What colour brake calipers?

Bryan Kortez · 13 Sep 2015 at 18:50

As I am going to be having the wheels off my TT for a day or two while they are resprayed, I thought I may as well freshen up the brake calipers as they are looking a bit old and rusty.

What colour do you guys think I should go with? My guess would be black so they don't show up to much dirt, but the silver brakes look good also. My TT will look something like this after the wheels are done.

Bryan Kortez · 13 Sep 2015 at 18:57

I was thinking red, but thought it might start looking a bit naff as it gets dirty and builds up in brake dust.

Which paint would give the best result after some good prep work? I've seen a lot of people using hammerite hammered effect.

Bryan Kortez · 13 Sep 2015 at 19:19

Bone9 said:
Red looks great on a black car with grey wheels. If you wash it weekly or fortnightly the calipers will stay nice and clean, you should be able to get an old spong in there to clean them when you do the wheels.

Don't use hammerite use this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250ml-FER...-with-brush-/161816661295?hash=item25ad064d2f

I've use performance blue from this seller on my ST and its great. 3 coats and looks great. Buy a pack of brushes and prep well. Take them apart to do it properly.

They look great! They look like they have a nice shine to them. Thanks for the link, cheaper than hammerite too!

**Quote removed - don't give the spammer attention**

Bryan Kortez · 13 Sep 2015 at 20:31

Will said:
Red does look good but I think its a bit garish unless you have a big brake kit (4 pot brembos and the like), otherwise why draw attention to your brakes.

Red also doesn't tend to last very well, a lot of these caliper paints don't provide as hard, smooth or as non-porous a finish as the factory coatings that you get on posh calipers. The result is that they soon start to look dirty as brake dust sticks to them, where as your proper brembo brake calipers stay looking cleaner for longer.

If I had a black car...I'd paint the calipers black or silver, unless I had a posh brake kit, then I'd be more than happy with brighter colours

Yeah, this is true. The front brakes would look ok as they are fairly big, it's just the rear brakes that would look silly.