drPheta

I'm sure you know.... only a little bit of it.

Clear is not necessary, but if you want extra gloss you can use it. Though, I haven't seen one rated as high temp as VHT caliper paint.

:p34r: you guys think you know, but you have no idea.

No, I just wetsanded them. Any chipped or scratched areas I used the rougher sandpaper to smooth out. These calipers had some gouging on the top surface, and I used a dremel and arborband/chuck to grind it smooth. Then I went back and wetsanded them with 400 grit to make sure the surface was even. You can paint over exisiting paint, as well as bare metal. That's the beauty of these high temp paints. No primer needed. ROD: this is a gas oven indeed. Though electric will work, as well.

Sorry about the photos. All the photos I took of the actual prep and painting were overwritten. I caught it when I went to edit them, hence the lonely photo of them in the oven.

I'm sure there's a write up on this somewhere. I couldn't find it, but I wanted to do a write up of how I paint my calipers. Materials: - Paint (any high temperature paint rated at least 500 deg F should do. I use VHT caliper paint rated @ 900 deg F) - Gloves (latex, nitrile. Wear nitrile if working with brake cleaner. That stuff eats latex like no other) - Brake Cleaner and/or Alcohol and/or Soap and Water - Wire brush - 400 Grit sandpaper - 120 and 200 Grit sandpaper (optional) - Flare nut wrench set (Craftsman set from 9mm - 15mm should do) - Brake fluid - Masking tape 1. Remove calipers from your car. Use a flare nut wrench to remove the brake lines from the caliper. Remove bleeder nipples, retaining springs, pads, and whatever else you can take off the brakes. All you need to paint is the caliper body. 2. Clean your calipers using brake cleaner and a wire brush. Be sure to catch the run off so it doesn't go down the drain. Flush out all the old brake fluid to make sure no fluid drips out while you're painting. 3. Prep your calipers for a long lasting finish. Use 400 grit sandpaper to wetsand the calipers for a smooth-textured finish. This allows the paint to mechanically grab onto the metal/paint that's left behind. You don't need to get every inch of it sanded, but a thorough scuffing of the surface will make your finished product last that much longer. If your calipers have gouges or gashes in them, you can use coarser grit sandpaper to smooth out those markings. This is easier done on aluminum calipers than cast iron ones. 3a. This step is optional, but now may be a really good time to rebuild your calipers. So, I removed the pistons from the calipers to make sure all is nice and new. 4. Clean your calipers of all dust, oils, and waxes. A brake cleaner will do, as will washing them with soap and water (not recommended for cast iron calipers ----> RUST ), and rubbing alcohol or ethanol also work well. You might also want to make sure your work area/paint area is free of dust and debris, because the flow of the paint will lift any small particles and incorporate them into your coats. 5. Tape off any parts you don't want painted with MASKING TAPE (i.e. pistons and seals if the have not been removed, etc.) and plug any open holes. Masking tape adhesive usually doesn't leave a residue, unless you melt it onto whatever surface it's one. 6. Paint. Again, make sure no debris, dust, oils, waxes, fluids are present on the calipers. Now, I've used many high temp paints to paint loads of calipers, but nothing works for me as well as VHT caliper paint does. You can use the brush on type or the spray can. I prefer the spray, because it's faster and the finish is smoother. Whenever I use the brush on ones, I end up with brush strokes or bristles stuck in the paint. You can get VHT caliper paint at AutoZone or an online retailer. For some reason Advanced Auto doesn't have it. You can use any high temperature paint for a decent finish. Porsche guys have also used hobby paint, and they say the enamel that results from that lasts several rebuilds and track events. The choice is yours. When painting, do not be impatient. Spray one light coat at a time, and be sure to stay about 10 inches away from your caliper. Too close and you risk runs and drips. Too far and you're being inefficient. Also allow about 10-20 minutes between coats. Too short and you risk runs and drips. Too long and you're not going to get proper adhesion and blending of the paint. If the interval between coats is more than an hour or two, I suggest letting the paint cure and starting over from the wetsanding stage. To obtain a nice gloss finish, your last coat should be a medium/light coat from about 6-8 inches away. The paint should be dry to the touch within 30 min (VHT caliper paint) or 1 hour (other high temp paints). DRY TO THE TOUCH DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN HANDLE IT. At this stage, you still need to be careful where you grab the caliper. You will leave an indentation or finger print on this uncured paint. Even when you wait several hours, chances are a minor nick or mark will appear from handling the caliper. It's best to do the following. At this point you have two options: 7a. Let the calipers air dry for a full day (if using VHT caliper paint), or as directed by whatever paint you use (usually 7 days). OR.... 7b. Bake your calipers in the oven @ 350 degrees F for 30 min to 1 hour. If baking them in the oven, make sure you remove any tape used to block out holes/parts. When done baking, set your oven to clean so that it vaporized all fumes and chemicals out before your use it to cook again. You may also want to leave the oven door open overnight to make sure everything airs out. Here are my calipers toasting in the oven, while their new coat cures. 8. Reassemble your calipers and put them back onto the car. Be sure to flush your brake fluid and top off with fresh high quality fluid. Since your calipers have cured, the fluid should not eat the paint... neither should any brake cleaner agents. Voila! Now, you can enjoy your lovely "new" calipers. PROBLEMS YOU MAY COME ACROSS BECAUSE YOU SUCK AT PAINTING: POOR ADHESION: Carelessness and lack of skillful preparation of the surface are the major causes of poor adhesion. The application of a primer or protective coating material on oily, dirty, greasy or dusty (chalky) surfaces contributes to loss of adhesion. Failure to sand glossy surfaces on interiors or exterior protected areas may result in peeling. Also, failure to use the proper primer for a particular surface will likely lead to adhesion problems CHIPPING: This occurs when the paint is completely broken away from the surface. It is usually caused by lack of surface preparation. Cleaning, dusting and the sanding of hard glossy surfaces will prevent this condition CRAWLING AND CREEPING: This condition develops when the paint, varnish or enamel draws up into beads and does not wet the surface. It can be eliminated by sanding and then wiping the surface with a pre-paint cleaner. Properly cleaned and prepared surfaces will eliminate crawling and creeping. SAGGING AND RUNNING: Sagging occurs when paint has been applied too heavily on a vertical surface. Runs appear when too much paint has been applied to one spot. Sometimes application over a hard glossy surface will cause sagging. Sanding thoroughly will overcome this condition. Modern paints will not sag if applied properly. TACKINESS AND SLOW DRY: This is usually due to applying a second or third coat too quickly, before the previous coat has had sufficient time to dry. Always follow label and product data sheet directions regarding recoat times. The application of paint in damp, foggy or cold weather (below 50°F) will also cause slow drying. To avoid slow drying, paint only on a thoroughly prepared and cleaned surface, free of all wax, oil and dirt; and paint in good weather (i.e. Low Humidity) WRINKLING: Paint applied too heavily will often surface dry and wrinkle. When too thick a coat of paint is applied, it surface dries and remains soft underneath. The top of the film dries and swells, causing wrinkling. Wrinkled surfaces should be allowed to harden; then sand smooth and recoat properly. Paint only when temperature is above 50°F. Here are pictures of my gold calipers from a couple years ago. During this paint job I kept the pistons in and just taped them off.

