Calipers And Drums On Starlet Painted Kawasaki Green

[dohertydeano]

Got board last week so decided to clean up the brakes on my 97 starlet.

Got some kawasaki green caliper paint of eBay and some wire brush and sanding heads for my grinder to clean the dirt of the calipers and drums.

Used a degreaser spray to fininsh of the cleaning and make shure they where all set to paint.

Started of with the drum brakes. Used a sanding disc on the grinder to take of the rust then a wire brush head to take the last bit of grit and dirt of.

If your using the wire brush head on a grinder like I did, make shure you use goggels as the wire brisels fly and can stab into your skin. (if you get one in the eye your backjaxed)

Took three coats of paint to get a nice finish.

Didn't let the paint dry completely as i needed to get the back wheels back on so i could take of the front calipers. (only have one set of axle stands).

Only let the paint dry for about 2 hours, it was touch dry but just not fully hard. Car was going to be moved to 24 hours to just let the paint dry on the car.

Also got board waiting for the drums to dry so i took the valve cover of the cleaned and painted it to.

The paint says it not sutible for alluminium but i thought id try it anyway.

Turned out all right, been painted for a week now and the paint looks ok on the alluminium valve cover.

Did the front calipers last, these are a bit more difficult to clean due to there shape.

I took the whole caliper off and the brake pad braket to, it means you have to bleed the brakes when you put them back on but its worth the effort.

Seeing as the calipers where off i also took the time to clean all the parts to and examin the boots, turns out one of the boots has a hole in it so ill have to get new ones and change them.

Be careful not to damage or scrape the piston or the boare on the calipers when your cleaning them.

Again it took 3-4 coats of paint to cover the calipers properly and then left them overnight to dry.

Only thing i want to do now is paint the three panels of silver on the door trim to the same shade of kawasaki green.

Dose anyone have any idea about the best way to do this. Was thinking of using the same caliper paint as i cant find any spray paint in the same colour.

[fastbob72]

The only way I can think off hand how to spray the 3 panels would be to mask the trim incredibly carefully,apply several coats of plastic primer then search through all the colours from each make,theres bound to be a shade that matches your Kawasaki Green.

Give the primer at least 24 hours to cure before apply several light coats of green.

Once you've sprayed a couple of top coats and it's had 24 hours ,apply several coats of clear primer,again leave it at least 24 hours before touching it.

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Like with your drums n callipers,it's all down to the prep work.How much time and care you take cleaning them up.By the time you start to paint the end result is already decided by the preparation you've put in.

I've often bought 2nd hand callipers to take as long as I've needed to prep n paint.Using a wire brush or flap wheel to clean them up but even using sand

paper by hand to get them really smooth.

It's worth the effort,that's clear to see with yours by the end result,there's nothing worse than someone who's hand painted them with a brush n a tin of smoothrite while their still on the car :)

I like the cam cover,I usually wirebrush the sand them until they're shining bare metal.Have painted plenty of plastic ones but never been sure if the paint would last on an alloy cam cover !!!

Is yours fine or has the heat been an issue ??