Painting Calipers body colour?

[kevinpsw]

Although they are not too bad, I've decided to have my 1997 OEM alloys refurbished. I've almost decided upon Blades Silver which I think is a little smarter than the Solaris Silver (although not too in your face) and was thinking of having the Calipers painted yellow to match the car's body colour. I've seen photos on this site where the calipers have been painted (maybe they were photos copied across from NSX Prime) so there might be someone out there who has some comments or recommendations to make. The body shop quoted £430 for 4 wheels refurbish + paint the calipers and they said they would 'drop the calipers' to paint them. I live in Surrey and nothing is cheap here!

[DAVEMAT]

Last time I was at home I painted mine yellow to match the car, I return in a couple of weeks and will post a couple of pics, see what you think.
I personally really like them, but as you know there are many varied tastes out there.

[lotusolly]

I had my oem wheels refurbed by spit and polish in tonbridge(probably not too far from you and they do have a collection service although this may be for trade only). Had them painted in shadow chrome which looks similar to a polished finish but has better corrosion protection. Haven't any pics to hand at min but if you look at the Matt Neal trackday at donnington, mine is the yellow car!
Cost was £200 which makes £230 to paint the calibers sound a bit steep!
They made a very good job of them aswell

Olly

[Mr_Spanners]

The body shop quoted £430 for 4 wheels refurbish + paint the calipers and they said they would 'drop the calipers' to paint them. I live in Surrey and nothing is cheap here!

:shock: That's a LOT of money for the job (IMHO). I paid £70 to get the four wheels bead blasted and then £200 to get them professionally refurbished in Solaris Silver (by a top-notch paintshop in West Yorkshire). I wanted to get the wheels properly stripped before paint so the end result would be perfect ... which it was! :D

As for caliper painting, you might find just using 'regular' paint will look great initially but will soon blacken and flake caused by heat transfer. Most specialised caliper paints are epoxy based and are more tolerant to heat.... although I have seen some cars with discoloured caliper paint after a track day!


http://www.proven-products.co.uk/products/caliper_paint_etc.htm

Hope this helps!?

~Phil.

[kevinpsw]

Did the work done - for such reasonable prices - include taking the wheels off of the car, removing the tyres, balancing once the work on the wheels was complete and putting back on the car?

Maybe this work would explain the high price?

[Mr_Spanners]

If the garage\painthop are doing the whole job they shouldn't charge much for removing the wheels\tyres and refitting - You will get charged for rebalancing the tyres but thats usually no more than £7 per wheel using the sticky weights (as opposed to the rims weights that are hammered on).

Even with the cost of removing the wheels\tyres and refitting £430 still sounds very expensive to me .... perhaps I'm guilty of being a tight northerner though??? :shock: 8)

~Phil.

[kevinpsw]

I've been called tight myself - I hate to pay full price for anything - but I like to think of it as being careful.

I have been in contact with Spit and Polish and their quote was £202 + VAT less the caliper painting, which I could do myself.

I should have just saved myself £150+. Now the decision is whether to paint the calipers silver or yellow.

Thanks for the advice.

[Mr_Spanners]

frugal

adjective:

Careful in the use of material resources: canny, chary, economical, provident, prudent, saving, sparing, thrifty.

:wink:

[Trident]

Had my wheeels refurbed at Roadwheel in Fleet, Hampshire for £55 each.

[kevinpsw]

Spit and Polish weren't able to take my car in for weeks and neither would they pick the wheels up from a home address. I tried a handful of local garages who had sent wheels to Spit and Polish but none would have my car taking up space on their shop floor waiting for the wheels to be done (3-4 days turnround).

A 'man with van' solution was recommended - he'll make your wheels look like new - but I stopped him after one wheel. He was incapable of doing more than the outside part of the wheel (he did do that bit well enough) because of lack of equipment etc.

So, it'll have to be Spit and Polish I suppose, even if I have to wait until May for a slot.

As with most things, if there seems to be an easy solution, then there'll be a catch of some sort.

[simonprelude]

Have you tried www.wheelrefurbishing.co.uk they are near Hemel Hempstead, offer a reasonable price, service is excellent, I have had 2 sets of S2000 wheels refurbed by them and am very happy. (I have 3 spare sets of S2000 wheels) The NSX wheels will be going there when I either have a spare set or when I put the NSX on some S2000 wheels for the duration of refurbing.

