliper to the next allow each to dry a bit

Finished picture


Hope this has been helpful to you.

This was probably the easiest, least expensive (under $10) modification that I've seen so far.

so who makes the paint and where can i buy it? i'd like to do a blue color preferrably metallic because i wanna use it for my engine plastics

This is what I used when I painted my calipers...


Here are more photos of when I did my calipers...
https://celicahobby.com/gallery/index.php/category/inst-brake-calipers-paint

NOTE1: The stuff with the green cap is BRAKE DUST CLEANER... costs no more then $1.99 at any Autozone/Pepboys

NOTE2: The black paint was used for the brake-dust guards - the pan-thing behind the brakes/calipers)

isaac, did you brush it or spray it?

spray... just covered everything else with newspaper and rag over the stuff behind.

I painted my calipers today, and Isaac was completely right. This was an easy and cheap install and I think it makes my car look a lot better. I have pictures of my install here [imagestation.com]

I spent like 3 bux for the paint and 3 for the brake cleaner. 6 dollars and a couple of hours is definatly worth it

hey, i painted my calipers about 5 months ago. i found it much easier to take the calipers off and wrap the rotars with a plastic bag n sum tape. the metal piece thats goes along with the calipers can come off if you juss take off 2 bolts in the back. just clean it with sum brake cleaner and use a can of spray paint. make sure you use the kinda paint thats made for high heat, or else its gonna flake. but yea, if you do it like i sed n wrap the rotars up with plastic, you get a clean look.

I painted my calipers yellow today. The rotor need some painting too so i plan to paint the rotor tomorrow. I was thinking since my caliper is yellow, would making the rotor yellow fit the color scheme? Or would just silver be better? I havent seen much ppl paint their calipers and rotors the same color, so im just wondering if any of you do.

I JUST DID ALL MY WHEELS LAST NIGHT.. 3 HRS TIME AND THEY ARE JUST LIKE NEW. REAR DRUM ALL ALUMINUM, FRONT DISK COLOR LUMINUM, CALIPER WAS PAINTED DUPLI-COLOR FORD ENGINE BLUE..
GREAT TIP THANKS

ummm, ya know if you paint the surface of the rotor, it will just be worn off in like 50 feet of operation, i took my rotors off and painted the hat, then i tried something else, i painted the cooling fins, looks cool, but it does not come out well in pics

Do you uses wheel cleaner or brake part cleaner?

wheel cleaner is for wheels (steel wheels and certain aluminum rims.)
Use brake cleaner the areas around your brakes and brake calipers...

i use brake parts cleaner. it dries off pretty quick and its strong.

if you already have paint on the calipers, the brake parts cleaner will eat through it. so if you want to remove the old paint, thats an idea. or if ur working on ur brakes, keep that in mind.

but for a more better color selection, bump down to the 500 degree paint. they have a better selection of colors. i've been using the 500 degree paint for 2 years now and i haven't had a problem with it.

anyone got pics of the rear drum brakes painted??

thats cool stuff always wanted to do that

Wow! They look awesome.. hehe I just did mine.. and I like it alot!

I "did" mine on Eastern weekend... I chose BLUE (but I think it would look better w/white wheels!!) I started by the rear (easier) and then the front but I run out of paint and the autoparts were closed...! since that... I got lazy (the calipers need a little bit more of paint)... and I haven't finished yet ... that's what I said < I "did" >

Here is a better pic

i'm a now huge fan of Dopli caliper paint it's soo much better then the high temp stuff and coats a lot better.

Just finished painting mine red...looks great! I already got a few compliments on the paint. I would suggest buying two cans of whatever paint you use...one can was not enough. It took a lot of layers to make the brakes look right. Definately worth the time for such an easy and cheap mod.

Did my Calipers, bought the kit at walmart for about $14. It's nice comes with paint, brush, and brake cleaner spray. Will post pics asap

do i need any kind of grounding before i put on the pain and must i use somfhing to clean it or can i jsut clean it with a brush and water

Brake cleaner is HIGHLY recomended...soap and water won't get the greasy stuff and all the brake dust off that causes paint to chip, bubble and peel

Question...when doing the front caliper, do you paint that middle shiny section of the caliper as well, or do you carefully paint around it. From all the pictures in this post, it looks as if people have gone both ways

I just painted mine metallic blue and they look sweeeet!

on the two celica pictures with red calipers painted, i see the car is lowered too, how low???

yo does anyone have any pic of the caliper and drums paint silver? if so could you please post pics thankx!!

I'm thinking about painting my brake calipers and rear brakes also. I take my car to the dealership to get the brakes serviced. Does anyone know if the brake cleaner the dealerships use to clean the brakes will eat away or fade the painted calipers? Please PM me or post a reply. Thanks!!!

I painted my front one with a kit from walmart before I got my rims.They look great.

Aren't there any other brands other than Dupli-Color?

I wanted yellow to match the car color, but it wound up looking more like an orange than yellow once I opened up the can!!

I think I missed the part about the hot water & all by getting it completely clean. I think I only used the break cleaner & no water... which MIGHT explain the chipping I've been noticing!

Just wanted to say thanks to this post. I original wanted to clean my tires due to all the red brake dust all over my rims. But after reading this post and a trip to Home Depot for paint and brush. Two hours later my rims are ten times cleaner.
I didnt use the hot water though. I used simple green. To remove all the brake dust. I have other pics with that wheels off before and after painting. I can post them later. If you want to see.

Thanks for the post.