Custom Painted I Pace Calipers Only $7.95 - Mike Mas

6688 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Dantrium, Feb 15, 2020

LowOnCash

Discussion Starter · Feb 14, 2020

Hey guys - If you would like to sharpen up your I Pace, having painted calipers really make the wheels stand out. It just takes a few hours and you can have you calipers any color you like. While I was trending on painting the calipers green, since I seen a Panamera with green calipers, I instead decided to stay with my original color tones, however I didn’t want them to blend in, so I opted for a bit brighter orange so I went off to my local Auto Zone to pick up a can, but ended up using some Kubota orange which I had in the shop since this color really pops.

Of course taking off the wheels is the easiest way to do it, but rather than chance taking off the wheels and blocking the rack for an hour, I just did it right at home. Basically all I did was mask up two of the wheel spokes first, then I cut a pice of stiff heavy card stock to make a brake disk cover, which simply slides right up to the caliper to protect the brake disk from paint. Here’s an image of the spokes taped up and ready to go. Make sure you clean off the brake dust off the caliper before painting. The last step is having your girl sit in the seat and creep forward every few minutes as you paint the caliper.

Anyhow, I’m more than pleased how they came out, this is not the first car where I painted the calipers. While you can buy heat proof paint if your like, its not required on electric cars since the service brakes are hardly used.

Enjoy Mike

P.S. You might have noticed my mud guards are also in these images and I pushed up the air suspension to make it a bit easier. I'll do another article showing the installation!

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rogerdodger

· #2 · Feb 15, 2020

Nice!!

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PS702

· #3 · Feb 15, 2020

Very nice

Did you do the rears?

PS love the matching colored EVs

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Reactions: 1

sciencegeek

· #4 · Feb 15, 2020

Beautiful!!

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jsimon7777

· #5 · Feb 15, 2020

Because this car in this color doesn't draw enough attention? My wife and I met for lunch today. When she went back to work, pulling into the elementary school parking lots, students applauded.

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CurtSprings2

· #6 · Feb 15, 2020

My car is Santorini black and red calipers would really stand out! Nice idea Mike. I'm getting the feeling that you love your car.

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StormRune

· #7 · Feb 15, 2020

That does look nice. But you don't say if you used a special caliper paint or not. Hopefully you did. But here's words of warning before everyone jumps on this approach without being aware of how to do it correctly.

Having been in the Porsche forums for many years I'm aware of many attempts to paint calipers, some successful and some not. Granted that our calipers will rarely be exposed to the heat levels seen on real sports cars, so maybe simple paint will hold up. But it is usually the case that normal paints on calipers will fail over time and leave peeling, burnt, and/or chalky-looking paint behind. The "paint" used on Porsches is really a two-part epoxy, not a normal paint. Combine the heat down there with some of the chemical wheel-cleaning agents like those in some car washes and you really have a problem.

The bottom line is: If you want to do it so you know it will continue to look good, there are places that specialize in caliper refinishing for prices that aren't too crazy... but you do of course have to remove the calipers to send them away. If you do the paint yourself, in most cases you'll be happier in the long run using either a special caliper paint made to withstand the temperatures generated there or even the higher cost epoxy-based finishing kits. The good stuff appears to cost around $40-60 per can.

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LowOnCash

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 15, 2020

StormRune said:
That does look nice. But you don't say if you used a special caliper paint or not. Hopefully you did. But here's words of warning before everyone jumps on this approach without being aware of how to do it correctly.

Having been in the Porsche forums for many years I'm aware of many attempts to paint calipers, some successful and some not. Granted that our calipers will rarely be exposed to the heat levels seen on real sports cars, so maybe simple paint will hold up. But it is usually the case that normal paints on calipers will fail over time and leave peeling, burnt, and/or chalky-looking paint behind. The "paint" used on Porsches is really a two-part epoxy, not a normal paint. Combine the heat down there with some of the chemical wheel-cleaning agents like those in some car washes and you really have a problem.

The bottom line is: If you want to do it so you know it will continue to look good, there are places that specialize in caliper refinishing for prices that aren't too crazy... but you do of course have to remove the calipers to send them away. If you do the paint yourself, in most cases you'll be happier in the long run using either a special caliper paint made to withstand the temperatures generated there or even the higher cost epoxy-based finishing kits. The good stuff appears to cost around $40-60 per can.

You can use near any paint you find - the calipers on electric cars do not create any real heat to speak of, I've painted 3 EV's with standard paint back in 2015 and they look as good today as they did when I painted them.

Mike

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PS702

· #9 · Feb 15, 2020

Thank you for always posting such detailed, step by step instructions

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Dantrium

· #10 · Feb 15, 2020

StormRune said:
That does look nice. But you don't say if you used a special caliper paint or not. Hopefully you did. But here's words of warning before everyone jumps on this approach without being aware of how to do it correctly.

Having been in the Porsche forums for many years I'm aware of many attempts to paint calipers, some successful and some not. Granted that our calipers will rarely be exposed to the heat levels seen on real sports cars, so maybe simple paint will hold up. But it is usually the case that normal paints on calipers will fail over time and leave peeling, burnt, and/or chalky-looking paint behind. The "paint" used on Porsches is really a two-part epoxy, not a normal paint. Combine the heat down there with some of the chemical wheel-cleaning agents like those in some car washes and you really have a problem.

The bottom line is: If you want to do it so you know it will continue to look good, there are places that specialize in caliper refinishing for prices that aren't too crazy... but you do of course have to remove the calipers to send them away. If you do the paint yourself, in most cases you'll be happier in the long run using either a special caliper paint made to withstand the temperatures generated there or even the higher cost epoxy-based finishing kits. The good stuff appears to cost around $40-60 per can.

If the thought of high temps is a concern, high temp rattle can paint isn’t much more than regular stuff.

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