Painting Brake Calipers

[vancouver]

I have noticed that many NSX owners have brightly colored brake calipers. I think they look great! Are they usually an aftermarket product and can I have mine painted? I guess if they are not too expensive it would just make sense to replace them with colored ones? Not to mention there must be some performance gain in braking as well?

 

[NSX-ST]

I have noticed that many NSX owners have brightly colored brake calipers. I think they look great! Are they usually an aftermarket product and can I have mine painted? I guess if they are not too expensive it would just make sense to replace them with colored ones? Not to mention there must be some performance gain in braking as well?

The 97+ calipers came in gold from the factory. You can paint yours any color with high temp paint from Canadian Tire or Lordco or Walmart. They will chip off later down the road from debris or you mounting/dismounting wheels. Another option is to have them powdercoated. This is more expensive but will last longer.

 

[robbiedawg]

one thing that looks good is just painting the letters nsx on the calipers.if you look,you'll see that the letters are raised,and you can use a paint pen to highlight them.it's fairly easy and doesn't involve removing the calipers.fellow nsx'er howard stanton shared this idea with me.

 

[Senninha]

I actually prefer not to go high color but instea to follow the factory NSX-R theme of satin black ...

regards, Paul

 

[Dtrigg]

one thing that looks good is just painting the letters nsx on the calipers.if you look,you'll see that the letters are raised,and you can use a paint pen to highlight them.it's fairly easy and doesn't involve removing the calipers.fellow nsx'er howard stanton shared this idea with me.

Or, you could do both. I have a red car and my calipers are painted red and the NSX is painted silver. I like the look.:biggrin:

 

[Cozmo]

I painted mine black. I was actually outside just a few minutes ago painting the calipers on my escalade black too. I need to get back out there and put the wheels back on before it gets dark :biggrin:

The caliper paint kits that you can get at the auto parts store for $15 have enough paint in them to paint the calipers of all your friends' cars. I did my first caliper paintjob on my TL (blue) about 3.5 years ago and it still looks pretty good.

The dupli-color kit comes with brake cleaner, a paintbrush, a can of paint, tape to tape off your rotors, and even a stick to stir the paint. It is probably the best <$20 mod you could do to the NSX IMO.

 

[spider2k]

i used the G4 kit on my s2k. it came with cleaner, brush, paint and another chemical to activate the paint. when i get ready to do the nsx i'll go with black again.

the best way is with them off the car(i was replacing rotors and lines as well). just make sure you get them REALLY clean before using any kind of paint.

 

[vancouver]

Thanks guys! :smile:

 

[Scruffy1]

I took mine to a body shop that does powder coating. They cost $100 ea.(including new cylinders) but 3+ years later and not a scratch or chip. Also, I used it as an opportunity for free installation of new pads (that I supplied), since they had to take the old ones off to do the powder coating.

 

[Rob4092xx]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4x-R...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Have you considered these Brembo Rotor Covers?

The advantage is you can take them off when you go to sell the car and everything is back to OEM.

 

[NSXRguy]

^ how about putting a ferrari body kit on the nsx? It has the same purpose...

 

[slamstrom]

The 97+ calipers came in gold from the factory. You can paint yours any color with high temp paint from Canadian Tire or Lordco or Walmart. They will chip off later down the road from debris or you mounting/dismounting wheels. Another option is to have them powdercoated. This is more expensive but will last longer.

I think the 02+ is gold from the factory. My 97 is not gold, just metal color.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

I painted mine black. I was actually outside just a few minutes ago painting the calipers on my escalade black too. I need to get back out there and put the wheels back on before it gets dark :biggrin:

The caliper paint kits that you can get at the auto parts store for $15 have enough paint in them to paint the calipers of all your friends' cars. I did my first caliper paintjob on my TL (blue) about 3.5 years ago and it still looks pretty good.

The dupli-color kit comes with brake cleaner, a paintbrush, a can of paint, tape to tape off your rotors, and even a stick to stir the paint. It is probably the best <$20 mod you could do to the NSX IMO.

