AaronE

Painting calipers is actually a very inexpensive mod. One $4.00 can of hi-temp paint (available at any auto parts store) and about 5 minutes of work per wheel, and you have colorful (or shiny black like mine) calipers. Actually, on your car, if you could match your calipers to the color of your car's paint, it'd probably look awesome.

mikeloc24

Hey Aaron, how many coats of black would you say is necessary for the calipers? and how many coats of clear? I plan to do this to my brakes next month when I put my wheels on...

AaronE

I just sprayed 2 coats of gloss black. No clear. Looked fine. I did 'em while changing my brakes, so I sprayed a coat, waited about 2 minutes, sprayed another coat and the mounted them wet (carefully). I sprayed pretty thick coats (yeah I know it's a no-no, but hell, they're calipers with a stamped finish, not a hood or something) so that probably helps. I'll take pictures if you're interested. Literally though, it takes just a couple minutes. I even did it once without even taking the calipers off. Just pulled the wheel, stuck a little newspaper in there, sprayed, then put the wheel back on. Cake.

mikeloc24

Thanks man, yes, I'd like to see pics...and I'll probably be doing this soon. I want to use caliper stickers too, any advice? I don't want the damn things to fall off or melt off in a day...you remember who makes this high temp paint? I have Kragen, Pep Boys, Auto Zone, all that crap around here....what city are you in anyway? I'm in West LA...

aliga

iTrader: (147)

caliper stickers can be gotten from tunedparts.com, defitnely apply some clear after putting on the stickers!!!

mikeloc24

I knew you'd know the dealy Gazi. And the clear is available in a spray too right?

aliga

iTrader: (147)

yup, the clear will give you the shine! just make sure you get hi temp engine paint(rated at 1200-1400) for the calipers, and the clear is rated for 500.

mikeloc24

I just went to l-tunedparts.com to buy the stickers but couldn't find them

aliga

iTrader: (147)

http://tunedparts.com/

mikeloc24

duh, thought you just mis-typed and left off the "L"...I'll go and look in a few...thanks...

dang! I just tried and looks like the site is trippin'...just my luck...

AaronE

I'm in Santa Cruz. The local Kragen only had semi-gloss in 1000+ degree temps, so I bought 500+ gloss black. Everybody makes it, Plasti-kote, Krylon, etc. As far as stickers, spray your black (or whatever base color) and let it dry. Then apply the stickers and then clear coat it.

RalAegidius

Best thing you can do with your car to make it perform better is to restore it to factory spec and make sure the car is in good condition. Do that before making any mods.

Ral

mikeloc24

You can get a set of OEM lower control arm bushings (the only ones you should worry about right at this moment) from Carson Toyota for $156.00 plus shipping. Or you can get a set of Vlamos bushings from Australia for a little over $300 shipped. The Vlamos bushings allow you to select the stiffness of the rubber, something unavailable with the OEM ones. You can also throw in a set of polyeurathane bushings made by Daizen, plenty of members have these but they have been known to squeak if not lubed properly. The Daizen's run about $100.

Once you settle on parts then it's up to you to figure out the best course of action to take off your lower control arms and get the old bushings torched out and the new ones pressed in. I understand that taking the control arms off is no big deal, torching them out is the PITA aspect of the job. Find a shop with a press to put in the new bushings. I know for me the job will run $240 parts and labor. $156 on OEM bushings, $60 for my buddy to remove the 2 lca's, and $5 per bushing (there's 4 of 'em) for the machine shop to torch out the old and press in the new! I will have this done sometime near Halloween as my lca's are making noise everytime I reverse!!!