Art of Rally

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Random Acts of Bling, 8/1/04

On every car I've owned, I've wanted to paint the brake calipers. When I got the Evo, the work was already done for me. Not wanting to let the anticipation go to waste with the trade-in of the Evo, I went down to Auto Zone and picked up a couple cans of VHT brake caliper paint (in red, of course). Since I don't have a torque wrench to properly remove and reaffix the caliper assembly, I decided to simply mask off the areas I didn't want to paint and do it all in place. After jacking up the car, I removed the wheels, cleaned the calipers thoroughly with electrical component solvent, and went buck wild with the masking tape and Quick Mask in order to fully protect against overspray (the fine paint vapor that always tends to land where you don't want it to).

What followed were three coats of paint, 1/2 hr between each. The first coat was light and the last two were medium-heavy, as I was chasing the afternoon sun. If I had more time, I would have done four light coats. I only did the front calipers today, but hope to do the rears next weekend.