Removing caliper paint?

timk · Postby **timk** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:35 pm

Hey guys,

When I bought my car, the previous owner had defaced the calipers like this:

I've since upgraded the front calipers and replaced one of the rears as it was seized, but I have one remaining original red caliper.

I had the wheels off today so I tried attacking the paint with thinners, prepwash etc. It doesn't seem to budge!

Any clues?

Cheers

koop21 · Postby **koop21** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:38 pm

sand it with a dremel tool? If not sandblast...

zero00 · Postby **zero00** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:39 pm

Saboteur

No, but you can borrow my magnifying glass and go looking for more clues!! Maybe they wanted them to look like Brembro's :!:

-alex · Postby **-alex** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:50 pm

Easy Off oven bam with caustic.
Will take all the paint off, rinse it first, spray with the cleaner, leave for a min of half hour, rinse again the reapply if needed. Also works great on cleaning ovens.

-alex · Postby **-alex** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:53 pm

This is the stuff

timk · Postby **timk** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 3:02 pm

Great, I would never have thought to use anything like that!

Cheers

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:49 pm

I'd suggest just buying a can of paint stripper rather than oven cleaner.

I've used it on some wheels in the past and it's great.
(the oven cleaner did nothing to the same set of wheels except take off the baked on brake dust)

-alex · Postby **-alex** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:35 pm

Perhaps you were using a noncaustic based cleaner.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:05 am

Nah, caustic one.

It may have done something if I left it longer.
I know a guy who stripped his wheels with oven cleaner and it took about 12 hours before the paint started to lift.

The proper paint stripper took about 10 minutes.

the other reason I'd use stripper is that it comes in a brush on tin, so you can make sure to avoid the rubber boots and seals on the caliper (both oven cleaner and paint stripper would probably destroy the rubber)

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:49 am

wow some very strange ideas. You do not remove paint with thinners and prepwash is only for cleaning.Acrylic thinners in particular is a nasty product. The normal approach is to use wet and dry or freecut supplemented by the usual aids like wire brush or wire wool ( different grades from coarse to super fine) and a scraper(s) .You can use paint stripper but on such a small item its probably not necessary- you may have to score the surface. Anything to do with painting or removal requires a bit of patience and work.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:53 am

Unfortunately the calipers are rough cast, which means sanding won't be particularly effective (there will still be paint in all of the low spots)

A wire brush may work, but brake caliper paint is quite tough especially after it's been baked on. So That may not budge it.

While the chemical methods may not be necessary, they are likely to be the simplest.

Willstar · Postby **Willstar** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 3:17 pm

I bet they tried this first!

timk · Postby **timk** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:57 pm

timk · Postby **timk** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:05 pm

Mr Morlock wrote:wow some very strange ideas. You do not remove paint with thinners and prepwash is only for cleaning.

I'm a city boy with a desk job. :oops:

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:07 pm

saboteur wrote:
Mr Morlock wrote:wow some very strange ideas. You do not remove paint with thinners and prepwash is only for cleaning.

I'm a city boy with a desk job.

find "paint.exe"

Right click, uninstall.

download and install "clean_caliper.exe"