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Want to do something with my Calipers. Paint or Covers, match color of car. Magnetic Red. There are covers that come close to that color. If painting would you do the brackets, same color or maybe silver or black. Leaning to all same color. Covers, do they look good or kind of hinky or too large. thanks for any feedback., fin. brand new to the vette world
The covers are not real popular on this site. Your car, if you like them go for it. If you want to match i would suggest painting. Another option, that i did was get a new set of Z06 calipers off that auction site for a reasonable price. I got the brackets the same color.
Yeah the covers do not tend to be a well-liked item. I'm in the same opinion though and personally I'd agree with what someone posted in another thread; with covers they stick out like a sore thumb and you're not fooling anyone with them. They can also get unnecessarily expensive.
You can go as simple as just painting the face of the caliper and it look pretty good (it's what I did actually). With wheels on you won't see much of the meat of the caliper nor the bracket.
Just paint them and take your wife or GF out for an nice evening on the town...and a few bucks for the coming week. Those covers are creepy, seen some Corvettes come in on trade at a dealership with those on, the first thing they do is remove and garbage them, lol. PS can paint calipers with any good quality paint, easy as falling off a log.
Last edited by El original; 03-07-2018 at 12:46 PM.
Want to do something with my Calipers. Paint or Covers, match color of car. Magnetic Red. There are covers that come close to that color. If painting would you do the brackets, same color or maybe silver or black. Leaning to all same color. Covers, do they look good or kind of hinky or too large. thanks for any feedback., fin. brand new to the vette world
I personally like paint v/s the covers. However on mine I went with the covers but in black. Covers my ugly caliper but yet no one notices the cover due to it being black.
I would not go with Red or Yellow covers as the eye is drawn straight to it and it's obvious it is a cover.
If I ever have to replace the calipers they will be painted before installation.
Another vote for paint (or powder coating, but more expensive).
I think a lot of people use the covers because they feel everyone will think they have big brakes on, but ........................... it doesn't work.
A lot of members paint their calipers to match their car color; especially if the color is a little more unique like AE Guy did with his. I really like his look. I painted mine to match the firethorn stripe on my car. Certainly could not have painted the calipers white - I'd worn out my toothbrush trying to keep them clean!
An easy fix for your car since it's magnetic red is to do as Fcar 98 suggested and buy LS6 calipers since they come from the factory powder coated red. Just be careful and don't overpay. Some people go wild with their pricing of LS6 brakes when the significant differences between base and LS6 calipers are the paint color and a different brake pad!
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I am not a fan of the caliper covers, so I would highly recommend going the paint/powdercoating route. My calipers are torch red and I did the brackets in black. I think that if you decided to do the brackets in Mag Red they would look good.
Well, I see you’ve been convinced, but just to encourage you more, but my low budget observation has been that Mag and AE reds seem to be very popular to paint the calipers.
As for the covers, I don’t like: how they are mounted, how close they are to moving stuff, restrict cool air flow. Mine are teal, btw:
Just went out to look at the vette. mine has the shale/tan ragtop. Now thinking of doing the calipers in that color to accent the top, thoughts anyone. Just doing the face of the calipers is fine by me. Do not really want them taken off. Really not able to do it myself, suggestions who may do this kind of work, brush painted is also ok as is painting the lettering. What type of paint should be used. Any idea on the cost. Sorry for all the questions. Know anyone in SW Fl. close to Punta Gorda who may be willing to take this on. car is not garaged kept. parking spot at condo. thanks again. Fin
Just went out to look at the vette. mine has the shale/tan ragtop. Now thinking of doing the calipers in that color to accent the top, thoughts anyone. Just doing the face of the calipers is fine by me. Do not really want them taken off. Really not able to do it myself, suggestions who may do this kind of work, brush painted is also ok as is painting the lettering. What type of paint should be used. Any idea on the cost. Sorry for all the questions. Know anyone in SW Fl. close to Punta Gorda who may be willing to take this on. car is not garaged kept. parking spot at condo. thanks again. Fin
It's really not hard. You don't have to take them off the car. I just did them on mine. As someone stated earlier in the thread, I have step by step videos on how to do it on my You Tube channel. It can be done in 1 day if someone has the means to put the car up on all 4 jack stands or a lift. Being at a condo could be tricky so I understand not doing it yourself.
If you paint, be very careful with future maintenance and repairs. Especially if you use a paint that isn't specifically for brake calipers and brake parts.
Brake fluid = paint remover, although some special "caliper paints" are resistant.
Non-chlorinated brake cleaner = extra strength paint remover. I never use it near painted calipers, and I try to avoid it on painted cars. Use the older chlorinated stuff instead. Most paints are fairly resistant to it, and caliper paints are definitely resistant to it.
Last edited by C6_Racer_X; 03-08-2018 at 11:46 AM.
Hey - read my post - late last year I was asking the same question you were and decided to do them myself, and they came out great...
Some tips:
1) Make sure you REALLY clean the calipers and brackets. Any dirt of grease left behind will leave "clean spots" and will look unpainted or dirty. I used a brass brush then brake cleaner, then rubbed them down with a white towel, until I didn't see any dirt marks in the towel while rubbing.
2) Spend most of your time taping off around the areas you will paint - this is critical and is the difference between the job looking great or a job that looks horrible
3) Make sure you do light coats and do like 4 or 5 - it gets really messy real quick if you over-spray and dripping/thick paint looks horrible when dry
working on my new calipers now. bought them here on the forum pretty rough. started with completely stripping them. used a good 2k primer and color match torch red base. soon i will be clear coating them with 2k clear
03-07-2018, 11:36 AM
Painting Calipers vs Covers
With many of the posts above. Paint them. Hate the "covers." 