Projector retro is $$$$ or £££, so I think you should just leave the lenses alone. Clean them up while they're off, cause dust builds up inside sometimes. So, after a good cleaning, they make your headlights stand out a bit more. Like Adam said, don't go clear lenses on stock reflectors. The beam pattern will not exist, and you'll have a crappy time driving at night. If you do paint any of the reflectors, keep the bowls untouched... and I mean UNTOUCHED. Wear latex (or nitrile) gloves to keep fingerprints off them. They're delicate, and if you smudge them with your finger you just decreased your output by a bit.

Am I getting this right? MS is a standalone but only for fuel and timing, so what's setting it apart from a piggyback Civinco (this really doesn't apply to Swedish Mike)?

My TB change had all the following swapped out Timing belt Idler pulley Belt tensioner Water pump Thermostat Serpentine belt

Fiberglass BOOOOOO. Still looking sweeter the more I look at it, though.

If a CF lip is touching that bumper, make it the VST one. The depth of the VST lip give character, otherwise its like a slab of CF taped on. Just my $0.02 The bumper is growing on me, though. is it made of fiberglass or polyurethane?

What happened to the "other" yellow? And what's with the cowboy belt buckle on that front bumper?

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG... you just helped me get rid of that annoying thwang come from the rear... EVERYTIME THE WAGON GOES OVER ROUGH PAVEMENT. At least I'm hoping this does it. Either way... you got another sale. Where to I send payment?

Darn, missed this one. I could've gone for a sweet deli sandwich...I'll be at the next one. Car gets some work done in the next few weeks/months. Nice turnout.

