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Evening all. By now some of you will have seen my current attempts to clean up my donor brake parts using electrolysis. The initial results are very promising but what do people recommend I do once they're cleaned up of rust.
I picked up some Halfords silver caliper spray paint this evening but I'm wondering if silver VHT paint is better, or just hammerite? I want to prevent any further rust but also don't want blistering from heat or spilled brake fluid.
Should I prime first? I've read some accounts of how filler primer gives good results for getting that nice smooth powdercoat-esque finish but not sure how it will react to the heat. I was going to pop some Krust on any last traces of red rust before painting to chemically convert it.
Powdercoating is out due to price. At some far off future date I'll go after market anyway with some nice 4 pots so really I just want them nice and tidy with no re-reburbing for at least 4-5 years
Powder coat will give you an excellent, durable finish. I'm thinking of having my calipers re-done by these guys, who powder coat as part of the rebuild:
For a full rebuild & powdercoat it's a bit pricey - it's just under £300 for all four corners... But as re-con calipers can cost anywhere betweeen £50-70, it's not that unreasonable when you add in a decent quality coating.
Hammerite probably won't hold up to the heat. Of the two caliper paints you mention, I used VHT. Just be careful with the VHT paint - until it's had a heat cycle through it, it isn't brake-fluid proof!
Quite surpised by £15 per item. I wasn't talking from any experience but had imagined it would cost much more than that as it's a little specialised. I'll bear in mind for other components. The brembo calipers on my 406 are powder coated but then have special plates screwed in top and bottom on the internal faces for the pads to slide on inwards towards the disc. If I went down the powder coat route I'd probably have to get that internal area where the pads sit masked off and then apply paint or just light oil afterwards.
I think for now I'll give the caliper paint a blast (as I already have it). The thing that put me off picking up the VHT can was that it said only to apply to clean shiny metal and at that point I wasn't 100% convinced I'd get to that. It also mentioned nothing about brake fluid or resistance to other contaminants, only that it needed baking at 250. not sure I'll be allowed to put them in the brand new oven. there's already been more than a raised eyebrow when queried on what I'd been up to in the garage for the last 2 hours and "playing with electricity and water" was my answer.
[QUOTE=GreatOldOne;20720]Powder coat will give you an excellent, durable finish. I'm thinking of having my calipers re-done by these guys, who powder coat as part of the rebuild:]
We use powder coat paint for our steel structures at work(warehouse racking) Whilst it offers a very good finish and a hard surface, it is because of this that it also chips easily. Would it be suitable on brake components which are likley to suffer stone chips?
I used Halfords spray can calliper paint and had no problems.
I quite like the stuff because it gives a thicker coat than Hammerite which I used on all the other 'black' parts.
I even used the calliper paint on my rocker cover and inlet manifold.
A little tip is that I also painted the edges and the centre of the disks to stop them rusting. I think a clean car can be spoilt by rusty brake disks.
I was going to the the same thing with the discs Peter but I think I'll definitely go down the VHT route. The calipers get warm but the discs build much more heat. I bet masking them off is a bit of a pain though.
I use non drilled/slotted vented brembo discs on my daily driver and I think they come pre-painted. The price is not that unreasonable when compared to other performance manufacturers. It looks a bit odd when you take them out of the box as they're a dark matt grey rather than the silver colour you'd expect. The swept area then looks normal once you actually start using them
Used it on my block too.