For some reason the previous owner of my car painted the front calipers blue but didn't paint the rear ones so they are really rusty.

I bought the Duplicolor caliper painting kit (wanted to do all of them yellow laugh.gif) but I was wondering, before I start, will it work to paint rusted calipers or is the paint going to flake off or anything? I plan on using some pretty rough sandpaper on them beforehand to smooth them off a bit.

 

Get a big wire brush, preferably a wire wheel on the end of a drill. Get some steel wool. Get some scotchbrite pads, and a bucket of water. Then go to town.

Each of those tools removes rust in a different way. Prep is 90% of painting.

 

Bead blast works awesome also if you have access to it. Just be sure to cover the bleeder and brake line hole if you do that.

 

do what DTN said, then buy some de-ruster. it literally eats alll the rust away in seconds. then buy carb/brake cleaner and spray it on. then paint that with the duplicolor.

a trick to getting it to be as bright clean red as possible, use some hi-temp white for the first layer, or white primer (gotta see how temp holds up) then cover the white up with red duplicolor. it should bastardly.

 

Yah the wire wheel is one of my favorite tools, it removes rust ez, and makes things shiny.

 

And shoots spikes in your clothes and all over... lol I hate those damn things

 

I hate it when it catches your shirt and twists it up in a ball.

 

I still have yet to try that stuff. I keep hearing you praise it. Would you use it first or for the little bit left on? Can it eat paint or rubber?

 

I assume you have the G2 Caliper Paint kit (epoxy-based paint) - I emailed G2 asking the same question. Here is what they told me:

"Hello Radu, we would recommend that you use a wire brush to remove as much
rust and loose debris as possible. Then move on to the brake cleaner. The
product will bind as long as the rust is not loose."

"Hello Radu , once the loose debris is removed with the wire brush , then you
will use the brake clean spray to wash away small particles . As far as
damaging the caliper you will just need to be careful not to damage the
rubber seals around the piston, the rest of the caliper is metal."

I am about to do mine, will use some wire brush wheels with my drill.

A note: I think this is a somewhat special paint, you might need to apply it directly on the metal (esp. if its rusty) - I wouldn't do any other primer or paint layers underneth, just a thought.

 

just spill it onto the rust and the rust literally disappears before your eye. pardon my lazinness to take a photo of the stuff. i even forget where i got it from. i should do a before/after thread. i suppose you can buy it anywhere though. good question! i don't know if it eats rubber or paint. it probably does?! i spilled some on the driveway and there's a white stain that won't go away. it smells like it'll kill anything so i figure it's no good on paint. figure if you scrub it off good and use a whole bunch of brake cleaner on it it won't be bad and you'll still have a brand new looking caliper either way.