Short on land? you guys ever drive through the states between the east coast and the west coast? There's more than enough land to spare, it's just that no one wants to be the first to develop those areas into something resembling a mini metropolis. If I recall correctly, one of the midwestern states was GIVING AWAY land in turn for a guranteed stay of X amount of years by whoever took on tha deal. You also had to become a resident of that state, and claim address as your primary address. As far as illegal immigrants go, sure their attitudes and demands are ridiculous, but many of them sure are hard working people compared to a good chunk of the legal, american citizens. What can we do about it? Come up with the answer and you could be the next best politician and world leader.

good point.

This liberal agrees with company safety. Good post.

It depends on the added value of the premium section. Much of what we need to know how to do is pretty abundant. The premium section would need to surpass the current content somehow to make 20/year seem like the buyer is actually getting new, useful information. I'm down for it, but it depends on how much content is premium, and what exactly the premium content is.

New JibJab movie. Good to be in DC http://www.jibjab.com

It's a good thing we are allowed to post on politics. The majority of the US is so blind to politics that almost any medium used to present it is beneficial. Most will not vote, or vote without any real knowledge of why they're voting, and the result is a public that complains about their president. So, since this is an off topic forum, I see anything ranging from the funny to the serious appropriate here. Post on lefties and righties.

http://bash.org/GODvsBUSH.gif

Wow, VS became a huge politcal debate. About Bush and the anti-gay thing, i agree with Kenhoeve. Separation of Church and State, and all Bush kept arguing was marriage is a religious blah blah between man and woman. Who cares what the Church calls it. The fight by the gays was to establish equality, something that we've NEVER been able to establish 100% amongst any demographic group. About Bush's decision making skills, Bush admits himself that he likes to make decisions based on feeling rather than logic. He admits that he doesn't like to think, and acts on impulse. Whatever someone said about the US having teeth now, that I agree with. We were economically losing ground compared to AUS/New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and much of Europe, and as a result lost a lot of respect in other areas. Now with what we did, we lost respect but also gained some in the sense that we're no longer looked upon as all talk. However, the world still loses respect for us because of the way we handled and went about the war. It was not very diplomatic, and all of the prior international relations have been swathed away. Health care spending is sure a hell of a lot better than national defense. With all the money and intelligence we have, we can't even keep ahead of any type of terrorist plot. In all reality, all the safeguards will never end terrorism. It's that simple. Someone will always hate the US, someone will always try to destroy it, and someone will prevail if they konw what they're doing. Like every corporation, government agency, hospital, school, or any organization you cannot watch everything all the time. So, that huge defense contract with Lockheed Martin should have been much much less (we had a tremendously strong military to begin with and would have taken Sadaam out regardless) and should have been diverted to other sectors that need great attention within the nation. Healthcare is one of them. I'll admit, universal healthcare isn't the way to go. But something has to be done where the richest 10% and the lowest 10% can afford the care, while the middle 80% has to depend on their job. To boot, those jobs they depend on take their benefits to divert that money to the top tier of the corporation anyway, so the 80% still loses out on the healthcare. Canada's system is pretty decent, better than ours systemically, however they have to wait months for an appointment. Other sectors needing attention include much to do about poverty (which drains the rest of our resources) and environment (since we depend on the world's working order to continue to thrive) among other things. While Bush doesn't have a direct influence on the economy, he surely does have a way of ruining it. It is ultimately his policy that takes that money and "invests" it into something else. He invested a lot into the defense bill off the bat, hoping it would spark economic growth. On the contrary, many opposed the war (knowing the proposed reason to be false) thus worrying about a bad outcome. Sure, a recession was due, as dictated by the business cycle. But who's to say that the amplitude couldn't have been less with a different type of spending. Spending on something that the public actually values. A war with a real cause, or policies that actually invest directly at home in the public's eye. ADD: Check this out. http://slate.msn.com/id/2100064/

Well, they didn't broadcast it cause not much political money was being pumped into this issue. Freak, the fact that we have 7 potential terrorists here hasn't seen much daylight from the news stations. Sure, they say "keep an eye for such and such", but the mention of the problems we have at home are no were near that of what we hear about Iraq. Sadly, that's the way the dollar works. Sucks. BTW, these guys may have been motivated by unpaid debt from immigration and getting the kids' parents here into the US. Screwed up society we live in. Royally screwed up.

Dude, that's totally screwed up. I'm also all for the death penalty.