[710]

Did anyone actually see HOW they refurbished the wheels?
I don't have any money at the moment so I want to refurbish the wheels (on my IS200) myself.
They are not painted. Just rough and smooth alloy. Have black spots from the brake powder. Really hard to remove those spots. I’m way too lazy for this.
Do they always bead blast them? Or use a polishing grinding wheel? Or and blast with fine sand? Or a rough sponge? Or what?
I’d kind of like to use electricity for this instead of elbow grease. Something like a disc connected to a drill etc.
Peter

[simonprelude]

The place I use depends on the wheels, finish and damage, anything form acid dipping to bead blasting, welding and lathe work. Then of course spraying, powder coating, plating or diamond cutting.


Did anyone actually see HOW they refurbished the wheels?
I don't have any money at the moment so I want to refurbish the wheels (on my IS200) myself.
They are not painted. Just rough and smooth alloy. Have black spots from the brake powder. Really hard to remove those spots. I’m way too lazy for this.
Do they always bead blast them? Or use a polishing grinding wheel? Or and blast with fine sand? Or a rough sponge? Or what?
I’d kind of like to use electricity for this instead of elbow grease. Something like a disc connected to a drill etc.
Peter

[710]

The place I use depends on the wheels, finish and damage, anything form acid dipping to bead blasting, welding and lathe work. Then of course spraying, powder coating, plating or diamond cutting.

Hehe. Oh, well then, I have all those tools lying around somewhere, I’ll just do that then.

hehe :)
peter,
being facetious :)

[simonprelude]

What you mean you haven't really ;)



The place I use depends on the wheels, finish and damage, anything form acid dipping to bead blasting, welding and lathe work. Then of course spraying, powder coating, plating or diamond cutting.

Hehe. Oh, well then, I have all those tools lying around somewhere, I’ll just do that then.

hehe :)
peter,
being facetious :)

[DAVEMAT]

Yellow + yellow calipers

[DAVEMAT]

And another

[Papalazarou]

Looks awesome. That car looks new! :shock:

James.

[TheQuietOne]

Your car look fantastic!

[ctrlaltdelboy]

that works really well!

nice ;)

[Senninha]

I'd echo the comments above, your car looks great and the calipers work really well!

What paint did you use and how did you apply; brush or spray?

I think this colour could work well on other body colours over the more usual red finish.

regards

[DAVEMAT]

Thanks for the positive comments. :oops:

The paint is just standard caliper paint from Halfords, takes a few coats to get full coverage, but by the time you work your way round the car the 1st ones just about ready for another coat, or maybe i'm just slow.

Dave

[simonprelude]

I like it, looks a bit like a toy in the photo's though but it bet it looks good in real life.

[Mr_Spanners]

Glad you chose a caliper paint as opposed to the normal water based stuff or cellulose.... they should stay nice and yellow for a good while!!! :D

~Phil.

PS The car looks VERY clean and shiny!!! 8)

[ctrlaltdelboy]

mine are done in red

http://darrenferneyhough.com/images/nsx/tom/800/005.jpg

note the yellow pads - these would perhaps add an extra touch to your yellow calipers? but they are not cheap and maybe not even suitable for road use (Pagid RS19 (http://www.motorsportworld.co.uk/framefix.asp?ProductCode=PGD-E2623-RS19&PID=129596))

the caliper paint I used is this stuff at $39 (http://daliracing.com/v666-5/catalog/index_browse_part.cfm?focus=697) from Dali Racing

[ctrlaltdelboy]

not very much light on the caliper itself in that picture above :(
looked around my collection and found that there's not really any good pics of the calipers - here's one that's slightly better (but not much)

http://darrenferneyhough.com/images/meets/HR240905/1000/brunt-sept05_013.jpg

[710]

What you mean you haven't really ;)

i DO have a screwdriver that was used for stirring paint. don't know if it's a flat or phillips...

[kevinpsw]

I finally had my wheels refurbished. I used www.wheelrefurbishing.co.uk near Kings Langley just off Junction 20 of the M25. I dropped the car off at the beginning of the week and picked it up on Friday. The work cost £199 all in and I am very pleased with the result. I didn't choose the original dull silver colour and went for a brighter silver but the wheels are otherwise virtually as new.

A recomended trader.

[ctrlaltdelboy]

come on then - where's the pics??

[Senninha]

Pictures required please...before and after if you have them?