Getting color back in faded Porsche Calipers

[AudiTTman]

Hey guys, here in two days, a friend and I are dropping down to Orlando,Miami, South beach and so on to pick up his new car(used but new to us lol)

He wants me to detail his Boxster for him when we get back and one thing i've noticed about older porsche brake calipers is that they sometimes tend to lose their glossy shine, especially the red ones. They tend to look oxidized and powdered. Any you guys know some stuff or tips that gets those bad boys looking brand new again. Figured id be taking the tires of anyway to get some serious clean. Because we are having a trucker haul it a couple hundred miles down the interstate, the car is most likely going to be a mess and covered in the pesky white bugs that florida is known for that stain the paint lol....i forgot their name

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

We have love bugs in Florida...but it's not really the season for them yet. You will get some bugs though haha. I don't know as far as the calipers are concerned. It seems like it would be difficult to polish them unless you could take them off the car.

[Surfer]

Calipers are easy to repaint, check Duplicolor

[AudiTTman]

LOVE BUGS..yeap thats it. Well thats good to hear. I figured it would come back here to VA covered in them. Yea about cleaning the calipers. I figured for now i would just clean only the parts you could see. Now with the tires off, i could do a pretty good job. I think it will just depend on the condition of the calipers. Maybe some good ol' purple power spray from AutoZone will do the trick hahahah

[Harleyguy]

Calipers are easy to repaint, check DuplicolorMatter of fact i just did my calipers on my vette in red used the duplicolor kit for under $20.00 work great.Couple of things you need to clean the calipers really good you need more of the brake clean then they give.Also need more then the one brush they give i went too home depot bought four half inch wide brushes for the four calipers.On a good note if you have some lighting same as you use to inspect swirls it helps cure the paint . I also removed mine from the mounting bracket so i could paint the bracket black and be able to paint the inside and the outside of the caliper.I have a shop so i was able to leave the car up on floor jacks which make life alot easier.After the paint drid a couple of days later i used a roloc pad and the corvette part to remove the paint then clear coded the calipers .I guess i should post some pictures kinda a detail subject.

[Harleyguy]

Heres some pictures

[AudiTTman]

Hey, tell me if this works. I saw something on youtube where a guy used chapstick on the raised corvette letters and then painted of the caliper. When he came back he whipped over the letters and the paint came right off to reveal perfect silver lettering without any overspray on them. Now you said you used a roloc pad..im not familiar with that so could you kinda help me on that one ahha

[memnuts]

The chapstick thing would work. It is essentially using the wax to mask off the letter. You could use masking tape with better results. You could go to a local hobby shop the kind with Radio Controled planes and real RC cars. They should have something called liquid mask. You paint multiple layers on of the mask then once your done painting the calipers you peal off the "liquid mask" I have used it on everything from house windows to airbrush touch up of automobiles

[AudiTTman]

Now that sounds like something i should go check out. Do you apply liquid mask with like a Q-tip??

[Harleyguy]

Hey, tell me if this works. I saw something on youtube where a guy used chapstick on the raised corvette letters and then painted of the caliper. When he came back he whipped over the letters and the paint came right off to reveal perfect silver lettering without any overspray on them. Now you said you used a roloc pad..im not familiar with that so could you kinda help me on that one ahhaOk the roloc pad is a small pad used for cleaning metal parts also used in auto body repair they come in sizes mine are 3 inch you could also use a dremel with a sanding disc .I don't like to tape the letters since they are small and curved alot easier just painting over them and sanding off the paint .If you use wax and lets say get some on the part of the caliper you want painted the paint won't hold.You can also use a small blck of wood with sandpaper wrapped around it .The caliper paint is very hard so sandpaper will take longer.If you want a picture of the pads let me know i can post it .

[AudiTTman]

yea id love to see a picture of it, thanks for the advice

[Harleyguy]

Here it is i'm still trying to figure out how they get full size pictures in posts not thumbnails like i get

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

You need to upload your pictures to a site like photobucket.com. Then copy and paste the img code into the reply box :D.

[AudiTTman]

hey thank you for the pictures. There is a pretty big hobby shop here and i know they'll have to have one laying around somewhere

[Harleyguy]

hey thank you for the pictures. There is a pretty big hobby shop here and i know they'll have to have one laying around somewhere Well maybe not try a autobody shop supply house .It is used for that and cleaning parts that have paint on them also if you look at the pad it has what looks like a screw on the backing part it is made of plastic and screws into a holder which in turn a drill hold or a high speed grinder . It may be easier for me too send you one LOL the first type ones use a velco design the newer ones have the screw type .