Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
#22
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
I'm going to remind you of your previous post:
My car is pretty much down for the winter. While it's down, I want to paint the calipers. Why you ask? Because they're currently red. I don't like it. Any thoughts on this? The Epoxy stuff is supposed to hold up to nearly 1000°. The red paint that's on them now is the epoxy stuff and it still looks brand new after 6 years. Here's the catch, I want to do some recreational track events next year.
Feel free to throw some recommendations at me too, even though that's not technical. The G2 stuff is what I've been looking at. I can't decide if I should go gold or black. My car is black on bronze wheels, so silver won't work. I thought about blue because my minor trim pieces are blue, but I don't want it to fade to baby blue.
(I'm assuming the high quality paint is the only real option other than buy new stock calipers.)
Feel free to throw some recommendations at me too, even though that's not technical. The G2 stuff is what I've been looking at. I can't decide if I should go gold or black. My car is black on bronze wheels, so silver won't work. I thought about blue because my minor trim pieces are blue, but I don't want it to fade to baby blue.
(I'm assuming the high quality paint is the only real option other than buy new stock calipers.)
Now if you don't want to paint the calipers or don't want color advice, what was the actual question....?
Last edited by Fabrik8; 12-07-2010 at 05:18 PM.
#23
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
WE (I) TOLD YOU THAT BLACK IS THE BEST THERMAL DISPERSANT.
#24
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
Black.
#25
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
If they weren't already painted, this wouldn't be an issue. I want to paint them because they currently look stupid. My "technical question" is what option is the best caliper coating option? Epoxy style paint, spray paint, powder coat, etc etc?
#28
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
#29
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
Powdercoating is actually about the worst option you can do. It's a very thick plastic coating (compared to pretty much all paint options), and is the best thermal insulator out of all the listed options. So unless there is a type of powdercoat with a highly (thermally) conductive filler and not much resin, it's still going to have a pretty high thermal resistance compared to a normal layer of paint.
Really the best option for something like this is something that protects against corrosion and that's about it. Just putting a coat a paint on metal actually improves the heat dissipation over bare metal (bare metal is thermally reflective) so pretty much anything will work well as long it can handle the temperatures. AP Racing uses a PTFE (Teflon) paint on most of their calipers because it's about the highest temp paint out there that is decently solvent resistant. That's on their aftermarket stuff, I don't know what they use on their motorsport stuff (might be the same paint). Good luck getting your hands on some of that paint though.
Anyway, just use what makes you happy. An epoxy paint that is chip resistant and high temperature is going to hold up better than rattle can paint obviously, and is going to perform the same (close enough) for thermal dissipation, so just choose the type of paint you want and don't look back.
Just stay away from powdercoating unless the car is going to live the pampered life of a hard parker, which I know it isn't.
Really the best option for something like this is something that protects against corrosion and that's about it. Just putting a coat a paint on metal actually improves the heat dissipation over bare metal (bare metal is thermally reflective) so pretty much anything will work well as long it can handle the temperatures. AP Racing uses a PTFE (Teflon) paint on most of their calipers because it's about the highest temp paint out there that is decently solvent resistant. That's on their aftermarket stuff, I don't know what they use on their motorsport stuff (might be the same paint). Good luck getting your hands on some of that paint though.
Anyway, just use what makes you happy. An epoxy paint that is chip resistant and high temperature is going to hold up better than rattle can paint obviously, and is going to perform the same (close enough) for thermal dissipation, so just choose the type of paint you want and don't look back.
Just stay away from powdercoating unless the car is going to live the pampered life of a hard parker, which I know it isn't.
#30
Re: Brake caliper paint... (yes I'm serious)
For a street car, no problem. Because of the occasional track use, I'd say not a good idea for both the temp and the insulative problems.
Last edited by Fabrik8; 12-08-2010 at 08:46 AM.