I am in the middle of prepping to paint the calipers on my 02 MCS. As you can well imagine, at nearly 23,000 miles the calipers are pretty dusty. My question is how clean do the need to be to accept paint properly? I have spent 2 hours between the four sets of calipers and the front set in particlular seem to still be dirty. Do they need to be so clean that when I wipe a clean rag on them it doesn't get dusty?

I want to do this right.

 

bump

 

if you used the brake clean in the kit you shoud be fine. it would be best to use a tooth brush and scrub a bit between sprays. then a good final spray down and you are good to go. you might have to buy another bottle of brake clean if they are really dirty and have never been hosed off when washing the car. hope that helps.

the chad

 

I have so far spent at least and hour per caliper and they still seem to be dirty.

 

I cleaned mine with Lacquer Thinner and a small steel brush. Then I painted them with a silver exhaust paint. That lasted for the two years I had my first cooper, and now five month on my new cooper (wich I painted the same way)

 

They need to be pretty much spotless or the paint will peel.

Brake cleaner, a toothbrush and patience will yield good results with enough work.

 

Before I painted my calipers (Over the period of a few days) I did-

Hand and power sanded the ridges off of the surface and smooth things out.
Wheel cleaner spray- left on for about 20 seconds and rinsed off with water.
Some scrubbing. Not too bad on brake dust since I changed pads long ago.
A little rust started on some of the surfaces after rain so I applied naval jelly to take off the rust/rinse with water.
Final hand sanded with 200 and then 400 grit sand paper to a smooth dustless finish.
Cloth wipe.
With pliers I removed the wire brake clip for each caliper.
Then Paint calipers with three coats- took about 15 minutes for each caliper.
Let dry for three hours at least.
Put the clips back on careful to not scrape off the new paint.
Do a little touch up on any scrapes once the clips are in place.
Let paint dry for one full day or longer.

More threads on painting brake calipers-
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=red+caliper
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=red+caliper
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...+brake+caliper
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=red+caliper
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...+brake+caliper
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...+brake+caliper