I'm sure people have done write-ups on this, but I figured I would do one as well. I didn't want to spend money on really nice aftermarket rotors, but I HATE the hub sections of the rotors that rust because they aren't coated - so I figured I would paint them myself... along with calipers and brackets. I bought new rotors, and decided to paint them before they rusted.

Materials required:

80 and 180 grit sand paper (depends on how rusted your rotors are).
Duplicolor high heat ceramic engine paint (whatever color you want).
Rubbing alcohol or brake cleaner (I prefer rubbing alcohol).
Tools to remove wheel, caliper and bracket.
Tape or cardboard pattern to prevent overspray.

Cost: 20 dollars
Time: 2.5 hours per axle (longer if rotors are heavily rusted).

I chose "iron" color engine paint for the rotors, and gloss black for the calipers. I think it turned out pretty good - these are the winter wheels, but I think it will look good with the summer set as well.

I started by disassembling the the wheel end, which I'm sure everyone here knows how to do...

Before pic:


As you can see in this picture, my rotors only have about 1000 mile son them, so the surface where the pads don't contact hasn't' really rusted yet - perfect for painting them to prevent this.



Here is another view.



I removed the caliper, bracket, and rotor. Now its time to sand off the rust it does have, and make sure its clean. I started with the 80 grit, which was almost too coarse, then I switched to the 180 grit and sanded away.



Alright - after I had it sanded, I cleaned the surface with rubbing alcohol because it evaporates away easily, and doesn't leave any oily residue. As you can see in the previous pic, the surface looks clean, but as you can tell by the paper towels I have sitting there, it definitely wasn't.



I measured the diameter of where the pads touched, so I knew what size pattern to cut out to prevent overspray. Some people use tape for this, but since its hard to make tape into a circle (you get that jagged look) I figured I would just cut out a cardboard pattern. I managed to find a pot that was the same size, and I made a pattern out of it with cardboard and an exacto knife.



With the pattern in place, I painted one 2-3 light coats of the "iron" grey ceramic engine paint. It dried pretty damn quick, only took about 10 minutes for each coat. While this was happening, I was busy with the calipers and brackets.




I sanded the caliper brackets as well, and cleaned them with rubbing alcohol just like the rotors. You won't be able to get all the rust off, but the ceramic paint hardens and ends up making quite the protective shell, so don't kill yourself trying to "de-rust" these parts. Clean them well with the alcohol, and paint away. I used the gloss black for these parts.





Now for the caliper itself. I didn't want to deal with disconnecting brake lines, so I just disconnected the bracket that holds down the slack of the line, which allowed me to move the caliper down far enough to get it away from my bumper and suspension components to allow for painting.



Same goes for painting the other parts - I got the same type of paint, but in a different color, so it dried just as quickly. 2-3 coats works well.



After waiting for all the parts to dry, I assembled it back together. Notice - the color I chose for the rotors really looks like bare metal once it dries flat, which turned out better than I expected. The circular pattern didn't turn out perfect, but it ended up overlapping slightly with the brake pad, which cleaned it up real nice after I drove the car.



I used the same exact procedure for the rear, but I was in a rush and didn't take pictures until the end.



I chose to put new rotors on the rear while I did this, because my previous ones were pretty messed up. They only cost 20 bucks a piece, and if you really want to do this project, then I say its a good idea to replace the rear rotors - it makes things so much easier.

Alright - thats it guys. Hope this helps someone. This same weekend I also put Skunk2 A-arms in the front, which I didn't take pictures of.

Maybe one day I will decide to spend money on Brembos or something that come with coated hub sections that don't rust, but until then this works well.

 

I painted my black but with the Duplicolor kit you can get at Advance Auto Parts or online. Comes with the paint, tape, brush, brake cleaner etc. like 18 bucks for the whole kit that has everything you need.

Didn't remove the calipers to do them as it's not needed but since you did the rotors too I can see the convenience choice to do so. Love how they look painted

 

I have to admit I never looked for a kit, ha. I guess that would have made it easier...

 

nice job, probably would have gone with the kit though

 

Nice job!

 

this looks pretty good man, ima have to try this on a nice weekend

 

Tangoman, I'm impressed with your work. I just may follow your lead.
My '04, bought new, has 87,000 miles on it, and I'd say the calipers are the No. 1 detractors from the car's appearance. I go pretty far overboard when it comes to exterior upkeep (washing/claying/polishing/waxing), so my car looks much newer than it is, but, man, the calipers -- especially the rears -- look like something brought up from the Titanic. I should have painted them YEARS ago. Really, the rears are so brown and bumpy with corrosion that I thought painting them was no longer a possibility, but, Tangoman, your car is just as old, has even more miles on it, and is "living in" a harsh winter climate -- read: road salt -- climate just like mine is. Your photos only show the fronts; did you paint the rear calipers as well? If so, how did the prepping go and how satisfied are you with the results? If not, how optimistic are you that a good cosmetic result with the rears is achievable? (Any detail you can provide on the sanding and masking you did would be appreciated.)
I've been so sure that the rears on my car were a cosmetic lost cause that I've toyed with the idea of replacing them. You can buy four powder-coated calipers from an online source like brakewarehouse.com for about (don’t faint) $750. (I believe these are used calipers that are reconditioned before being powder coated.) Replace all four calipers with brand-new, OEM calipers and you're talking about $1,000!)
Now Tangoman has me thinking that painting the calipers and getting a pleasing result might still be feasible.

 

Forgot to mention the rotors...

