JayKWills

Okay so I'm a girl, I really want my brakes/callipers painted. Is this very hard to do? Does the paint come with good instructions? Can I do it myself, or will I need help? Was thinking of yellow or orange would match the best. What do you think? And which brand is best, I've only see about 2 different kinds. Thanks everyone!!

Cajun

Really easy to do, once the calipers are removed from the disc / mounts,
and cleaned up.

There is special caliper paint that I feel is overpriced.

I painted mine with high heat (500 degree) engine paint from PepBoys.

Still look great after 20,000 miles.

Cajun / Al

HipHotRod

Kim - As long as you can get the wheels off, you can do it. You can use 'Brakeclean' to clean the calipers and drums. It dries by itself and then get some cardboard to make a shield to block the paint from getting on the brake rotors. The rears are self explanatory. Sure you can take them off like Al said and that's the right way. I used the method I described for mine and they look great. Parts that no one sees didnt get painted. Go orange for sure.

twistrman

I just did these over christmas time with my dad when I saw him for the Holidays (first time the pics have been on here too)

I have have posted about it in here before, but I will repeat some of it here, and if you want you can PM me for more info.

I used the G2 caliper paint kit. It is the more epensive kind, it was $35 for the kit. This came with a can of brake cleaner (which i have tons left over), a brush, and the 2 part paint. The 2 part paint is key to this since once part of it is a hardening reactor. You mix the 2 together and it starts a chemical reaction that will harden the paint over time. This is what the other kits DO NOT have and is the key to it. Not only does it harden to a rock solid, almost powder coated like surface, but it also makes it so the paint flows together really nice removing brush strokes.

The other main kit out there is the duplicolor kit. It runs around $17, so about half. It is just a 1 part paint.

I read a lot of reviews on both kits on various car forums. Lexus, hummer, Jeep, Cadddy, etc. And the main opinion seemed to be go with the pricier kit, and I am happy I did. The reviews of the DC kit was that it was thin (although the G2 is a bit thin too, i did 3 coats) and it didn't really harden to a nice coating (because it can't) and eventually started to flake off. Most of the people that used the DC kit, then said they were going to redo them with the G2, often had before and after shots, and it was a huge difference.

I have not use the DC kit, so I don't have first hand experience, but I wanted to only do them once. I only did the calipers since i thought yellow on the drums was a bit too much for what I wanted (wish i had a second car to do because i wasted a good amount of the paint since it turns rock solid). One day i may do the drums black.

Both of the kits are a BRUSH style, which in my opinion is immensely better then the spray on kind. Yes you can mask you car off like crazy, but I don't care how good you mask it off, there are still particles of paint floating around in the air. I did not want to add yellow freckles on my black hhr.

Oh and the G2 kit is also made more for high performance in the area of heat as well. It is rated to 900 degrees where the DC is at 500 i think.

Last, guarantee their paint. If it starts to chip or flake, you get a hold of them, and they'll send you out a replacement kit.

I think it took about 2 hours total, 3 coats on each side. It takes awhile to brush on but the quality is worth it.

Like I said, if you want more info let me know, or what to know where I got it, let me know, i found a good place with free shipping and a discount. I've gotten a lot of compliments on them already. Also, the yellow matches the turbo tech sway bar yellow almost perfectly (which i also have).

twistrman

Oh, and to answer some of your first questions. You can do it yourself, but it wouldn't hurt to get some help. I did it when rotating the tires, so they were already off, and we removed the calipers (not completely, did not want to bleed the brakes).

The instructions are good, and pretty easy to do.

The yellow looks amazing in person. Depending on the color of your hhr, orange is a toss up. I did not want my black hhr to look like it was ready for halloween. Ok just looked and your HHR is SOM, i don't know how well the oranges would match, since it would be a flat not metallic, brighter orange.

HillsdaleHHR

Kim, I'm not sure how yellow will look with an Orange HHR. I vote orange or black. One member has an SOM SS with red.

afs9

Those look great, Twister!
I've always wanted pink ones.
But since it's only me for the most part and I'm pretty clueless about car stuff like that, they will stay the way they are.
I vote for orange or black too!

@

twistrman

ALso forgot to mention with the G2 kit, plan on your car being un-usable for at least 24 hour as the paint cures. I let it sit even longer.

Also plan on doing it in a normal temperature range, 55-75. I did it in the freakin winter, and the paint has a 6 month shelf life, so i didn't have a choice. So i had to eat my dad's garage to keep it a good temp.

afs9 - i would help you if i was in socal, pink would look amazing.

here is a review of the 2 different kits, the guy used both, one on the front and one on the back. The is an "adult" photo at the bottom, nothing worse then what you would see in maxim, but wanted to give the warning.

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/1727100.phtml

ebritt

Looks nice, I think Ill go for that one myself. $35 is cheap enough...

twistrman

not associated with this company at all, but this is where I got it (or my wife actually got it, thanks "Santa")

36.99 - 5% discount with coupon code G2 - free shipping

http://www.wheelskin.com/g2_brake_caliper_paint.html

Best price I could get on it. Only downside was that like i said, paint had a 6 month shelf life, we bought it in december, and mine was marked made in October. So it cut me down to 4 months to use it. But there are a lot of factors to that.

No problems with the company though.

My tip would be to let it sit for like 30 min. or so after you mix it up to let it start thickening up. My first coat went on pretty thin and then the second coat was a lot better, and the 3rd coat was great. As time went, it got better, but if you were doing the drums too, you gotta move faster then i did.