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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Brake Caliper Paint

I am in the process of rebuilding the front suspension and busily repainting various refurbished parts.

I also intend to replace brake hoses and it occurred to me that the calipers could do with some smartening up. Has anyone painted their brake calipers and if so what with or is this considered a waste of time? I have some Silver Hammerite which I would hand paint on - would this do?
Andy Davies

I have painted calipers with Hammeriite and household enamel paint and both worked fine.
My brakes never get hot enough to cause problems with paint.
JB Anderson

dad did his mini ones with black hammerite - it's still on.

I did mine with halfords calliper paint, the runniest paint in all of the land. I did them red, so I have more horsepower and can go faster round corners than everyone else.
Rob Armstrong

I found that too.

Red caliper paint makes the engine much more responsive, and the brakes themselves are improved no end.

Find it doesn't help the handling much though...well, maybe a little .....on the straights.
JB Anderson

I found that a coat of VHT high temp header paint (I used some silver I had left over) covered by normal enamel in what ever color I chose worked great and lasted very well. Here's a caliper after 12 years of use. Some brake dust and dirt and a bit of surface rust in areas that weren't coated well, but overall the paint hasn't peeled or discoloured.


B Young

damn. everyone seems to have this performance upgrade. JB you must have not put enough coats on to help the handling. Alternating brush strokes between up-down and acrosswise seems to work best, otherwise there's too much understeer.

warm the callipers up a bit before painting them, makes a world of difference. I hung mine up so I could get everywhere on them.
Rob Armstrong

Nope but my BGT has very classy pink front springs :). I love them and it makes it more comfy I'm sure :)
rachmacb

Surely you can just use engine paint...
All high temp paint is mega runny... no idea why!
C L Carter

The extra paint adds weight making the centre of gravity that much lower, therefore better cornering.

My tip is a wooden steering wheel as it really improves turn-in speeds.
Gary & Gaps

It is a trade off tho, when you paint them you have more unsprung mass...

Porsche have known all these tricks for years, yellow calipers are lighter and resist brake fade and red increase horsepower. It says it all here:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7676727_porsche-brakes-vs-red-brakes.html

Quote "Red calipers signify an "S" model... These models feature more horsepower and higher performance than standard models"

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

yellow Smoothrite

you know it makes sense

;)

12 years no obvious deterioration beneath the dust grime and assorted grovel
Bill 1

did you also know, 2 white stripes along the length of the vehcile helps channel the air where the paint's frictional difference changes and can help gain upto 2 seconds during a 0-60 test? In some rare cases, when the gap between stripes is at its optimum, people have known to accelerate at unrealistics rates due to the air vortex generated between the lines.
C L Carter

Ah! That's how Rob does it.

I don't use it very often, but I've found that on the gearbox after accelerating throught the gears 1st...2nd...3rd...4th...5th (if you have it, then select R for RACE must give a massive power boost as it certainly seems to generate an awful lot of noise.
Gary & Gaps

It took a lot of time to get those stripes in the right place, I must have got it just about right as the 1.4 could keep up with the 1.8s and the mad dutchman :)

why else did you think i resprayed the whole car? If you get the back ones on right then the vortex produces downforce. ace.

Also speed up gearchanges with a shiny gearknob top, and if you fit a metal tax disc holder it can fool gatsos into not going off. very useful.
Rob Armstrong

Gary... you joke but I actually did that recently in the Rover, trying to change from 4th to reverse! ha ha! One of those utterly moronic, utterly brain dead, never done it before or since moments of forgetting where 5th was! No lasting damage as far as I can tell (fortunatly)!

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Malcom, you obviously weren't trying hard enough.
Gary & Gaps

Going back to the original question Andy!!!
Painting them with Hammerite silver will make them look.... well like they've been painted with Hammerite silver, if you get my meaning. Red or Black does look better. If you use silver, any rust through, or muck will soon make them look messy.
Make sure you remove all the rust and crud first and clean with celly, xylene or Hammerite thinners first, before you paint.
Cheers John
HALL JOHN

Must be an MG?/Rover thing cos I've done that on My ZR on more than one occasion, just about realizing just before it tried to fully engage. Seem to have got away with it so far. Could be an age thing though.
Painted my Sprite calipers with primer and Nissan Red two pack. so far so good.

Bernie.
b higginson

This thread was discussed between 09/11/2011 and 11/11/2011

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.