# Painting brake calipers - a few tips



## BigBri

bmost88 said:


> That's the exact setup I want for my car. The color, the wheels, the everything. I figured Tesla just had a way of knowing exactly what I want and thats what they put on my My Tesla page


Me too! Love the blue and the red brake callipers. I frown everytime I notice my rusty ones.


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## bmost88

Brian_North said:


> Me too! Love the blue and the red brake callipers. I frown everytime I notice my rusty ones.


Yea the red calipers look pretty sweet but I'm pretty sure that means that you have to get the performance model to get the red calipers. But that's what I'm expecting to get. Not sure about Ludacris mode though, the jury is still out on that one


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## BigBri

bmost88 said:


> Yea the red calipers look pretty sweet but I'm pretty sure that means that you have to get the performance model to get the red calipers. But that's what I'm expecting to get. Not sure about Ludacris mode though, the jury is still out on that one


Yeah I'm intending on getting whatever I can. Probably not ludacris unless its glued to another feature. Tesla does sell the calipers for 2500 bucks for the S. Lets pray that option for the 3 to be wayy cheaper.


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## garsh

bmost88 said:


> Yea the red calipers look pretty sweet but I'm pretty sure that means that you have to get the performance model to get the red calipers.


You can always paint your calipers red.
https://www.google.com/search?q=caliper+paint&tbm=shop


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## MelindaV

garsh said:


> You can always paint your calipers red.
> https://www.google.com/search?q=caliper+paint&tbm=shop


or gold  this was one of my favorite low cost / low effort modifications I'd done on my Cougar


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## bmost88

garsh said:


> You can always paint your calipers red.
> https://www.google.com/search?q=caliper+paint&tbm=shop


lol pay $45k plus on a car and paint your calipers with rustoleum lol no thanks.


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## Kizzy

From my Model ≡ reservation page, I have "All Cars" and "Dashboard", both pointing to the main My Tesla page. (I saved a Model S configuration to my account.)

Looking at my rusty calipers, I wish I'd know about painting them.


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## garsh

Kizzy said:


> Looking at my rusty calipers, I wish I'd know about painting them.


I cleaned up & painted my Leaf's calipers after the first winter. They looked so corroded and I couldn't stand it on a car that was less than one year old (click on photo for a closeup view).


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## ATLm3

The OEM coating is paint....probably rustoleum or something extremely similar. You could have a shop do it if you don't want to DIY for probably 1/8th the cost of the kit. You are right that it is a 45k car so why would you blow $2500 on a simple DIY paint upgrade


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## bmost88

ATLm3 said:


> The OEM coating is paint....probably rustoleum or something extremely similar. You could have a shop do it if you don't want to DIY for probably 1/8th the cost of the kit. You are right that it is a 45k car so why would you blow $2500 on a simple DIY paint upgrade


Well to be fair you don't just spend $2,500 and get red calipers. If you're using the model S for comparison you spend more money and shave 1.1 seconds off your 0-60 time and get red calipers included  oh and its $20,000. Not saying it wouldn't work or you couldn't do a great job and be indistinguishable from the factory ones, just that I personally wouldn't do that to the car. The red calipers to me are a show of performance and they highlight your fancy upgraded 4 caliper Brembo brakes


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## Badback

bmost88 said:


> Yea the red calipers look pretty sweet but I'm pretty sure that means that you have to get the performance model to get the red calipers. But that's what I'm expecting to get. Not sure about Ludacris mode though, the jury is still out on that one


lu·di·crous


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## TrevP

How well does calliper paint hold up?
I was thinking it would be better to have them powder coated like factory ones are.


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## MelindaV

TrevP said:


> How well does calliper paint hold up?
> I was thinking it would be better to have them powder coated like factory ones are.


it's high temp paint, so should hold up just as well if prepped correctly. I painted mine nearly 100k miles ago and if they were clean would still look the same as when first done.


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## pjfw8

MelindaV said:


> it's high temp paint, so should hold up just as well if prepped correctly. I painted mine nearly 100k miles ago and if they were clean would still look the same as when first done.


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## pjfw8

How hard is it to paint them? Do you simply remove the wheel and tape off area? Can a clumsy old guy do this?


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## MelindaV

pjfw8 said:


> How hard is it to paint them? Do you simply remove the wheel and tape off area? Can a clumsy old guy do this?


Yeah. Longest time involved is cleaning. Mine were a bare cast alloy so no old paint or rust to remove, but just dirt and oil. Scrubbed down with brake cleaner a couple times then simple green. Masked everything else off and followed the paint instructions. Easy, but a good few hours.


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## TrevP

Sounds like something to do right when you get the car along with Opticoat


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## chopr147

bmost88 said:


> lol pay $45k plus on a car and paint your calipers with rustoleum lol no thanks.


Don't knock it. Done right it will look just as good as the $2500 ones. I did it a few years back on my Corvette and one would have to look very closely to notice it was not stock. These would be tough getting the "TESLA" on it cleanly though.


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## TrevP

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/935526293558267904


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## SoFlaModel3

TrevP said:


> How well does calliper paint hold up?
> I was thinking it would be better to have them powder coated like factory ones are.


I've had good experience in the past with this.

Just not sure what to do on Model 3 since the fronts are gray. Do I paint over that and paint the rear to match... just paint the rear... or leave it as is?


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