It's one of those things you might not think of until you see another guy who's done it. Once you see how nice a set of painted brake calipers look, you'll really hate the dull grey look of your stock ones. And for only about $20 you can buy the few supplies you need to change this. It does take 1 or 2 days, though, to really set the car up, mask off areas, paint at least 3 coats and allow enough time in between for each coat to dry. So if you have an appointment to get your nose hairs trimmed tomorrow morning, now is NOT the time to start this. Make sure you have the weekend free where you won't need the C6.
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The Duplicolor kit is made just for this. They give you everything you need for $20, excpet a decent brush. Promptly throw away the brush that comes with the kit because it will leave a hideous set of ridges and lines on the finish if you try to use it. DEFINITELY spend another $1 and get yourself a decent brush at your local hardware store.
The Dupliclor paint comes in red, yellow, silver, and black. The red is a good match for my Vette "Victory Red". It does give a nice glossy shine when you're done, so adding a few layers of clear coat over the top of it is optional.
Also I WOULD recommend using a paint primer. Any primer meant for metal will do. This is not supplied with the Duplicolor kit. Without primer I had some small spots that would chip. After I applied primer to those few spots, the problem was solved. If I had it to do again, I would prime the entire caliper the first time. Plain old Rustoleum metal paint primer seems to work well.
Instructions are printed clearly on the box of the caliper paint. But it helps to have a few more tips and pictures - see below.
 | Jack the car up safely, and rest it on two jackstands. For my method, I leave the jack underneath the car, in the center of the cross member, as a 3rd support just in case of trouble. Take the front wheels off. Your brake calipers will be covered with road dirt and brake dust. The kit comes with some brake caliper cleaner -- just spray it on, use a toothbrush to scrub the caliper thoroughly, then wipe off with a rag, until you get a nice clean appearance of the bare metal, shown in the closeup below. |
 | After a thorough cleaning of the calipers, apply chapstick to the "CORVETTE" letters. This will make it easy to scrape the paint off of them later. Though not mentioned in the directions, I would seriously recommend that you use a metal primer. Simple Rustoleum® seems to work well for me, or use primers made by Duplicolor, which you should be able to find at Autozone. |
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Then mask off appropriate areas. If you're using brush-on paint (rather than spraypaint), masking is not very important. I only taped off the oval areas as shown: these are the back surfaces of the brake pads. You'll want them to retain their natural black look, so that they make a nice contrast with the red caliper paint. The "rotor" is the big silver part that the pads grab to make the car stop. You'd like not to get paint, grease, nor anything else on them. |
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But usually this is not too important, because even if you paint the rotors, the first time you drive the car and apply the brakes, the paint will be completely removed by friction. Still it is a good habit to keep in mind that you don't want contaminants on the rotors nor pads when you are doing a project. Also, keep the paint off any bolts and nuts that you'll find around the back of the brakes. You'll need to get these off when you change brake pads, and you don't want them stuck on because of paint. |
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The Duplicolor paint dries quicly, and Duplicolor recommends only waiting 15 minutes between coats. However, I had poor results if I tried to do additional coats too quickly. The finish will be too bumpy. I'd really suggest waiting at least 2 hours between coats -- something I learned by trial and error. I needed 4 good coats to finally achieve I needed 4 good coats to finally achieve satisfactory coverage. When the last coat is dry, just take a paint scraper and uncover your letters. If you've allowed one or two hours between coats, the paint will just fall right off them. Use the chapstick trick - it seems to help |
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Make sure you've wiped off any tiny paint flecks. Then just take your can of clear coat spray and give a few very light coats to the whole project. The clear coat dries in about 5 minutes, so this phase is very easy |
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When you're spraying the clear coat, cover the brake rotors with a rag. When all is dry, take off the masking tape, and you're done! |
 | For a really nice final touch, use your high temp Plasticote® engine enamel on the rotor centers as shown here. Just be very careful (because this is spray paint) to put sheets or soft towels over the entire car, and spray only inside a garage with the door closed. You'll be surprise how far that "overspray" will travel, and you really don't want to have it all over your paint finish. Also, tape off your lug bolts, so that they stay free of paint. You don't want that engine enamel gumming up the threads. |
While you're under there -- look in your wheel wells. You might find some nice surprises left in there by the workers at Bowling Green. Apparently these are the signature markings of at least one worker who assembled my C6. You can see the Date -- Jan 28. Likewise I have a sticker still visible that says "Jan 17 05". I sprayed some clear coat over these so that they would be preserved. I like stuff like that --maybe one day I'll meet "HAM" when I'm in Kentucky, or maybe that was just this workers take-out lunch order.
 |  | Writing inside the left wheel well. |
 | Here's something I found in the right front wheel well. Just another piece of nostalgia. I clearcoated it - call me crazy. |
Don't forget to do the rears - you'll have plenty of paint with kit. You should be able to do 8 complete calipers for sure, with one kit. The only thing you might run out of is the "caliper cleaner", but you can just go to your NAPA and ask for "brake cleaner" instead and it will do the job for you.
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