Tomshark

I am going through this protege craze right now since I dont feel like studying in medical school. anyway...i wanna paint my caliper red. I was wondering if I need to take the wheels out before this can be done...I would assume so if you are using a spray paint. I was thinking of getting a regular paint brush and paint. 2ndly...is there a portion of the caliper I should avoid painting? I am a car dummy so please dont be afraid to use dumbed down car terminology. thanx

PS How does the back one look painted red? I dont have a caliper in the back since I have a LS without it installed. If anyone has a pic, can you show me what it looks like? pics of both front and back will be greatly helpful.

zadowman

do a search on the topic youll find it.

eggynatey

Welcome to the club, Tom!

Here's the meat out of a How-to I posted a while back.

First of all, YES! You'll need to take the wheels off.

Now, on to business:

Brush the paint on. It will save you a ton of time and hassle. Buy a can of Duplicolor High Heat paint(4.95 at pep girls), and spray the paint into a cup, then brush it on.

The reason for brushing is that it takes forever to tape everything off. I used a Big Gulp cup with a paper towel over the lid to minimize over-spray(as I filled it up) for my paint cup. Worked great. *Do NOT use styrofoam. The paint will melt the cup!*
To clean the calipers I used a wire-brush drill-bit from Ace Hardware, and my cordless drill. It took about 10min per wheel. Make sure everythings nice and shiney before you start painting.

Another trick that I found is to use a sponge-brush to paint with. The sponge brush won't leave those "lines" that you get after painting with a regular brush. Also it's a good idea to have a couple extra paint brushes around...

One more suggestion: Jack the car up so that you can do two wheels at a time, that way when you're done with one side, the other will be dry and ready for another coat. Back and forth. I did 4 or 5 coats with Duplicolor 1200 degree paint ($4.95)and the calipers look almost rubberized.

Here's the only halfway decent pic I have of the calipers.

Tomshark

thanx for your reply. I believe I was doing research after I posted this and I read your input on another thread. One question...you said you used wire brush with ur drill to clean it...are u trying to just scrub away the grease? i also saw ppl talking about brake cleaner but how it can melt the rubber or something...is wire brush the only other method of cleaning it? lastly, if you take the wheels off and put it back on urself, is it safe to drive around on it? i always have been told that, once you take the wheel off and put it back on like in the case of having a flat tire, you should take it into a shop and have it redone once you put ur regular sized tire.

zadowman

if you use brake cleaner youll have a resadue that the paint wont stick to. when you use the wire brush it gets all the crap off so you have a clean slate that the paint will stick to.

eggynatey

I used the wire brush to scrub away the dirt/grime that accumulates on the brakes. It really cleans them easily, they come out nice and shiney. As zadowman said, brake cleaner will leave a residue, so the paint wont stick.

Yeah, you can put your wheels back on. Just make sure that you tighten down everything well, and you'll have no problems.