painting brake pads?

Tefral

Standard paint is good for about 120 degrees so for road going unless your driving like a lunatic your not going to reach that in normal driving. Heat resistant paint is a bit more expensive also.

Wossack

standard calipers look nasty imo - painting them bright colours just highlights them and draws attention to the nastiness

mickdw

Mr.David wrote: »

Look at an F1 car - the discs are tiny! Why? Because the car is light.

The Disc width & diameter is limited in the regulations & all teams use the maximum diameter allowable.
I still believe that you have over simplified this by saying that once your brakes are capable of activating ABS, there is no stopping distance benefit from upgrading.

cpoh1

cronin_j wrote: »

I painted the calipers on my Integra red on the front because i have gunmetal grey wheels (which are mostly black with brake dust) This was to match the red seats etc.

8 laps around mondello, i pulled in and smoke was comming out, the paint had melted away ha ha.

The brakes on my Teg are twin piston and are very good. Im sure id get better lap times out of it but i dont do trackdays every weekend so i see no point.

OP theres two ways to look at this, if you are just painting them for a road car that wont be going on track

1. Go to halfords and get a tin of BMW brilliant red paint in a spray can and clear laquer.
2. Take off your wheel and mask off the disk and brake line.
3. Take a wire brush and scrub the calliper with it.
4. Wash the caliper with a bit of thinners and rub with a cloth. Leave dry
5. Get a bowl of hot (not boiling) water and pot the tins in while your waiting for the thinners to dry. This warms the paint making it sticky.
6. Spray the caliper with the red paint sparingly. Leave dry and repeat this about 5 times for an even coat.
7. Coat with a few coats of the laquer leave dry.
8. Take off the masking tape and disk cover and ensure theres no paint on the surface of the disk
9. Pop on your wheel and be happy with your work.

If you do, do trackdays dont bother with the halfords can, your gonna need heat resistant paint as it will just burn off like what happened me.

You could also take off the caliper and paint it with red hammerite or something but the finish isnt as smooth and also seeing as its probably just for asthetics theres no point getting the back part of the caliper where you wont see anyway

Sorry for being pedantic Croninj but those calipers are single piston only, the 282mm typeR brakes are great though, had them on my 96 spec integra back in the day. Red behind the gunmetal looks really well too.

Mr.David

mickdw wrote: »

The Disc width & diameter is limited in the regulations & all teams use the maximum diameter allowable.
I still believe that you have over simplified this by saying that once your brakes are capable of activating ABS, there is no stopping distance benefit from upgrading.

Yeah, I am simplifying it but it is still true.

Assuming that your brakes can activate your ABS that means they are using all traction available. Now, of course they would need to activate ABS for the full duration of the braking to maximise decel, for instance maybe they would activate it for some of the braking cycle only in which case there is room for improvement.

I also considered only a single stop. You decide to accel again and brake repeatedly and you will very soon experience fade and pedal travel will increase.

The larger the disc, the greater its energy capacity, and the faster it will dissapate the energy as heat. So, it will remain cooler under a given set of conditions allowing it to resist brake fade for longer.

One other interesting thing (a bit off the point) - vented discs. People wrongly assume that the vents are there to "suck" air through the disc and that the air enters from the outer diameter.
In reality its a pump, and actually pumps air from the hub area of the disc outwards and expels it at the outer diameter of the disc.

Cars with big brakes tend to have big tyres too giving more traction allowing a greater decel force to be applied without losing traction with the road surface.

T-Maxx

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Just to clarify, I genuinely do have a shorter stopping distance on my MINI. I'm not sure after reading Mr Davids post why though.

Maybe all other Mini's have sub-standard brakes as opposed to your MINI...:pac:

Mr.David

That graph shows what I mean re static vs kinetic friction. You want to remain at the peak frictional force, where it is still static. You apply more force and you enter the kinetic region where the frictional force drops.

So, your brake needs to be able to apply enough force to reach the peak of that graph and no more. Unless you want to stop more than once in succession :P

tossy

Mr.David wrote: »

However, some of the above is the automotive equivalent of shoving a pair of socks inside your y fronts for dramatic effect.

Makes you feel good, but everybody knows your secret

Classic

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Here's my BBK setup.

The weird thing was the price. Anyone considering something like this, don't bother buying it here, or anywhere in Europe. This setup, from the states came in at less than 800 euro.

I agree i bought by BBK stateside too and save a few quid.Also went for black the best colour - less is more.

neilthefunkeone wrote: »

Yeah thats the spirit.. Advertise your rocking brembos when actually its all oem!!!

Do you have your brembo and Bilstein decals down your door!!!;)

No shopping list on the wing no,if i did it would be Koni though not Bilstein,i was taking the micky earlier i actually have real 4 pot Brembos and 332 mm 2 piece discs on my Bora.

ianobrien

Cronin_J, Will you be painting the pads as well the next time you change the pads? stick in a new set of pads and it'll look gammy.

To me, painting standard brakes with big wheels is pointless, as the brakes look lost behind the wheel. If a manufacturer has painted/coloured calipers as OEM, fair enough, I might clean them.

If you need a set of Willwood/Brembo/AP Racing/HiSpec/Alcon calipers on a modern car, you've either got a serious right foot on the road (and probably the penalty points to prove) or you've got a race/rally/track car and have experienced brake fade.

For modern cars, it's amazing what a change of discs, pads & Fluid will do to a car. I compete in Night Navigation Trials, and I use std stuff, with a change in fluid every season and I've never had brake fade (I used a Citroen AX and a Toyota Carina). For classic/vintage cars, upgrading the brakes is a wise move considering the speed of modern traffic. I was running a set of Ferodo DS pads in an Escort on std calipers/discs. While they were much better than std pads (when warm), I've bitten the bullet and ordered a set of Wilwoods. Ya, I've the penalty points as well......

Tefral

ianobrien wrote: »

Cronin_J, Will you be painting the pads as well the next time you change the pads?

YES

Tigger

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Here's my BBK setup.



The weird thing was the price. Anyone considering something like this, don't bother buying it here, or anywhere in Europe. This setup, from the states came in at less than 800 euro. Closest thing I could get here was a 4 piston setup for a grand and a half.

Sorry for the pic size

pretty as that is those pads are only biting half yer disc

SV

Tigger wrote: »

pretty as that is those pads are only biting half yer disc

noticed that alright


that's what ya want

dizzydiesel

This is a simple job to DIY. All you need is hammerite.
I followed these instructions....
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=107804&highlight=caliper

See my results:
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=114765