Caliper painting cook'm or brush'm?

[67targa]

Hello my Porsche mentors. Thank you for all your knowledge helping me restore my 67 tangerine softy targa. It has been alot of fun restoring one of the few SWB softies ever made. I am ready to hang my suspension and I powder coated everything for another 41 years of spirited driving. Now my question. I read a tech article about caliper refinishing. In the article the calipers were masked and powder coated. Will the seals survive the heat?? Anyone our there worked there calipers this way?

[SP2]

Hi, that is a great looking project you got there! The calipers rubber seals are thin and soft so I doubt you can cook them. I had my rear SC calipers (steel) media blasted then rebuilt with new seals. But then my friends calipers rusted so I painted mine with hi temp caliper silver paint. They still look good after a year of daily use.

If I had to do it over again I would media blast, then paint, then rebuild them.

[moneymanager]

Paint em. Lasts a long time, easy to redo when they stop looking the way you want.

[DRACO A5OG]

+1 Paint Them.

I just wire brushed, gunk sprayed them clean, masked then painted them red. They look great.

[slow&rusty]

I used high temp VHT caliper spray paint from Summit Racing and bought stencils for the lettering from Rennline. 500+ miles later they still look perfect.

Before:


After:



Please DO NOT powder coat a caliper this has not been completely stripped of all seals.

Regards - Yasin

[67targa]

Thanks for the info. I thought powder coating seem like the wrong path. I never thought of VHT though I'll ge check out the colors

[rattlsnak]

We use regular body paint (PPG) and paint several at month at the shop, and have never had an issue with any of them.

[moneymanager]

Krylon is good too.

[jthwan22]

I used brush on type from Eastwood

[Rich Lambert]

I used Dupli-color rattle can caliper paint. The silver is pretty close to the original silver cad. I don't know if '67s were silver or gold cad though.

A nice touch is to paint the parts of the rotors that don't hit the pads, including the outer edges. It'll cut down on the corrosion, plus it looks nice. That was suggested by John Crammer in another thread and it turned out great.

[67targa]

Thanks Rich, I saved these shots as my bench mark. Though they are for function, lord those are beautiful!
Thanks, Scott

[acapella8]

+1, makes me want to do a new project this weekend in Chicago . . .

[JeremyD]

I have brushed the HT eastwood paint - I;ve done one set powdercoating - and I've done one set rattlecan with VHT - I think the rattlecan with VHT is the way to do

[rrichar]

Rich,

Thanks for the idea of painting the other surfaces on the rotor. It does finish it off nicely.

I also noticed your black underbody painting. That black seems to be the perfect color and sheen for that application, what is it?

[barney911rs]

I got the Dupli-Color kit from Autozone. Several colors avail.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Rich Lambert

...A nice touch is to paint the parts of the rotors that don't hit the pads, including the outer edges. It'll cut down on the corrosion, plus it looks nice.

Agree completely. I plan on doing this but intend to use a "cast iron" color for the rotor edge and non-machined surfaces. Since my car is yellow, I THINK I may use a mild gold on the caliper (ala cad plating) if I can find such a thing, but if notthen perhaps black. Also plan on using the Rennline stencils.

[Rich Lambert]

Originally Posted by rrichar

Rich,

Thanks for the idea of painting the other surfaces on the rotor. It does finish it off nicely.

I also noticed your black underbody painting. That black seems to be the perfect color and sheen for that application, what is it?

Dupli-Color semi-gloss black.

[RoninLB]

I have to paint some used calipers.

From what I gather from all is that I'm just going to go to a marine store and buy a spray can of black outdrive paint... it's tough without being a urethane.

[cl8ton]

Originally Posted by 67targa

Will the seals survive the heat?? Anyone our there worked there calipers this way?

Seals will not survive media blast then baking.
I had my calipers rebuilt and PC'd by a fellow Pelican which he went the extra step and machined back to metal the Porsche logo.
They have been through many heat cycles and still look brand new!

[RWebb]

outdrive?

does that mean it's for painting the lower part of an inboard/outboard drive unit?? the part that hangs in the water?

and what kind of prep are you guys using before you paint?