From: Dean Neitman
I
have seen nicely painted calipers on a few bikes and a bunch of sport
cars but never had done this myself. My recent SV project left me desiring
some yellow calipers to set off the blue paint on body. I had remembered
seeing brake caliper paint for sale on the internet and so this is where
I took my paint search. I found a place on ebay selling imported yellow
brake caliper paint for $6 a can plus s/h. So I ordered this. When it
came in... it was clear that the can was not enough for more than one
caliper. Very small can. So I decided to look locally at auto part retailers.
I found an Auto Zone that carried a yellow paint made for brake calipers
but was lighter than import I had bought but it was much bigger can or
only $7 dollars. So bought one can of this.
I had removed all three calipers and decided they would all get painted. Then I disassembled the larger pieces of the calipers to make painting easier as you can see in the first picture. Notice the rubber boots... those were removed because I did not want them yellow. I then took all the pieces... minus pads and cleaned them with Gunk degreaser. You may find other suitable cleaners but I had a couple cans that were bought cheap on sale. I made sure to clean every corner and crevice and surface as good as I could plus I made sure it was empty of fluid and removed the bleed nipple. Then parts were wiped dry and left set for an hour.
Then
I took painstaking care in masking parts I didn't want over spray to get
in. For masking, I simply used some duct tape and a utility knife to cut
it. I made sure to cover the posts that were covered in grease... these
are not seen and are functional. I also rolled up pieces of tape and shoved
into every opening left from bolts and such including the holes for bleeder
valve. The hole for the banjo bolts I did a little different. I noticed
the nice smooth surface around the opening and decided this was best not
painted... so I did my best to cut little circles of duct tape to cover
hole shiny surface... it didn't have to be perfect but I wanted to get
it as close as possible.
Note in the third picture the masking of the pad springs and the pistons. This was the most important area to mask because you don't want over spray getting in and around your pistons or effect the use of the springs. Again making sure to plug the holes with rolled tape.
On the
rear caliper... it splits in half but beware of the valve on inside of
halves that contains a rubber o-ring. You will want to protect this area
and not loose the o-ring. Also note the plastic cover on underside of
caliper... this was cleaned but not painted.
When painting... I didn't recall seeing primer for brake calipers so I went straight on with the paint. Pieces were set on newspaper and I sprayed many light coats from different angles. To get all the corners and angles on the calipers, you will have to rotate them or your spray position many times to get even coating. One can ran out rather soon. I then used the small import can of spray. The yellow from the import spray was awesome. Truly rich yellow like on new Ann. Ed. 600 GSXR with the purple. But it was not enough to finish job either. So I had to make another trip for more spray. I tried another brand from another store and was horrified as it was light yellow almost lemon or lighter. So half through that can... I went back to old auto part store and got the better yellow spray. That finished the job. I had just a few spots that had been stuck to newspaper but were barely noticeable. Took about 2 days to dry so paint wasn't sticky anymore. Then just reassembled and made sure to lube where needed.
Overall...
this did help improve the look of the calipers and bike IMHO but it was
very time consuming. It took one and half days to finish due to letting
it dry between layers and moving pieces and the amount of paint. If hung
on wire might make this quicker and easier. Also, the brake caliper paint
I bought supposedly was heat and "chemical" resistant. Well, they lie.
I don't think any paint made is chemically resistant to brake fluid. I
tried really hard to not spill any fluid on my calipers but a few times
my hoses popped off during bleeding and now I have paint wrinkles and
some small areas with no paint. Its not noticeable at distance but close
look reveals. So it almost seems like I did all this work only to ruin
it but it still looks better overall. I may choose to repaint them this
winter and try again to "carefully" bleed them so they stay nice and neat.
Dean
aka SyntheticTone