Painting Calipers

[smallfry]

Just picked some calipers from a salvage yard for the tundra brake upgrade and I'm debating whether to leave as is, paint them or have them powder coated. What would you all choose.

As it stands right now the rotors are in good shape, just need to be cleaned up a little more.

 

[the great him]

i painted mine... did one light coat of red(i used caliper and wheel paint from a local auto parts store) and then baked them in the oven for about 30min at 350* then let them cool for about 30min then another light coat of paint and 30 min or baking at 350*... repeated this like 5 times. the paint has worked amazing ive dropped the wheel on them and no chipping, its basically poor mans powder coating. -of course your wife has to be ok with this

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Baking them doesn't hurt any of the seals in them?

 

[the great him]

i cant see how it would, actual breaking would create temps higher than that and i have never seen or heard of seals failing in a caliper... maybe the boots, but they just keep dust out and ive put on about 10k miles sense i did mine and have no issues or complaints and everything looks brand new except for the break dust.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Leave them; I would only powder coat them if they were new aftermarket since the OEMs don't rust up. But if you have the $$$, by all means.

 

[zacattack20]

I would have rather powder coated mine but I was in a rush to get my car back together so I just used caliper high temp spray paint. They have held up pretty well though for a year and a half. I rotated my tires like a month ago and when I was cleaning the calipers up, the paint did rub off a little but nothing major.

 

[Rock Slide]

I bought reman calipers when I did my tundra brake upgrade and PC'd mine high gloss red - Tundra Brake Upgrade


:bigok:

 

[theizzardking]

if you have them off already and have the time to do it, you have to paint them or powder coat them there's no other choice, it just looks better, no matter the color then that redish surface rust color they get after a while.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Mine were pretty rusty/dirty when I got mine. I pulled the boots, pistons, and seals, soaked in clr, hit with a wire brush to remove the flash rust, caliper cleaner, then red caliper paint. Came out pretty well!

 

[smallfry]

This what they currently look like

 

[A.Wilson013]

Those look 100x better than mine looked when I got them. Mine were completely rusted over, with a decent coating of dirt/grime. Yours I would just spray down very well with caliper cleaner, maybe a light brushing with a wire brush, and then a few coats of caliper cleaner.

Here is a picture of mine installed.

 

[whiskywizard]

I see your location is Utah. Is there salt on the roads there in the winter? If there is, paint won't hold up nearly as well as powdercoating.

 

[KidVermicious]

I see your location is Utah. Is there salt on the roads there in the winter? If there is, paint won't hold up nearly as well as powdercoating.

Dude, there's salt on the roads here in the summer.

 

[98OzarksRunner]

Those look 100x better than mine looked when I got them. Mine were completely rusted over, with a decent coating of dirt/grime. Yours I would just spray down very well with caliper cleaner, maybe a light brushing with a wire brush, and then a few coats of caliper cleaner.

Just DON'T spray the caliper/brake cleaner while the wheel is on or it will pit the clear coat on the wheels and they will look awful (forever).

 

[theizzardking]

(forever).

 

[ameining]

I would PC since it would not be all that fun to pull them off to re-paint every winter. I am in CO, and the Mag Chloride tears up mostly anything.

If the money is not an issue, just go with the more durable option and be done with it is my $0.02

 

[cordrayj1]

so compared to stock calipers, how awesome is the difference? I tow, ALOT, and am definitely considering this upgrade. an extra 2500lbs behind the 4runner is alot for these stock calipers. sometimes a little scary.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Dude, there's salt on the roads here in the summer.

I would have media blasted and powder coated mine, if they salted the roads here.

so compared to stock calipers, how awesome is the difference? I tow, ALOT, and am definitely considering this upgrade. an extra 2500lbs behind the 4runner is alot for these stock calipers. sometimes a little scary.

My stock rotors were warped, so my opinion may be a bit off.

The difference for me was night and day. I really put them to the test this past week on a trip down HWY 101, then back up HWY 199, and over the Tiller Trail HWY. Coming around blind corners at 55-60mph to corners with recommended 15mph limits, I felt perfectly safe. Even on 5-10% downward slopes I never felt like it was too much. I love my 4Runners brakes. (I have the 199 calipers, OEM Tundra rotors with OEM pads)

If I ever towed, I would have used the larger calipers, but for me it was not needed.