Take a look at some of the sportier cars on the road, and you will see some colorful brake calipers behind their spoke wheels. For those of you lusting for the performance look of those brake calipers, an inexpensive solution is available. Paint them yourself!
Several paint manufacturers make brake caliper paint. The most popular has a spray application that requires that you remove the caliper from its mount, remove the brake pads and mask off the surrounding area in order to apply the paint. I did that once to a friend’s car, but it took a lot of work and caused overspray to get on the wheel liners. My bad.
Easy Solution
Last summer I found a great solution to the spray paint–a brush-on application from POR15. In the article Crossfire Personality Change, I painted the wheels and brake calipers on a family member’s Chrysler Crossfire. Due to the results of that project, I decided to use the same product (different color) on my MINI.
The detailed process is shown below and in a video found HERE.
Step by Step
If you can handle a small paint brush and have a little patience, this job will be easy for you. The hardest part will be getting your vehicle on jack stands and removing the wheels. Once you do that, you should be able to follow the steps shown in these pictures: