Brake Calipers, Painting
From Boxster Tech
While the Boxster S-models enjoy red calipers, the stock brake calipers on Boxsters are a slate gray color and very easily discolored by the use of caustic wheel cleaners. To remedy this, there are a few methods of painting the brake calipers on a Boxster.
Most expensive but probably the best quality is powder coating. After that, there are a few caliper painting kits, G2 being the most commonly used. And some have simply used high-temperature spray paint to do the job.
The most popular color is red, although some paint theirs black or yellow (which looks nice on a black car). Once painted, the owner either places a "Porsche" decal on the side, or else uses a stencil to paint the word "Porsche" onto the caliper for that distinctive finishing touch.
[edit] Powder Coating
The most expensive, but most durable solution and requires that you completely remove the calipers and send them to a firm that does powder coating.
[edit] The G2 Caliper Painting Kit
This complete kit is reasonably priced and can be found in some auto parts stores or ordered online. G2 is an epoxy resin coatin where you mix the pigment with an accelerant and apply it quickly before it hardens. The kit comes with a can of brake cleaner, a paint brush, a stir stick, the paint and the accelerant. While the kit assumes that you will paint all four calipers at once, you can break it into two parts by doing one side of the car at a time. Do do so, you must use an additional container to mix half the pigment and half the accelerant together.
Excellent instructions can be found here:
CoryNJ's Message at PPBB.com
Other questions that may come up are:
• Is there enough paint in the kit? Yes, there is. The can seems only one-third full, but one can get at least 6 or 7 coats on all 4 calipers with it. Around the 5th coat is when it begins to get ready for prime time.
• Is there enough brake cleaner? Probably not. It is advisable to purchase at least one more can of brake cleaner.
• Paint consistency: The paint starts out pretty watery, and that's a good thing putting on the first coat. It thickens up as time passes so don't waste time.
• Temperature is your enemy. The instructions say to use it between 55 and 70 degrees and they mean it. For you folks in warmer climates, I wouldn't count on a good job with 80-90+ temps. The warmer it got during the day (low 70s when I finished painting), the more difficult it got.
• The G2 paint is very forgiving. "I'd paint one caliper, go to the other, and then come back to the first one, sometimes seeing a run in the paint. It was no problem at all working out drips and runs in subsequent coats -- something you normally cannot do with paint. Brush strokes smooth out really nicely."
• There is no known way to justify the project to your wife. She is not going to understand why anyone would do that much work, painting something so nicely that's "hidden" behind the wheels.
More information at the official site: http://www.g2usa.com
[edit] High Temp Spray Paint
Rich at Xenonmods did a simple spray paint job as seen here:
http://www.xenonmods.com/boxster/caliper/
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