Painted Calipers - Pontiac G8 Forum: G8 Forums

Voice of Reason · 08-25-2009, 09:58 AM

If you've painted yours can you post a picture? I think I'm going to go with G2 caliper paint but I can't decide if I want to do flashy red or a more subdued silver.

Thanks!

whitey · 08-25-2009, 11:30 AM

I have the bright red with liquid red car.http://www.g8board.com/forums/pictur...pictureid=1128

SilverFox · 08-25-2009, 02:47 PM

I recommend the G2 kit, better than the duplicolor imo.

whitey · 08-25-2009, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitey

I have the bright red with liquid red car.http://www.g8board.com/forums/pictur...pictureid=1128

I have the G2 paint

keglo69 · 08-25-2009, 03:18 PM

Again I have the "good" kit to paint the calipers, but it is blue. I am about to toss it in the trash, never used. Hint, Hint.

Voice of Reason · 09-02-2009, 09:37 PM

So I took the day off to work on my brakes and I want to share what I've found out about painting calipers, hopefully to save someone else some time and agrivation.

Before painting the calipers I decided to clean up the roughness and casting lines, so I broke out the dremel and went to work. Everything worked out ok here, I used a couple 60 grit sanding cylinders followed by a 120 grit cylinder on each caliper. I mainly focused my time on the face of each caliper since this is what will be most visible.

After that I cleaned them with compressed air and the brake cleaner supplied with the G2 kit.

I went with the silver G2 paint. Let me tell you, it's very silver. As in there's a metal flake to the paint. Can others who have used G2 paints confirm if your paints had metal flake to them? It was a lot more silver than I was expecting, but decided to keep going.

I think painting with the brush combined with my newly smooth calipers was a bad combination. I think their system is designed for the rough casting that all stock rotors come in. Because no matter how hard I tried, when painting with a brush I couldn't avoid the paint sagging on the face. And with the paint being very metalic to me it's very noticable.

So tomorrow after the 24 hour cure period I'm going to attempt to wet sand the face smooth. I have no idea if this will work, I've never wet sanded before. But it's the only thing I can think of at this point.

I don't have pics right now but will get some tomorrow. I also put on DBA slotted rotors and Hawk ceramic pads at the same time, and at least in the looks department those both rock. After putting on my CCW rims a ton of the rotor was visible on each wheel and the stockers are very very rusty. The DBAs have a great painted black finish that works perfect with the rims. I would have went with the dba slotted/drilled rotors but the gold they come in turned me off. I can't comment on how well they stop because the car is still up on stands until tomorrow.

jkayner · 09-02-2009, 09:47 PM

i have the red G2 kit, that I will be using once I have some time.

Did you do one thick coat or several thin coats? I thought i read the epoxy doesn't set up for like an hour, so you have time to go over it a few times. I plan on using a good brush, not the POS that came with the kit, maybe that has something to do with it?

cmgww · 09-02-2009, 09:55 PM

I just hope this thread doesn't descend into a pissing match about the pros and cons (style-wise) of painting calipers...I have a MGM and with Onyx/red interior and went with red to give a touch of color to the exterior...but some idiot from South Dakota went off (very juvenile, BTW) about how painting calipers made a G8 look like a "rice burner"....all the while the guy has blacked out rims on his G8 (a staple of rice burners)....

I hope you like it! I love mine...

Voice of Reason · 09-02-2009, 09:55 PM

I don't think I did the first coat too thick, but it wasn't a skim coat either. And by the time I got done with the 4th wheel it was about an hour since I started painting the first, so I moved back to it for the second coat. It was then that I first noticed the sagging.

One thing you might try is doing your brush strokes top to bottom. I went left to right and I wonder if that had something to do with it. I think the bigger issue though is the rough stock casting vs how I smoothed out the face of the caliper. The paint didn't have a rough surface to grip to. I didn't smooth the sides of the caliper and there is no visible runs there.

And the paint brush they send with the kit is a joke. As soon as I pulled it out I knew where I had seen it before. Back years ago I worked as a plumber and we used the same brushes to put weld flux on copper pipes. They must have found these cheap somewhere and purchased in bulk, because they are about the cheapest brush you can get.

