Painting calipers

[Jon Tara <jtara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, I just brought-up this subject with my mechanic (Frank Fahey of
Frank Fahey Motorsports in San Diego) and was a bit surprised at his
answer.

He said do it right on the car. He said IF I'M PARANOID to do some crude
masking with newspaper - but that he'd seen people do it with NO masking
and just let the brake pads rub off the paint that lands on the rotors!
(AFTER drying, I presume!) 

His suggested M.O. - park in the sun, jack up one side, remove both
wheels, shoot the rotor centers and calipers with "barbecue black" (he
emphasized using paint that will take considerable heat - otherwise the
paint will flake off quickly and you'll be doign this again). Wait for it
to dry, flip the car around, repeat.

I speculated that epoxy paint might also do a nifty job, but he didn't
know of anyone doing that. 

(I did a fireplace pipe project in red epoxy that I'm rather proud of... I
totally botched it the first time, trying to use a Wagner, and the a 
little spray-bottle thingie, with awful results, and then discovered that 
the stuff flows beautifully from a BRUSH. I no longer live in the place, 
but that is one fireplace pipe that will NEVER HAVE TO BE PAINTED AGAIN!
FWIW, I used Pratt & Lambert PalGuard, available in a super-high gloss,
or two levels of lesser sheen. I gather from the literature that this
stuff is used primarly for painting machinery in factories. You mix-up
two parts just before using it. SMELLS AWFUL! Expensive, too, but goes a
long way.)

Problem with epoxy paint, though, is it has an extremally long drying time
- - 24 to 48 hours, so if you try this, make sure you have an alternative
ride.

(I think I'll go for "barbeque black"...)
- --------------
Jon Tara
95 325is <- Ugly, rusted rotor centers and calipers, soon to be "barbeque
black"

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