painted calipers on my 987!

[mach schnell]

had my calipers painted yellow over the weekend and replaced the Porsche decal with a carbon fiber decal - it looks absolutely beautiful set against the black car/black top and the 19" Carrera S wheels. I just can't find a glass building to drive by to see what they look like when the car is in motion - sound like a familiar post????

[Brucelee]

Picture please!!!!!!!!!!!

[mach schnell]

you can't really make out that the porsche decal is carbon fiber. Tell me what you think

[coiguy]

that's what I wanted to do with my brakes too. did you do them yourself? or did you pay a shop?

[mach schnell]

coiguy - I paid a local shop that had done some previous performance work on my Beetle. They charged me $130 total (paint and labor) - they had my car overnight (wheels have to be off for about 4 hours and car technically shouldn't be driven for first 24 hours). The decals I purchased separately for about $10.00.

Dealer quoted me $1600 for same thing (but only in red). ABD Racing in Riverside CA quoted two separate prices - about $500 for the same thing I paid $130 for, or $800 for what they termed a better technique - they'd actually remove the calipers from the car, paint them, custom cut out the porsche logo and they'd have to keep my car for a week. If I could have justified a week away from the car and had a spare $800 I might have considered it, but I trusted the work where I had the calipers painted, and as you see, they turned out great.

[eslai]

Oh. Soooo... they didn't take your calipers off the car? They didn't sandblast 'em clean? They didn't powder coat them?

[coiguy]

hi,

thanks for the reply.

so since they didn't take the calipers off, they just painted the calipers' outer surface? Can you give me the shop's name/number?

we have identical cars. maybe we can set up some local meet.

[mach schnell]

eslai - powdercoating would have been the $800 route at ABD. The were cleaned and prepped prior to painting, however.

coiguy - a local meet with some other la and sd drivers would be great! local shop is GT Pitstop - 9097830123 - ask for Ozzie or Mike (brothers/owners). If you happen to use them, let me know - I live 'bout a mile away. If they're too far to drive though (I'm in the dreaded IE!), check out some local LA body shops and you might find something. Eslai makes good point - powdercoating is an exceptional way for something like this or painting the rims (definitely the rims - no other way to paint them is acceptable). But, cost and time go up. Method used by GT pitstop or ABD (their $400 method) is very good, though.

[eslai]

Ahh... well then there's no surprise about the price, but I question how well that paint is going to hold up over time, what with heat, rocks, etc. I've never seen anyone merely *paint* brake calipers and have them look good for long. Anything from fogged clear coat to faded/bubbling, chipping paint.

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

Powdercoating is definitely the most durable finish for your calipers, but $800 is just ridiculous.

I powdercoated the Calipers on my Esprit myself using the $65 Powdercoating Kit from Harbor Freight and they turned out great! 4 years later and they have not chipped, rusted, faded or blistered.

Cleaned them in a friend's Blast Cabinet, followed by PrepSol. Shot them with the Powdercoat (Gold to match the original Zinc-Cad) and baked them in my home oven. They turned out Great and the Car went on to win the National Concours at the 22nd. Annual Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG 22). Total Time (all 4) - 3 Hrs. Total $$ - $80. Something for others to consider...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99