Caliper painting

[rwb]

I'd quite like to do mine black. So I've been paying attention to various posts which seem to vary from "just dawb em up" (which, frankly, is most compatible with my skill level) to removing, shot blasting, etc.

Having no idea how they work I picked one up off eBay for £12 so I can see what I'm up against without leaving myself unable to get to work or in a ditch on the way to work.
All pretty much as expected.
One of the slider bolts is stuck solid and the piston won't budge.

What's all this business about winding pistons? I see no threads.

There seem to be 2 kinds of 'refurb' kits about.
This type
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332561887849
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332561815516 (why does one of the slider bolts shorter and have a notch in it and what is the correspondingly shaped plastic thing?)
all the parts are clearly visible in the photo.

What's the craic with grease?
Is all silicone grease created equal? What about red rubber grease?

What about cleaning out the slider bolt holes?

And this type
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401508090458
also available with piston. I presume the thinner rubber ring is somewhere on the piston under the larger one?

On painting: I'm told that after painting they absolutely must be lacquered.
Lacquer seems to be only available as a spray, therefore you might as well use spray paint too.

The state of this caliper you couldn't possibly paint it as it is.
Brushing it not very vigorously with a not very good wire brush did next to nothing.
It's hard to see how brushing could be sufficiently thorough without removing them.

So, combined with the necessity of spraying I conclude that they must be removed from the car for cleaning and painting.

[caprixpack]

Personally I prefer the 'new' look. Refurbished calipers on my 924.





Send em off and they come back like new, no faffing and no risking damaging or putting it back together wrong. It comes fresh with new seals, piston, bleed nipple and grease. Mine were £75 each.

[GingerMagic]

I chose a light blue for my calipers, and I painted them in situ ( removed from the disc but hanging by the brake hose ) and they came out okay. No primer, just a quick wire brush, then painted with a brush - it's a thick paint that takes a while to dry but will creep into the dips.

I have a friend that sprayed his calipers a sort of gold colour - looked nice through the wheels

[Bailes1992]

I like hammerite on calipers. Hammerite hammered gold is similar to a factory zinc passivate coating.

I tend to find Hammerite sticks brilliant to a rusty caliper and bracket. Now I just brush off any dust with wire brushes, wipe the surface to be painted with an old rag and white spirits and paint.

I did have one set of calipers sand blasted, then I primed using a hammerite primer before I painted them and I found the paint chipped a lot. I was forever touching them up!

[Welly]

rwb - most rear calipers have a piston that needs winding back to carry out changing the pads etc. There's caliper winding kits on Amazon etc, I've got one but yet to use it, it looks like something you'd get into a right pickle with but if you watch youtube guides it's not too difficult, they come with an array of attachments to 'slot into' whatever pattern you have.

Basically front caliper pistons just push in using a G-clamp or something and rear pistons wind-and-push in kinda thing. On the rears; once 'wound in' they automatically wind back out themselves when you apply the footbrake (carefully) but the rubber boots around the pistons must be clean free to move otherwise they can twist and snag I think.