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Here's what I ended up doing. A buddy had access to several leftover tubes of 3M Scotchkote Liquid Epoxy Coating 323 after a big construction project. It's heat resistant, chemically stable epoxy paint designed for pipelines and machine rooms, which of course means: a) it should be perfect for calipers, and b) it was never intended to be applied to difficult little contours! My oh my was it a PITA to work with.
Fortunately, the front half came out pretty good, with only a couple touch-up spots necessary. You can see two whitish spots to the left of center on the horizontal bar and just below it, where the colors didn't quite blend. The back half required a ton of wet sanding to smooth down the ripples, resulting from the epoxy paint pulling apart brushes within a few minutes and having to be spread by stir stick. But, epoxy forms a waxy surface during the curing process, so sanding it leaves it dull... I polished it afterward and that seems passable, especially on the back where it'll never be seen. Definitely not a paint job I'm proud of, but it looks pretty good from the front.
The actual color is somewhere in the neighborhood of John Deere green and safety green, but the camera flash makes it look more turquoise. I had planned on mixing in gold glitter or sprinkling it over the top and letting it soak in as the epoxy hardens, but finding the appropriate heat resistant glitter in the rubber stamping sections was proving difficult.
The left side caliper has been cleaned up and a few dings filled in with JB Weld, same as I did on the right side before realizing the epoxy goes on so thick, it probably wasn't necessary. Can't hurt to be fully prepped, though. Hopefully, I'll figure out the trick to applying that epoxy paint a bit better on round 2! Edit: The easy [front] half of caliper #2 went quite well tonight with a new technique of pouring small batches of epoxy paint on and spreading it around quickly, switching to a new brush as soon as it begins struggling with the resistance.
I painted the inner part of the caliper directly above (upward, not outward) the rotor but not the inner faces where the pads sit. I may go back and tidy up that visible inside edge. I figured at the time that the pads would cover it...
I figure the medium green calipers on a dark green car will either look really cool or really tacky , but a re-paint is likely in the near future and I'm leaning toward the blues, which ought to match the calipers really well.
I think you'll like em, they definitely have bite once they're bedded in.
02-21-15, 05:03 PM
, but a re-paint is likely in the near future and I'm leaning toward the blues, which ought to match the calipers really well.
