Painting Audi A4 Brake Calipers
Prior Experience: Perhaps a little
Cost: approx. $10
Time: aprrox. a couple hours
This mod has been under construction for a year because I never took pictures the first time I did it. However I just upgraded to the B5S4 calipers with some slotted/xdrilled rotors, so I managed to click a few pics of this simple process as I was going.
If you are doing this on the car, you may want to approach it differently. I used spray paint because I am good with a rattle can. Most others who don't have control can just use a brush and paint the calipers by hand. Even when I did my previous calipers, I masked off the car, and used the spray can. IF YOU ARE WORKING ON THE CAR MASK OFF EVERYTHING!!!! I mean Everything!
 |
||||||||||||
| Before | After | |||||||||||
SUPPLIES - Supplies are simple...caliper cleaner, paint thinner, some masking tape and high temp paint of your choice |
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||
| Prices are estimates - I didn't keep the receipts | ||||||||||||
The first thing you want to do is clean the caliper as best you can. There is probably lots of brake dust in hidden areas as well as spilled brake fluid, etc. You can use our brakekleen, some dish soap, a toothbrush or whatever else you have laying around. You should be able to handle the calipers without getting your hands dirty at all. If there is brake dust or residue on the caliper, the paint will chip off eventually. |
||||||||||||
 |
After the caliper is clean, you may want to scratch up the surface a bit with 300 grit sandpaper, but its is not necessary (I didn't do it). Next, and perhaps the most important is masking off the ares that do not get paint. Any moving parts/rubber seals, etc should be masked off. Just use some tape and newspaper. Once again, if working on a car, don be cheap with masking tape. last thing you want to do is paint the car. |
|||||||||||
Really all that is left is the painting. You want to apply several (5 or so) thin coats. Do not overspray or you will get runs and have to sand all the paint down again which is a pain in the ass. You want to follow the instructions on the spray can, that's why they are there. Most of the time I recommend spraying your first couple coats very-very light. I find this helps out in the long run. As you get to coat 5-6, you can start laying in on there a little thicker. You also want to be sure not to put 1/4" of paint on there...its not necessary. If you use more than 1 can of paint on 2 calipers, you are going way overboard. |
||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||
| First coat | Third coat | |||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||
| Five coats | Comparison | |||||||||||
As you can see, it is not rocket science. After you get everything painted, let the paint dry for a couple hours. I messed up mine and touched it too soon and got a fingerprint on the backside of the caliper (not really a big deal, but stupid). The easiest way to tell if they are dry is to touch the marked off areas. Here are some comparison shots |
||||||||||||
|
If you see that you got some paint where you didn't intend to, you can just wipe it off with some paint thinner and elbow grease. I used some graffiti remover and a Q-tip, which worked nicely. Keep any harsh paint removing chemicals away from any rubber gaskets on the calipers! |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||
At the time I was undecided if I wanted this metallic black or the red, so I did one of each. I decided on Black at the end (too bad all the pics were in red...hah) |
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||