How to: Anodize your brake calipers

[foznice]

I'm having serious difficulty finding the Adhesion Promoter (CP 199).. I can't get through to Holts because I don't think they're open on the weekends. If your in Vic, where did you find it?? I've called autobarn, repco, supercheap, auto one, bursons (not open), bunnings and mitre 10.. with nothing. Some have the paints, but none have the adhesion promoter that is reccommended by the paints. How stupid is that?

[cowie165]

@Flash89: wipe the majority of it out with a rag. Then spray the rest with BrakeKleen. It comes in a tall can with a red lid.

@Rylan: CP199 is the undercoat, right? If you're just going for gloss black, any high-temperature paint will work. As Chris was getting at, the primer is a silver undercoat and the colour coat is transparent - the more coats of colour coat, the less metallic the end result. If you hit it with black, you'd need a 'clear black' to keep the metallic finish. Rylan the best bet is prob to go with something like VHT engine enamel and then use another high-temp gloss clear on top of that.

Hope that help my friend. I can still remember when you were waiting for your car to come over from Japan!

And yeah, the CP199 thing is like McDonalds selling a BigMac without the bread

[foznice]

haha thanks mark!

I decided to go with the red, becuase it looks ever so sexy on your car! I didn't know which paint was going to give me a good looking and lasting result, so I thought I'd go with something thats been well tested by others!

As you were saying Mark, the more clearish colour coat the less metalic it is, I was hoping to go for the "less metalic, more deep colour" look. Is that what you did? As stated before I'm really scared of getting bright ricer red, so lets hope that dosn't happen.

I think lucien was saying all the way back in page 2 or 3 of this thread, that if you are going to paint onto bare metal, then you need to use the CP 199 adhesion promoter, and NOT the Undercoat. Which confuses me alot, becuase the way I see it the adhesion promoter is supposed to make the METALCAST colour paint stick better.. and is therefore not metalic in colour.. so therefore the metalcast won't have the anodized look. It's all on the duplicolor website. If you have a prepainted, or plastic surface, then your supposed to go straight on with the standard undercoat stuff. Since I plan on taking my calipers back to metal, I was trying to find the CP 199 adhesion promoter. But couldn't. Autobarn tried to chase it up through the distributors - Honeywell/Holts and they said that the CP 199 isn't even available in Australia...............

So I went and bought the paint and decided to just get the normal undercoat primer stuff, the guy who started this thread (Sorry I can't remember you user name and I can't be bothered looking it up at this hour), just used the undercoat as I'm guessing many people here have, and has gotten good lasting results. So fingers crossed!!

Lol.. my massive thread in the importing section!!! haha. I got so into the whole thing.. I can't believe I was only 17 back then and in Year 12!!.. Time goes very quickly. I was getting up at 5 every morning looking at the auctions in Japan to see if there was anything good.. and the killer wait till it got here. Thanks for your help on this forum too Mark. Your advice has been helpful many times over the years and I really do appreciate it.

I can't wait to get this brake job finished, I have (waiting to go on) new cross drilled and slotted rotors on the front (normals on the rear), project mu pads on the front, ultimates on the rears, braided lines all round, RBF600 Fluid, and the caliper overhaul kit waiting to go.

[cowie165]

Ah, yep. I think I just used the undercoat, same as everyone else. The aerosol paint stripper is sooooo much easier than the gel/paste stuff.

As for colour, if you flick back to about page 2, you can see the timing belt cover that Geoff painted. My aesthetic preference is for about three coats.

If you've not done much painting before, just remember: don't rush - use lots of light coats, start spraying before the caliper and use a smooth one-way motion, let the paint dry between applications with a bit of sanding if you feel like it.

And I was reading your last paragraph thinking, "dude you should also overhaul your calipers..." and then I read you already have the kits. Nice. I overhauled my calipers around a year ago (when I painted them) and learned a few lessons along the way. Such a massive difference when braking! You'll be stoked, and moreso because YOU did the work. Sometimes I get tired of the dudes with the mentality of "he with the fastest wallet, wins."

[Craved]

cheers Chris. So what paint do you reccomend exactly?.. surely not VHT............................

i used VHT gold witha VHT clear coat on mine long before this thread came up, still working great, looks the same as the day i painted it (well when they are washed )

The Red Metalcast is nice, i just painted some rb20 cam, cam gear and valley covers . look great ! (1 can of each to cover all 4 items)

being a long flat item it is difficult to keep the coats thick enough but thin enough for the metalic to shine, thicker wetter coats remove the paints likely hood of being slightly rough in its finish. colour sand and a buff would fix that though.

[foznice]

Painted the calipers today. Not entirely happy with them. They aren't BAD.. but it's just the little details that annoy me. I taped up the nissan writing for example, and it came out a little messy, although won't be noticeable unless really close up.