I replaced my car's rear rotors with Brembo blanks last spring and immediately regretted going with those rotors. Talk about nearly instantaneous rusting! Very disappointing. (I'd read that they would rust, but the speed and severity of it was an unpleasant surprise.) I replaced the fronts just after Thanksgiving with Power Slots, which, unlike the Brembos, have a black coating on the hats. I pray that the coating will prove durable and effective. (I've had my winter wheels (steel) and snow tires on ever since the Power Slots went on the car. The snows will be coming off in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking forward -- a little nervously -- to seeing how the rotors look after their first winter.

I was so put off by how rusty the rear rotors (the Brembos) looked last time I saw them, I was actually considering junking them this spring and replacing them -- with Power Slots, if the ones on the front look OK after the ravages of winter. But now I'm thinking I might try painting them as Tangoman did. Of course, they'd probably have to come off the car. And they'd need a lot of prepping -- sanding or use of a rust dissolver or rust "converter."

Actually, the biggest deterrent to trying any of this brake-component painting is the need to have the car out of commission for a while, while the prepping, painting, drying and reassembly take place. First, I don't own jack stands. Second, all the DIY instructions I've read re. caliper painting have talked about giving the paint plenty of time to dry before driving the car. Tangoman, it doesn't sound as though you waited too long, but I gather that didn't prove to be a mistake.

 

Thanks for the compliments!

With the ceramic engine paint I chose, it really made painting them pretty easy. I sanded with 80 and 120-180 grit paper, but never really could get all the rust off. The paint makes a VERY hard shell. Nevertheless, as long as you clean it well, the paint seems to stick pretty well because of the cast surface. Ductile iron (what the calipers are made of) doesn't rust away as quickly as steel, which helped cut down on the prep time.

I did paint the rears (last picture), but I was in a rush and didn't have time to stop and take pictures (had to put on A-arms and get the car aligned). The rears were even easier to do than the fronts. Make sure you pick up the Dupli-color ceramic engine paint, and you will be fine. Also, since you are doing this yourself, you know that over time as the calipers get beaten by rocks, salt, etc, you can always sand and put on more coats of paint.

I haven't driven in the snow/salt yet since I had this painted, but I did go through a high pressure carwash (with high pressure wheel washing) and the paint held up well (good start). I did this entire job (front and rears) in only 5 hours. I drove the car to my brothers house later that night, and got it aligned the next morning. The paint was dry to the touch within 15 minutes of each coat - good stuff. You might need to take a pneumatic polisher wheel to your rotors to get all that rust off, that will certainly speed up the prep time.

 

I'm in Providence with an 04 as well. The previous owner painted them black but didn't prep it well so they are all chipped. I plan on painting mine this weekend. I opted out of the kit route and got POR 15 Manifold paint since it was the closest to AM. As the name implies, this stuff can litrally paint over rust and will prevent it from ever rusting again. ~35 bucks for a quart.



I was thinking of getting one of the drill bits with the steel wool end to get most of the junk off and sand the rest. Then I got the white Acura high temp decals on ebay to apply when I'm done. I'll post pics next week (hopefully). Not looking forward to jacking the whole car up...

 

Good luck, ollie526. Looking forward to seeing your photos. Please report on what you did for prepping and assess how effective it was. (Of course, you're working with already-painted calipers -- though chipped.) I’m expecting that I’ll have to settle for a rougher surface than I would have if I’d done the caliper painting when the car was still fairly new. Shouldn't have procrastinated.

 

So i got this done yesterday/today.

The biggest thing was getting a wire brush attachment for my drill. Then I sanded down the remaining little bits and sprayed with caliper cleaner. It took about 15 min per caliper but it brought it down to the silver finish (which looked good by the way). Then I did 3 or 4 coats to the whole caliper while connected. Since I got bored waiting for it to dry, I decided to paint the whole hub too. This ended up being a great decision since it was rusty before and just didnt look good when you looked at the wheels from above. Now it looks clean. The first side took forever since it was all trial and error, but I did the other side this morning in about 2 hrs.

Then I applied the Acura decals and called it a day. I'll post pics tomorrow, but I was happy with the results. My only mental debate was if I should have gone with a more noticeable color after going through all that work.

 

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead!

I'm considering doing this but I have some questions. Can I use high heat black spray paint and paint the entire rotor? Will it effect anything and will it last?

 

The high heat will be what you want, but I wouldn't recommend painting the entire rotor. Your pads will put it off, sure, but then it will gum up your pads for a very long time. You definitely don't want that much paint in your pads when you are done - just my opinion - maybe someone has already done it?

 

Okay. The only reason I wanted to paint the rotor is cause it is very rusty. I guess I can clean them up a little bit.

 

Tangoman, how are your painted calipers and rotors holding up 3½ months later? (I'm still procrastinating. If I could just have the use of a hydraulic lift for one weekend.)

 

Everything seems good right now, no rust yet. I could have put more coats on there though, I only did two thin coats - I was afraid of paint drip and I was in a hurry - next time I will take more time.

 

04' TL owner here, and basic overall car NOOB...just a quick question, my calipers and rotors are all rusted, is this job a DIY job or are there places that specialize in doing a cleaning and paint job on them? I'm not even going to try a DIY job here...

 

nicely done. Sometimes people use a paint that has zinc in it to prevent rusting.

 

If anyone is curious as to where you can find the vinyl "ACURA" decal to use when painting the caliper, it can be found on ebay by seller vistadesigns. I noticed people were having trouble finding them in other threads.