Most importantly the app is based on the Nissan Consult 3 protocol that Infiniti dealers used.

 

I guess that doesn't include this little thing I bought. When I tell the app to search for devices, it finds "OBDII", but is unable to pair with it.

Aw heck.

 

I wonder how many more years we have to suffer seeing these cars at street take overs? Surely a huge portion are destroyed now.

Kind of looking forward to 10 years in the future when the only people left owning them are the owners that weren't weeded out.

 

For many, many years now, I've wanted to have custom paint on my calipers. Something that pops, like amber, or a metallic yellow. But the practicality of having a shop do this work seems problematic, and expensive to have the car taking up a lift for two or three days while the calipers are being powder coated.

So once again I find myself considering the logistics of DIY removal and reinstallation. Given my limited space and materials, I'd probably do one side of the car at a time. And I'm OK with that. But it still feels somewhat outside my comfort zone. Then again, getting remotely tuned was certainly out of my comfort zone, and I did it. So this shouldn't really be that big of a deal.

IDK. Anyone have any insights, recommendations, links to anything that might give me the confidence to take this on in the Summer?

 

I painted my calipers on a vehicle years ago and I remember just using a caliper paint kit that included a brush-on application. Easier to DIY but obviously not as good as powdercoating.

 

If I'm going to do this, (and still a big if), then I'm going to have the calipers properly blasted and powder-coated.

 

Yeah I would too. The calipers I painted before didn't have any existing coating on them so it was much easier than ours would be.

 

Two notes:
1. Find the color you think you want, take trash bags/masking tape and mask off everything under the wheel well except the front of the caliper, roughly clean and then spray the color. Live with it a month or two to see if it's worth the $$$ to do it right. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

2. Buy calipers on ebay/used parts website of choice/junkyard, have blasted and coated in color from step 1, and then rebuild the piston seals. NOT hard. Then there's no real down time and you can sell the original calipers to offset cost (OR put them in your spares box). As a bonus you get refreshed calipers as well as the color you want. If you don't have stainless lines yet, upgrade those too (I'd recommend the ones WITH the brass block in the middle).

ALL of this is possible in the driveway.

My personal method is to never change something unless I have a new thing to change it on (interior piece, body panel, etc) so if I F it up... I still have the original. LOL.

Edited to add: after the heat cure on powdercoating, probably a good idea to change out the seals anyway. Brake temps can certainly exceed the 450-500 F cure temp of the powder, but on 11 year old (at best) seals might not be worth the risk for a $50 kit. While brakes give life, and thus are very important to get right, they aren't all that complicated.

 

Feel like DIY'ing removal would be tough. You're obviously going to introduce air to the system with the car sitting for days, so you're going to need to bleed the heck out of them before you drive the car anywhere. When I swapped calipers on the R, I bleed them 4 times before I finally got all the air out. If you don't feel comfortable with this part of it, you'll need to find a shop to do it all.

Other option is caliper paint, which IMO does a great job. I used G2 on my R and both wife's Audi and am more than happy with the results. You'd just need to get the calipers scuffed up enough for paint to adhere. But you could take your time and be totally OCD about it. The calipers are easy enough to remove, and you could leave them connected to the brake lines while painting them and get solid coverage.

What about getting another set of calipers and sending them out and having them powder coated? You could minimize downtime and as well as fluid loss and probably only need to get one good bleed in. You could then flip your current calipers.

Edit: I see rotarymike had the same donor caliper idea lol.

 

I completely forgot about the donor set approach. Thanks guys.

Heck, I could even bypass the whole DIY approach, and have the shop swap them in. That would allow me to break down the separate costs, and stretch the project out over time. Which is something I like to do. If you guys remember anything about any of my previous projects, I'm all about breaking it down into steps.

Buy a donor set.
Pay a powder-coater shop to paint.
Rebuild the calipers.
Pay the speed shop to swap.
Sell the originals

Hmmm.... thinking, thinking...

Looking around at local PC shops, seems I've got my pick of about a dozen. That's cool. Rochester isn't a huge city, but still plenty big to have options.

 

I did paint my calipers on my g37x with expensive high quality paint but it didn't survive more than a year or so.

 

I painted mine and liked the look, so bought the PowerStop reman already powder coated. But my car is all black so the red was really all I was considering.

Paint lasted a few months before it started to look iffy. Powder is ??? years and still good (I could go look in my build thread, but :shrug

 

And as I expected, after searching ebay and searching for a PC shop, and running the numbers, I'm faced with the reality that all of this is just so that I can change the color of my calipers. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just... all this for a color change?

This is the point where I wrestle with my values. I've been here before, LOL.


Thanks for that moment of humility. Yeah, they would have to be powder-coated, for sure.

Metallic amber/orange, in case anyone is wondering. This against a Moonlight White car. With my Vossens and 2-piece rotors, it sure would look good.

 

Are you 100% against painting it yourself? G2 will do custom colors. Use a wire brush on your cordless drill to rough up the surface and get rid of the existing logo, remove the pads (couple pins) remove the calipers (couple bolts) and secure them to the body using zip-ties, twine etc. and go to town. Wait till they fully dry, and go back over them a second time/touch up anything you might have missed.

 

100%, yes. Don't hate me, LOL.