Sanders

Im wanting to paint my calipers and I think it would be easier to just take them off to do it. Im assuming they are pretty easy to take off but I have never done it. Do I have to worry about brake fluid spilling out? Can someone explain how to do it real quick. Thanks.

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Its a piece of cake once you've done it once, but, yes, brake fluid will spill out if you remove the banjo fitting (i.e. brake line) from the caliper. You should take precautions to prevent losing fluid because if you let the master cylinder run dry for some reason, you'll regret it.

Read through these two brake installation documents and you should have a firm grasp of what's involved:

http://www.installuniversity.com/ins...ds_mwarren.htm

http://www.installuniversity.com/ins...er_rebuild.htm

EDIT: note that the documents I've listed are only reference material, you obviously won't need to rebuild the calipers or swap the brake pads, etc...

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

I painted mine without taking them off the car. I didn't want to mess with the brake lines and bleeding the system. I did un-bolt them though, the only thing holding them to the car was the brake line. Just make sure to get them real clean and mask off everything.

APeteSS

And, obviously, get a box or something to rest the caliper on if you're leaving the lines attached. You don't want the heavy caliper hanging by the line.

01 Red WS6

iTrader: (4)

I left mine on the car when I painted them but now I'm tired of the color so I'm going to repaint them off the car because I think it will be easier.


Here's a trick I picked up when I used to work on my truck for shows. To keep fluid from spilling all over the place while you are painting the calipars try to pinch the rubber brake line with something. I always used spring clamps or vice grips. Works really well and you don't loose a lot of fluid.

BitViper

iTrader: (63)

I once heard or saw a clip thingie that fit overthe banjo and stopped the fluid from comming out...anyone seen these things

DEESNUTS

Allow me to throw my two cents in...
I just got done stripping my calipers of thier color. I painted them about two years ago with brake caliper high temp paint. I did this with them on the car after a tedious but through job of masking everything. When i was done they looked great with my powerslots and clean hawk pads. I had good weather when I painted them, did about 4 coats, and everything was fine.
But after the first year, between the brake dust that stains the paint, and the rock chips from the road, they looked like ****. I drove with them another year until I decided to get my rotors turned due to some slight grooves and swap the pads (btw 34000 miles and still had 1/3 pad left). My advice is
1. If you paint them use a dark color, preferably black. Depending on where and how much you drive, the rock chips will be very annoying to fix and still look decent. Also depending on your pads trying to keep the dust from staing the paint is damn near impossible.
2. If you are going to take them off, consider ceramic caliper paint for durability or go the pwder coating route.
3. Stripping them took about 6 hours, then i had to polish them to get them to look decent due to stripping process. repainting would have looked good again, but still would not be durable.

Over all, while it looks nice on a show car, brake caliper painting is not for the real world driving that I do. Just be prepared to repaint often, or not drive the car IMHO.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

I use 2 crush washers and a 3/8" bolt with a nut on it.

slt200mph

iTrader: (42)

I painted mine red two years ago and used regular red paint not high temp ..got it at home depot 3 bucks a can..put 3 coats on..never took them off the car...got a coat hanger and held them up with that...put a plastice bag over the rotors to keep the paint off masked off the wheel wells with newspaper...I maintained them with soap and water and sometimes and use windex and a paper towels...mine still look good..they have 60,000 miles on them..I will do them again this spring..no problms with chipping or anything like that..you just have to get them clean..scrubbed with soap and water with a stiff brush and then use spray brake clean to get them squeeky clean before I painted them..90% of painting is always the prep work.. ...

98boxer

iTrader: (7)

I did my brakes, calipers, rotors months ago and I had expected a lot of brake fluid lose when I disconected the brake line from the caliper, but lost very little brake fluid, and i put no bolt when disconnecte the line, but keep an eye on the master cylinder fluid. You will be surprised how easy and worry free a job it is to remove the brake calipers, also I wouldn't pinch the rubber brake hose. Although I got air in the system, I was still able to bleed my brakes the old school method.

98A4LS1

iTrader: (1)

Go for it, these brakes are easy to work on yourself. I have always done the brake work on the cars I've owned and the '98 Camaro without a doubt was the easiest. I painted the calipers off the car since I was replacing the rotors and brake pads at the time. You can paint the calipers without taking the brake line off. As mentioned above dont let the caliper hang down with the brake line still connected. The bolt with 2 washers is a neat trick/idea.