I wish I had more time to do more coats. I was happy with the red initially, then when I was carry the two fronts I accidentally knocked them together and chipped a little paint off the front of each one. ^#&^^*^.. I was cursing for at least 5 minutes. So in an attempt to patch up the tiny paint chips, I sprayed a little more red over then, which didn't cover up the chips totally, but makes them much less noticeable. What it did draw out was the extra coat of paint over the area I'd just done, and it looked really great, making the old red look sort of.. crap. The calipers are also a little patchy as a result of this. But luckily, once again it won't be noticed unless actually looking for it/when it's actually on the car behind the rim. Being a perfectionist with this type of thing sucks.

In hinsight, I wish I was on holidays at the moment, when I could take my time more. If I had more time on my hands, I would just strip them down and start all over again, but because I need my car to get to uni, work ect.. having it off the road makes things kind of difficult.

So for anyone reading this thread who is contemplating doing this I reccomend:

Budget HEAPS of time, overbudget, allow for mistakes and cockups and the time it takes to fix them.

make sure everything is SUPER clean, I was pedantic about it, and I overkilled. After taking the calipers off the car I washed them in the parts washer, wich got the loose oil, grease, brakefluid ect ect off. Then I went home and attacked them with a wire brush. Then I poured domestos all over them and blasted them down with the water compressor. Then I soaked them in hot soapy water overnight. Then I rinsed them. Still worried I bought some mag wheel cleaner, blasted them with the compressor again, then prepsoled. I would reccomend in future, roughing up with a wire brush and sandpaper, then the magwheel cleaner, then the prepsol.

Stick coathangers through them, then hang them on the clothesline to paint. It works a treat. You can paint from all angles, and get a good coat on all surfaces except the insides, which you obviously don't want to do. You don't have to worry about putting them down and have the paint on the bottom of the caliper stick to the surface or getting dirty. You can just leave them to hang there and dry. Just make sure its not a windy day, where dust and crap will get blown onto them.

As I said before, wasn't completely happy with how the NISSAN writing came out.. Not sure how I would get around this in the future. Putting oil on the surface may be a better idea? I'd have to experiment.

So tomorrow I'll be rebuilding the calipers, then putting it all back together and giving it a good bleed. Hopfully it will be all ready to go for the weekend, where it might cop a little skidpan love.

Here's a couple of pics:

And the rotor waiting for the caliper

[Nightcrawler]

I really wish they made pretty R34 rotors like those

And yeah sorry mate I agree - the Nissan looks very dodgy and will stick out like dog's balls. Do what I did and sand the 'Nissan' back to bare shiny metal. I just used moderate wet and dry sand paper, then fine wet and dry, and the paint sanded straight off and left a nice shiny 'Nissan', which a year later still looks great!

[Nozila]

im still yet to attempt this diy. does anyone know if it comes in bronze?

[E_Lu-SHuN]

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html Edited May 16, 2007 by E_Lu-SHuN

[foznice]

Sounds good, if it does actually stick out like dogs balls (keeping in mind that that photo was right up close) then I'll probably do that.

I really wish they made pretty R34 rotors like those

And yeah sorry mate I agree - the Nissan looks very dodgy and will stick out like dog's balls. Do what I did and sand the 'Nissan' back to bare shiny metal. I just used moderate wet and dry sand paper, then fine wet and dry, and the paint sanded straight off and left a nice shiny 'Nissan', which a year later still looks great!

[cowie165]

Nicely done Rylan. Cool tip with the coathanger.

And hey, if you're lazy like me, you can just spray red over the entire rear caliper! Lettering was too hard cause I was in a rush too!

[foznice]

I already don't care anymore, it's great! Calipers have now been rebuilt, and everything's all on the car. All I have to do is bleed them and we'll be in business! Shall take photos when the wheels are back on.

[Craved]

what did the rebuild kits cost you?

[foznice]

I can't tell you for sure becuase I haven't paid for them yet, but they were 40 something for the fronts and less for the rears trade price at ABS here in melbourne. Retail, I was 50 something for the fronts and less for the rears again.

[digitobi]

is that the metalcast red? a tip if u wanna do the nissan letters. put masking tape over the letters and sand them back. this will sand away the tape on the raised nissan letters while it leaves the rest. i havent tried it with the calipers but have with other things that are raised

[cowie165]

put masking tape over the letters and sand them back. this will sand away the tape on the raised nissan letters while it leaves the rest.

Dude why not just peel the tape off?

[digitobi]

so u can paint the letters without the blotchyness. there will still be masking tape left around the letters to protect the painted calipers

[Trust33]

before

after

The paint colour is still the best i have seen of any heat proof spray in a can.

This is the before a track day in summer and after.the heat has slightly faded the colour but it is still good none the less.

[cowie165]

so u can paint the letters without the blotchyness. there will still be masking tape left around the letters to protect the painted calipers

Ah, understood.

For what it's worth, the pics I posted in post#130 were masked with tape, then peeled off once the final coat had started to form a skin.

Mark

[foznice]

not a bad idea, about the sanding back the masked tape.

Did you have any issues sanding the paint underneath the tape right off? I peeled mine off, and as you can see they did come out a little blotchty. But now that its all on the car, you don't even notice.. So its all good