I finally get to pick up my mini this week!! I saw on Moss Motors' website a brake caliper painting kit and am curious if anyone has bought this kit or another like it and if so, what were the results like? I assume you would need to take the wheels off to do a proper job, but since I have the 5 spoke wheels with the sport pkg, do you think I could paint through the wheel without too much trouble?

Here's the link: Moss Mini

Thanks and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

David

 

Jack up the MINI on one side ..take off the wheels...paint, then do the other side. You won't do a decent job with the wheels on. 'Takes about an hour.....Looks great...Mine are orange to match the front side lights.

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LTL YELO

 

As another option other than a kit, you can buy any heat resistant paint in a spray can and use that, too! I've done it several times before and it's not difficult. Here's what you do:

-Go to your local auto parts store and pick out a color of heat resistant paint in a spray can. They usually have pictures on them of engines, or denote that they are safe to paint on hot engine parts.

-Jack up the car and take the wheel(s) off. You can't do this thru the wheel spokes. You'd just be asking for trouble, and you really have to be able to adjust your hands to get around in the crooks of the caliper.

-Clean the caliper REALLY good using a degreaser like Simple Green or Dawn. A wire brush is helpful if it's realy dirty.

-Cut off a 2 liter plastic bottle so you have a bowl to use. Keep some plastic handy, say an old grocery bag.

-Cover the bowl with the plastic and spray the paint into the bowl, hitting the side of the bowl so that it liquifies and pools at the bottom. Spray for long enough to have a decent amount of paint to work with. No more than a 1/4 of what you'll need total.

-Use the smallest foam brush you can find. I usually tape an old little chunk of sponge to a kebob stick and use that. Doesn't have to be fancy.

-The caliper should be completely dry before starting to paint. Then just apply the paint to the caliper. I've found that it's easiest to just apply a thin first coat, let dry and then put on a heavy second. That really does a GREAT job. A thick single coat is ok, but tends to be kinda blotchy, and not as uniform as it could be.

That's it. It's really simple and cheap! What... $5 for paint, $1 for a 2 liter, $0.25 for a sponge and $2 for a pack of kebob sticks, $2 for tape to attach the sponge to the kebob stick and you get to use the bag you brought the stuff home with...so only $12.25 assuming you don't have most of these items, minus the paint, around the house already.

Here's a shot of my old '00 Civic SI that I did a yellow job on. Turned out great! (notice also the functional brake duct openings...I'm working on a MINI version now using the fog light holes, more to come soon)


R