I haven't found any caliper painting write-up so I'll write one myself since I just finally posted the pics. since I did mine about a month ago. There aren't a whole lot of detailed photos, but the process is very very simple.

I changed the pads on my truck and while doing so with all the wheels off and calipers free I prepared to paint them. Products used,

120 Grit Sandpaper
1 can of VHT Caliper cleaner
1 can of VHT Red Caliper paint
1 can of Rust-oleum BBQ & stove flat black paint.
1 can of Rust-oleum high temp clear coat.
Stack of Newspaper


Here is what we began with.





First step is to prepare and mask.

Since I was changing pads I obviously was ready to rest the calipers on something, and remove them ( not from their lines). For the 04+ F150s the rear caliper bolts are 10mm, and the fronts are 13mm. My recycling boxes seemed to work excellent for resting the calipers on for support. Perfect height level. I covered them in a few layers of news paper and put a rag under where the calipers sat for a snug sit still hold. I would surely recommend this over painting them while installed because you can remove the pads and make a much cleaner paint job, and the rear calipers will be very well noticed underneath at a low ground level. I also masked off surrounding areas to prevent over spray ( exhaust tips, frame, leaf springs ). Taking the time to do so will make the end result hassle free and much cleaner.


Second Step, Paint Preparation.

I Started off by hand sanding the calipers with 120 grit sandpaper, and scrubbed the rear rotor hubs and the front steering knuckles with a wire brush and finished them off with the 120 grit. Then proceed to spray the calipers rear rotor hubs, and knuckles with the VHT caliper cleaner and let it sit for 20 minutes.


Third Step, Painting and clearing.

Now comes the painting time. After shaking the caliper paint can for what seems like forever, begin spraying them lightly with a distance of 6 - 8"s away. A good tip is to paint the backs first, then the top & bottom sides, then to finish the remaining back and front side. Let sit for 10 minutes between coats. I did 3 coats on all calipers for ultimate durability. I let them all sit for 15 minutes and then began to clear coat. I did 2 layers of clear per caliper. Let them sit for an hour before handling to reduce the risk of making etched marks in the clear coat before re-assembling everything.


For the rear rotor hubs and front steering knuckles, its the same method. I masked off the rear lugs and most of the disk to ensure the paint would only be on the hubs to get rid of the nasty rusted look. In front I masked around the top of the ball joint spots on the upper A arm because they were rusty looking, and covered the front spring assembly with news paper. I did the same amount of layers of the BBQ paint as I did the calipers, and I chose not to clear coat these parts as the finish of it felt fine, and the clear coat did not look good with the BBQ paint and I ended up sanding off the spot i used it with on one of the rotor hubs.



Fourth Step, Re-assemble.

Once everything has dried for an hour, rip off all of the over spray paper you hung up. Re-assemble everything by simply putting the calipers back in place and making sure your caliper bolts are properly greased. A 13mm for the front bolts, and a 10mm for the rear bolts. After putting your wheels back on, take many pictures and post them



This concludes my explanatory write up, onto the photos.

 

great work man looks awesome. Suprising how little work and some paint make things look brand new

 

Looks great... but where is the smurf Blue?

 

Nice job with the write-up and with the painting, looks good. I'm gonna do this as soon as spring gets to me. Sucks having no garage,eh

 

Looks really good, glad i did mine back last year it makes such a big difference

 

ahhh your addicted to monsters like me huh im may do this one of these days if i can find the right paint to match the truck. but mine arent rusty and you really cant see through my wheels so who knows

 

Nice write up. I did this over the summer and it came out great as well. A lot cheaper than new calipers too.

 

very nice. you have my dream f150. everytime i see a full size 04-08 f150 in that colour i always picture it with 35" rubber and some 20" black rims with a wide offset and straight pipes thats my dream truck. oh and dont forget the 2.5" AS leveling kit.

 

Darren is the VHT caliper cleaner/degreaser any different than just brake parts cleaner ? Just trying to get my list together for next week when I paint them

 

Looks pretty good!

 

It does look alot better than the rusted caliper! you did a great job on it too- you should check out these covers before the next time you have to touch your paint up, they're alot more permanent and take only a fraction of the time to install
-calipercovers.com
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WOW this thing looks like trash to me!!! Spend some time on your truck and paint it take pride in it !!! not this bolt on crap!! thats all you need for something to rattle off on the highway!! This is my rant!! sorry bad day at work!!!

 

x2

These things are so cheap looking I had to stop watching the video..EWWW
They look like crap I am sorry nothing flimsy ricer looking crap is going into my truck....I am sure that guy really need those gloves to install the covers

Sorry those are just gay looking

I am done bitching for now, that was my two cents

 

Those MGP do have positive reviews, and I followed the thread about them where everyone bashed how expensive they were, and how so many people did the math and calculated how it was fair and stuff.. $190 for the covers is high imo though. I painted all 4, not added covers to the front two, and I got an excellent looking caliper set up on all 4 corners.

I would imagine not, but since I was looking at caliper paint and VHT made a cleaner I decided to grab theirs since it was there. Worked well. Dirt and rust water just dripped from the compounents so it did good.

 

Don't worry about DstRuck, I'm pretty sure he's just here to try to drum up business for MPG. I guess they ran out of suckers willing to pay that much for a couple pieces of painted aluminium and some screws.

At least they took their ugly logo off the front and stuck a FORD logo in its place.

And what was your total cost for everything, said and done?

- NCSU