Painting Your Calipers
Boxtaboy on www.ppbb.com posted the following:
Painting your calipers is a really simple job. My calipers started looking really decrepit after living in NYC for a many years and having to take my car to car washes once in a while that used acidic wheel cleaners. Since I liked the red caliper look, I decided to purchase a G2 red caliper paint kit. This kit is a 2 part epoxy brush on paint kit that cures to a smooth finish much like nail polish does when it dries. My pals, Maurice and Cynthia from Long Island, graciously put aside a Sunday afternoon to let me come over and paint. The whole job took a total of 8 hours from start to finish, but we took our time, and had fun doing it. In fact, I drove home that same day having completed the paint work, applying the caliper decals, and coating them with two thin layers of high temp clear coat as well.
So here's the how to.
First get the car on jacks and remove the wheels:
Then, you have to clean off all the brake dust from the caliper using a toothbrush and the can of brake dust cleaner that is included in the kit. If you don't get all the brake dust off, the paint won't adhere well, so make sure you take your time doing this well. After you've got the calipers all clean, then you need to mask off the parts where you don't want paint to get on. Use painters tape to cover bleed nipples. Then cut a hole in a trash bag, and stretch the trash bag over the caliper. This will effectively mask off all the other areas where you don't want paint to get on, and will allow you to easily paint the caliper with the brush.
Now, you can mix the 2 parts in the kit (paint and accelerator), and start painting. The paint will start to gum up in 2 hours, so try to put at least 2 or 3 coats on the calipers within this time, or it will start to get hard to brush on the paint. 2 coats proved fine for the job.
Now that you've painted the calipers, grab a few beers and let the paint cure for at least 2 to 3 hours, so that the paint is hard enough to apply your Porsche decals (I bought mine from fleabay).
Decals all carefully applied and looking pretty good:
Ok, so now, you should wait a few minutes and then apply 2 thin spray coats of high temp clear coat (I used Duplicolor) to cover and protect the decals you just applied.
Have another beer while you wait for another few minutes, and then you're ready to put your wheels back on. NOTE: be very careful when you put your wheels back on. If you hit the wheel against the caliper now, it will damage the paint, so use the wheel bolt guide that is included in your tool kit behind your spare tire of your 986. This wheel bolt guide will insure that you won't touch the calipers with the wheels as you reinstall them.
Lower your car, tighten the wheel lug nuts to 96 ft. lbs, and you're ready to enjoy your newly painted calipers! Not bad for an under $50 dollar project...
These are 18" 3-piece SSR GT3 wheels.
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