benzo-boi

I know many members have painted their calipers. But I was wondering about painting the calipers on the '05 Sport Sedans. The calipers have "Mercedes Benz" printed on there.

I wanna paint my calipers red, but also don't want to cover up the printed "Mercedes Benz" on there. Any ideas on a way to paint the calipers and some how not lose the print?

Saprissa

I saw one last week at AUTOWERKS in San Diego, that did it in a pretty cool way. He painted the calipers bright Brembo red, but obviously covered up the Mercedes Benz lettering with a rectangular piece of tape or something, just enough to cover the edges of the "MB" wording. I guess he then painted the thing red, and after removing the tape, the caliper looks like it has the "Mercedes Benz" print. It looks pretty good & original. Granted the background of the print is still in it's original gray color, but it's so sublte, by the surrounding red paint, that it actually looks good. I think if even if you were able to get red in between the letters, the fact that the letters are white, may not make them stick out as much, say as if they were black. My $0.02

Saprissa

I know, I know, should of taken a pic... but didn't have my camera with me anyway.
There's ALWAYS awesome MB's at AUTOWERKS. I stop by at least once a week, just to drool on whatever is in the parking lot or in the garage !!

Aurora

benzo-boi, what color is your car? i've ordered an alabaster white one (arriving in oct!!) and am also thinking of painting the calipers red. what kind of paint do you suggest and where can i get it?

808_230K

auto part stores usually carry caliper paint, chk out the paint section.

you could always fill in the letters w/wax or something, shave it flush to the caliper, then shoot over it. remove the filler and bam! no paint in the lettering. well, this is assuming the lettering is recessed in the caliper body ^_^

Aurora

so any kind of caliper paint will do the job just fine... there's no particular brand that's better?

benzo-boi

I was thinking about that, but I thought it might look too "homemade". I wish there's a picture! I was thinking of some kind of heat resistant sticker, that I would put on after I paint it. I guess the Mercedes Benz print isn't that big of a deal. I just thought if there was maybe a simple fix.

I STF and some of the other members recommened Rust Oleum paint for metal surfaces. I guess it's a cheaper solution. I'm still going to go with brake caliper paint. You can find brake caliper paint at most motorsport shops, maybe even Kragen. My car is silver, I'll be painting mine red.

PRHeloPilot

Sorry, but the letters aren't recessed.

I was thinking about painting over it. The MB name looks good but if I'm de-badging all over, why worry about those letters, my opinion on my car anyway.

SOOOO, what I'll end up doing is first trying to salvage them with a piece of tape but if it doesn't look too good, then they're gone, painting them entirely red.

I bought the paint at Pep Boys and they had the color that looks exactly like my Mars Red car. I'll be doing that during this week.

benzo-boi

That would be too easy! Too bad the Mercedes Benz is more like a print, and not recessed

PRHeloPilot

Oh yeah, about $6 for the CALIPER SPRAY PAINT at Pep Boys.

CitronC230K_03

i have the same isssue. id like to paint my AMG calipers Citron but i wanna keep the AMG lettering on them.

Saprissa

Doug,
this would be pain-staking, but probably the only way to do it, if you want to keep the lettering, which I think looks pretty cool IMO, is to carefully & exactly tape off each letter & stripe individually. Sounds to me, the same kind of detailed work that they did with your mesh. Since you have to take the caliper off anyway to paint it, a few hours of prepping/taping the letters may be required. CITRON calipers on CITRON car would look sweet ! The red calipers look HOT on RED, BLACK, and WHITE cars. On most others, they seem to look obnoxious from my viewpoint.


___________________
Carlos
Saprissa@aol.com

CitronC230K_03

yeah i know. if i can find some high temp paint that matches citron i would do it. i paid $$$ for my mesh and i would do it again for my calipers.

Saprissa

there's a place down here in the Miramar area called "Tri-City Paints". They specialize in MB paints and sorry to sound like a commercial but they are known for automotive & commercial vehicle, heavy equipment & industrial type paints. Don't know if they can do the high-temp paint, but might be worth giving them a call. They're the ones that supplied the Brilliant Silver MB paint for my door handle project. They also have a shop up in Escondido.

(760) 747-3023 Escondido
(858) 530-1666 Miramar

at least something to look into, so you have something to compare.


Carlos
Saprissa@aol.com

CitronC230K_03

id be totally into it. i worked in sorrento valley and lived in hillcrest when i lived in san diego. i hated that coomute on the 805 everyday. i will give them a call!

JW230K

do you guys happen to know if most caliper paint comes in a spray paint bottle? and does anyone know if the rust oleum paint for metal surfaces also comes in a spray paint bottle? i think those with the "AMG" vs the "Mercedes Benz" lettering would be much better off just taping off the lettering.

the one thing that i always don't like too much about caliper paint is that they normally come in a dull color instead of a shiny metallic color. i was thinking a shiny metallic powder blue (or the MB diamond silver metallic on the clk) caliper would look good with my brilliant silver.

PRHeloPilot

I think EVERY car website has the caliper paint that you mix and apply with a brush. Check Performance or Formymercedes, for example, but they cost about $50. With spray paint it's the same thing (I think it should even be better), it's cheaper, it's bought locally, and the color is great, at least the one I bought.

Rust Oleum ?? I don't know if it's made for 900 degrees temp. Car engine paint is made to withstand 500 degrees and the caliper paint I bought is good up to 900 degrees.

How many calipers have you seen painted with spray paint ? Seen many dull ones we could see before we try it ? The colors I saw in Pep Boys were very bright, not dull.

Like I said before, I'm GOING TO TRY to tape it off but I'm sure it's going to get all painted over.

808_230K

bummer

another option, fig out what color you want the text, spray that part of the caliper, mask it over w/a vinyl sticker of appropriate size/font, spray the caliper again w/red or whathaveyou, then remove the sticker.

or, to be cheaper, spray the caliper, then pop a sticker on it and hope it doesn't fall off

jinijazz

You can just paint a caliper with high temp paint and applied MB sticker later. I did it on my Boxster a few years ago, it turned out to be very good looking OEM. I don't recommend the tape on/off thing, I saw one and looked home made loud and clear. Just my 2c.

benzo-boi

I was just thinking about that, but won't the sticker melt cause of the high temp? The sticker you have is vinyl right? If it works for you, then thats what I'm doing.

jinijazz

You can get heat resistent sticker(as mine), no melt whatsoever in last 2.5 yrs.

Even though I prefer stock caliper with my c, please post a pic when it's done!

benzo-boi

Where did you get your heat resistant sticker? I'll check with my local graphics shop, I guess.

benzo-boi

Below is a link with step by step instructions to paint your caliper, then applying the sticker on the caliper:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/for...=0&#entry51596

Still wondering where to purchase "heat resistant" stickers. Never seen them before.

jinijazz

http://www.xenonmods.com/newallcaliperdecals.htm

disclaimer: i have no affiliation or relationship with these people. just a happy customer.

PRHeloPilot

I just ordered mine, I'll let you know how fast they ship and the quality when I get them.