Wow, that's actually great info. My Avalanche needs the calipers painted badly! I thought you could only get spray paint and so I was going to have to tape off a ton of stuff. Didn't know they made a brush on. Excellent!

 

[Dtrigg]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4x-R...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Have you considered these Brembo Rotor Covers?

The advantage is you can take them off when you go to sell the car and everything is back to OEM.

PLEASE don't even think about doing this.

 

[Cozmo]

Here's some pictures from my NSX paintjob..

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

[vancouver]

Nice!

 

[swerve2007]

i have my fronts powdercoated and rears painted and everytime i look at them i kick myself in the ass for not powdercoating the rears too. paint looks decent for a while but it does not hold up that well (except black cause you can't tell anyway)

 

[vancouver]

I think I will go with a red powdercoat

 

[enkrypt3d]

I think I will go with a red powdercoat

http://www.scienceofspeed.com/products/braking_performance_parts/G2_Caliper_PaintSystem/

Or u can use this which is what I used... apply 3-4 coats and it looks the same as powdercoating... :biggrin:

 

[Scruffy1]

The color is off slightly due to lighting, but it's roughly the same as Brembos.

 

[Dr.Honda]

I'v used the Dupli-Color kit on several cars w/ good results on every one except for the S2000. Keeps flaking off on that car for some reason.

 

[R13]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4x-R...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Have you considered these Brembo Rotor Covers?

The advantage is you can take them off when you go to sell the car and everything is back to OEM.

The disadvantages:

1) They would probably melt after anything more than parade-lap track-use...or a run down the Dragon/your favorite Canyon.

2) You keep having to explain why you have fake plastic brembo covers on your brakes at car shows.

before you do any "mod" to your car, think for a second, "will I have to make excuses for this"...if the answer is YES, it is probably a bad idea.


Back on topic, I used some Parts-Chain high-temp paint to do some calipers on a friend's 240sx project (silver caliper, w/red lettering now). ~2 years later with street & autocross use and they still look great from 5-10ft away. Up close they are starting to chip a bit, but considering the process averaged to about $2.50/corner...pretty good value.

The reman calipers on the front of my NSX came silver, but turned immediately rust colored as soon as they got some wheel cleaner on them mixed with brake dust. Not sure what kind of paint that was, but I'm going to re-spray them over the winter. Probably either silver or black.

 

[chudson1549]

Here's some pictures from my NSX paintjob..


AFTER:

I did the same black but since my car was red, I also painted the NSX red. BTW you have your spacer backwards. The concave should face the rotor. Probably doesn't make a difference now.

 

[NSXDreamer2]

The disadvantages:

1) They would probably melt after anything more than parade-lap track-use...or a run down the Dragon/your favorite Canyon.

2) You keep having to explain why you have fake plastic brembo covers on your brakes at car shows.

before you do any "mod" to your car, think for a second, "will I have to make excuses for this"...if the answer is YES, it is probably a bad idea.


Back on topic, I used some Parts-Chain high-temp paint to do some calipers on a friend's 240sx project (silver caliper, w/red lettering now). ~2 years later with street & autocross use and they still look great from 5-10ft away. Up close they are starting to chip a bit, but considering the process averaged to about $2.50/corner...pretty good value.

The reman calipers on the front of my NSX came silver, but turned immediately rust colored as soon as they got some wheel cleaner on them mixed with brake dust. Not sure what kind of paint that was, but I'm going to re-spray them over the winter. Probably either silver or black.

the spray on stuff is the best... Dupli color had many different choices. The one that lasted the longest time is high temp Flat blk, I also had tried, metallic blue, silver, metallic red and bright red. Not quite care about the paint brush ones, as it takes long time, and it will still chip and flake off if you ever get the brakes warm.

this is when i had blue few years ago.

 

[Cozmo]

BTW you have your spacer backwards. The concave should face the rotor. Probably doesn't make a difference now.

I'm not the one that put them on actually. I imagine DrVolkl did