Well, i've been thinking of painting my calipers when i do my brakes this coming spring, then i thought, heck. Why not polish them instead? It looks pretty nice on a few other cars.

Was wondering though if i polish them, and then immediately follow up the polishing with some high heat clear duplicolor would that help keep them from dulling over time?

 

yes make sure that the clear can handle alot of temperature variation, you may even want to clear them every year or so...

 

i would assume it would dull by the end of every year anyway so i would expect to do touchups, i just wanted to make sure it would help.

duplicolors clear enamels are good for like 2500 degrees or whatever i believE? so it should be fine right?

edit: btw, def thanks for the reply, ive been refreshing hoping someone would answer, im thinking of tackling the polishing now, since its like -20 outside :P

edit2: love your car btw, i was lookin at pics earlier i'm lookin at picking up some 19" SF challanges ( in black ) for my nordic green

 

If your calipers are OEM they are cadmium plated steel. As such, the cadmium plating will not polish well and you will likely rub most of it off causing the calipers to rust more easily (imagine trying to polish a plated bolt from Home Depot). Furthermore I think you will be hard pressed to find a clear coating that will withstand the heat of normal braking. So I would recommend against doing this.

If however you have an aftermarket aluminum monoblock caliper have at it.

 

people have been using duplicolor's high heat stuff for quite awhile without issues, thats not even a problem. I will have to look into the other stuff, if polishing doesnt go well, i will just paint them like i had originally planned, no loss either way, im just bored and wanted to do something lol

 

Why not powdercoat them? Mine are, and have been looking great for 2-3 years.

 

that was an option too, but thats more costly, i was mostly looking for a DIY to keep me busy, seeing as I am laid off for the winter season.

Did you do all 4? what color? and how much did it cost you? pics?

thanks ^^

 

I agree, polishing is not the way to go with ours. From my research, I've found that the highest level of clear coat you can buy is 250 degree resistant.

Powdercoating does yield the best results, but is costly. I've painted all my cars calipers with only a brush and $3 can of Majic Diamond Hard Red, or any other color you want. I also apply X-O Rust black on the rotor guards. Lasts for a very long time.

 

Have most of you left the sandcast texture alone when you've painted calipers? I've only done one wheel (caliper and rotor) so far, and I wasn't real happy with the results. Brake dust clings to the texture still, and really dulled the gloss effect. I'm thinking on the rest of the calipers to try and take down the texture before painting.
Are there many advantages to powder coating over hi-temp paint? I'm looking into getting a basic eastwood powder coating kit to do my rims and other miscellany, but I'm curious whether the extra work would be worth it.

 

Really? I couldn't find a high temperture clear coat.

If you want a high gloss look I would sand them and do a light polishing.
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powdercoating is the way to go if you want it done right. It will look really good close-up and wont fade with time. If you do paint them though, post pics!

 

I'm thinking if i Have them off the car, I might just prep them really nice and powder coat them, i know a guy who can get me a small discount on powder coating, I might go ahead, and do a few other goodies while im at it, get a nice dicounted price lol

what else can be powder coated?

ive seen thermostat housing, and a few other little things.

 

Pics of ban lol

 

well, for the record

http://www.net4sale.com/Shop/pc/view...&idcategory=52

1200 degree clear coat.

so i might go back to the polishing idea, I'm gonna see if i can find an old shitty seized up caliper, and try on that first, and see how it goes.

 

^Right, not available at your local auto supply I'm guessing. Still, my finish using the paint has just enough gloss for me. Here's mine, though not fully cleaned obviously. Picture taken during suspension install.

 

I'll wait a few days for the clearcoat, and do everything myself as apposed to spending $500-700 for chroming lol

i'm ordering a salvage caliper for like $40 im gonna do a test polish, and play around a little with some stuff, and see what i like best.

 

If you are playing around with a test model, play with some saltwater as well to test corrosion resistance. Just sprinkling some saltwater on and letting it sit overnight should tell you if you've removed enough of the cadmium to cause a problem.

 

I can do that, but the clearcoat should prevent that from being an issue? should it not.

 

Okay, well i dropped about $350 on a full set of sanding, grinding and polishing, buffing etc..

should all be here, along with my practice caliper by thursday, and I will start the work

I'm going to be fully disassembling( removing caliper pistons and seals etc.. ), and then polishing from that point, and then i will test the rusting issue both before and after the clear coat.

I'll update as much as i can as i work on it!

Edit: to those of you who may call em an idiot for spending the money on polishing tools do polish a caliper that may not properly polish, don't worry about it, i have a few other things, including my OEM wheels i plan to be polishing up

 

Are you sure it's Cadmium? Because if it is, then rust would be the least of the problem. Cadmium is seriously toxic, and throwing Cadmium dust into the air, surfaces, and skin with a polisher is the last thing I'd want to do...

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts5.html

 

Well I haven't done a chemical analysis but I'm pretty sure its cadmium plated. Just about everything that's made of steel on a car that isn't bare metal (i.e. rusty) or painted is cadmium plated. If you buy a steel bolt at the auto parts store or hardware store and its silver or slighty multi-colored golden color, it's cadmium plated. Galvanized steel is usually a duller darker grey thicker coating. We all know what chrome plating looks like. Much of the industrial and automotive steel hardware is cadmium plated for corrosion resistance.

Cadmium like lead and to a lesser degree zinc is indeed toxic. Most heavy metals are. Care should be taken when griding, polishing, sanding, and heating plated metals. I stand by my original comment that the cadmium coating will not polish well, and will likely be partly removed in the process. Although you can certainly polish steel, I don't think the TS is going to be happy with the results and he won't like the looks when its clear coated. That's just my opinion and the worst that will happen is he will spend his time and just end up painting it some other color. As dirty as calipers usually get, I vote for black.

 

like i said in my first post, i'm laid off work until ~ May-june so ive got all the time in the world, If it ends up not working out well, i already have the calipers lined up to be chromed at sound performance. Just figured if i could get a half decent polish on them and save myself $600, i would try.

i do appreciate your warnings though, so i will take extra care when i am working on the spare caliper.

 

never fear, Jedi is here!

Polishing is going to be tough due to the clear coat options available to you (without spending a fortune)
I say paint them with duplicolor and see what you think of them. The key is to get 3 good coats on each caliper and don't use the stuff in a spray can. Get a few good paint brushes at home depot (the brush that comes in the kit is GARBAGE)

Here'a a pic of mine when I was installing new rotors. I've had mine painted for over 3 years and the finish still looks great. I did a touch up last summer just to fix a few knicks I got from uninstalling / reinstalling the wheels so many times.

 

Cadmium is a very thin coat. the cad will be gone in a flash. Don't worry about that.

Is 1200 degrees good enough for the caliper? I believe so.

the clear coar is to save the finish of the color and to make it easier to wash off.

Other wise the dust embeds into the paint.

 

1200 should be plenty, for me for sure anyway, I don't even track my car.

and it should hold the shine for awhile anyway, i forsee like the guy said a few posts back, maybe just refreshing it once a year. My caliper gets here today, and i will start the sanding process.

i'll take some pics as i go.