WickedMom · 09-02-2009, 09:58 PM

I used a custom mixed acrylic urethane paint and a cheapy brush. Mine came out well, but I did spend a lot more than the cost of the G2 kit. ( about 90 dollars for the primer, paint & 2 brushes) I got a quart, which is enough for me to pretty much paint all G8s in the country. I have not touched them since the first coat, just waiting on time to clean em up and do it again, but they look good still.

my thread pinks!

TrUcKeR · 09-02-2009, 10:19 PM

OP, good call on smoothing them out and going with a subtle color. Hope you are able to get them to turn out better. If you can, pls post pics, as THIS is something I'd like to see compared to stock.

Subtle = not rice.

Voice of Reason · 09-02-2009, 10:38 PM

Yeah, my goal with the silver was subtle. I already have enough eye candy down there now with the rims and rotors, I don't need any more reason for people to stare at my wheels. If G2 would have made a dark grey I would have done that instead. Right now (if I ignore the sagging paint) they are slightly more silver than stock with a little metalic flake and very glossy. I did a trial fit of the tires on one side and it's going to look good once I'm done.

cmgww · 09-03-2009, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrUcKeR

You are a jackass.

OP, good call on smoothing them out and going with a subtle color. Hope you are able to get them to turn out better. If you can, pls post pics, as THIS is something I'd like to see compared to stock.

Subtle = not rice.

Ah ha! I knew you'd find this thread!!! Anyway, I am done arguing about this. BTW, I happened to see a red G8 with YELLOW calipers. Now that wasn't subtle and looked tacky...

TrUcKeR · 09-03-2009, 09:46 AM

Sorry, OP.

cmgww · 09-03-2009, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrUcKeR

Ok, so now you know how I feel about every color aside from black or silver, on stock brake calipers.

Now how would you like it if I jumped your sh*t and call you a dumb *****ing retard hick from Indiana because you think yellow calipers on a red cars looks tacky? Maybe next time you'll just chalk up peoples opinions as just that, and not go on the offensive about it. You don't have to agree with me, and you sure as hell don't have to get personal about it when you don't.

Ya dig?

I didn't call you a hick or retard or use tons of profanity (I did say a few things in one post but that was it)...And I seem to recall you getting the other thread on related to caliper painting shut down with your nonsense...I wasn't the only one that took offense to your attitude, pal. If your memory needs refreshing go back and take a look at how many people besides me pointed out just the same thing...Grow up, stop the profanity, and chill. I'm not the one getting all defensive. You have every right to your own opinion. I even apologized for getting a bit testy in one of my posts, but then you started right back with your BS. Learn how to debate with a bit of class or get off this board. My only bone to pick with you was calling us that painted our calipers red "ricers" when you have blacked out rims...but we've been over that. I agree to disagree with you, but I won't tolerate your poorly written, profanity laced tirades on here and will go to the mods with my complaints if you don't act a little more mature about things....

Rich-n-Texas · 09-03-2009, 10:48 AM

Trucker, cmgww, please check your mail. I'm sure the members aren't interested in your arguments.

mikesgt · 09-03-2009, 11:09 AM

I used G2 and put 3 coats on each caliper/bracket loc. Came out great.

Voice of Reason · 09-03-2009, 11:47 AM

Well, wet sanding this stuff doesn't work. So now on one side of the car I have dulled calipers that I tried wet sanding and the other I have shiney calipers with some slight paint sagging. LOL. It sounds worse than it is. Either way I'm done messing with it for now. Maybe when I get some time and I'm bored I'll order the black and silver kits and mix both together to get the color I'm really looking for.

TrUcKeR · 09-03-2009, 02:16 PM

You might need to regular sand it, or wet-sand it with a lower girt and then re-paint. In fact, you might consider even taking the calpers off, getting blasted, and getting them P/C'd. More money/downtime, but you'd likely be infinitely happier with the end result.

Voice of Reason · 09-03-2009, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrUcKeR

You might need to regular sand it, or wet-sand it with a lower girt and then re-paint. In fact, you might consider even taking the calpers off, getting blasted, and getting them P/C'd. More money/downtime, but you'd likely be infinitely happier with the end result.

I was thinking that maybe next time I would take them off for the painting. Opening the brake system up for the painting would give me a good excuse to upgrade to stainless brake lines at the same time anyway.

Powder coating would be nice but I don't think I need to go that far with this. After a while you start to question the sanity of working with stock parts and instead think that you should have just upgraded the whole brake system to something better to start with. I'm already about $800 into the brakes as a whole and to get the color I want it's going to cost the price of 2 more G2 kits.