Hi

I was wondering if any one of you did this before. I am planning on polishing my aluminum cast calipers.

Are there any good aluminum polising compounds out there are "Mother's" products any good?

Any other recomendations or steps that I should take.

Thank you

 

Don't bother...

Paint...

 

why? I have a the equipment and time to do it. Why do yo sugest i paint it?

 

Even when polished, AL can corrode from heat and salt. To protect the polishing job, you'd have to clearcoat. But that's not doable, cuz I've never seen a high-temp clearcoat... so.... that's why he says to paint.

 

How much material do you plan on removing from the caliper??

How much time do you plan on not having brakes??

If you got a second car then OK..

Just a pain in the **** if you ask me..

Are you grinding them smooth/glossy??

Or just plan on using something to shine them up??

 

to polish you HAVE to smooth out the casting texture, then sand, sand, sand some more...then use a polishing compound like Mothers. There are professional polishing compounds too that are harder cuts than mother's but you prolly won't have access to them. Mothers is more of a light touch up polish on stuff that's already bright.

 

yeah i plan on 2-3 hours per caliper. I have a dumor that's run of compressed air available. I also have grinders that i can put polishing wheels on. I just need to know if 3 hours is enough per caliper. I will only polish the visible areas of the caliper. And yes I thought about protecting it somehow... will mothers polishing compound be enough to protect it?

 

no, the salt and dirt will still attack bare aluminium (AL). AL gets very brittle and turns to powder when attacked by oxidizing agents. I would not wook with my brakes like that... you can have the chrome dipped instead....much better 3 hours will be enough just polishing with power tools... but bare AL is a no-no.

 

chrome dipped calipers

polished calipers = (failed brakes since the calipers will continuely get weaker

 

I'm gonna paint my calipers yellow and slap brembo stickers on them!

But on a serious note.. I think I'll paint them... probably a blue color. How much does a can of paint cost...?
Do you think I should paint my drums too?

 

is there a "proper" procedure for painting calipers?

 

Not really... I think painted calipers look ghay. Mine are painted and I hate it...that's why I bought new ones Paint = $8 , feeling like a dumbass cuz your calipers are nasty blue = priceless Just not my cup of tea. If I was to do it for cosmetic reasons, I'd do flat black paint

 

steal my idea... flat black ... thanks for stealing my idea...now I have to think up something else ... you know how hard that is? damn next time I'm claiming the idea for myself


on a serious note I was just wondering if there was a way to do it that was correct, I probably won't do it since I have stealies

 

I agree with bbarbulo, I don't like painted calipers or drums. They look cheesy.
I would only paint them black if they required it. For example - when I get my rims put on and my drums look bad i'll paint them black again to clean em up.

 

haha...you got drums in the back

 

I painted mine red. Wanna change them to black or a different color (not telling) if I don't replace them with something bigger this year.

Let them sit for many many hours before you drive the car or else brake dust gets embedded into the paint and it looks like ****. Don't ask how I know

 

Haha... I'm not stealing anyones ideas... I just happen to have a silver car with only black on it... so I figured black calipers would be mint with my side moulding and sideskirts and **** all black. I didn't paint any of the trim cuz I like the flat black look. Even my H badges are flat black and my grille surround is to be black soon too