OK, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad here, but I have been holding in this opinion for so many years I feel like I'm going to bust, and the S2000 I saw today with red-painted calipers was the last straw:

I think they look really cheap. Genuine colored calipers, aftermarket or factory, are usually anodized aluminum. Sometimes, like Porsche, they appear to be powdercoated iron, but even then it's a thick, smooth, semi-gloss finish.

By contrast, the typical home-painted calipers, even ones done well, have a thin coating of spray paint that looks like, well, a thin coating of spray paint. Plus, they're still just iron.

I mean, if you wanted wheels of a different color, would you whip out a can of spray paint and paint them in your garage? I know I wouldn't. Why not? Because anyone who cared enough to examine them (and who else are we trying to impress, but ourselves and other enthusiasts?) would immediately observe that they looked like hell; like someone .... spray painted them in his garage. Likewise, I would not paint my car at home--same reason.

So why do calipers get treated differently, and with far less respect? If I want colored calipers, I'll buy aftermarket brakes and do it right.

Anyway, that's just my bicentennial minute. Different "strokes" and all that.

You bring up a good point.

I have always thought it is in the way you go about it. How much you prep and what color you choose. All the while I still hope that the end result does not look like a back yard spray job.

To me, Red was never an option. Too much attention goes to an obvious factory sliding caliper. But what about black or even a silver?

I'll attatch a pic of my painted rear caliper for reference.

Honest opinions...Cheeseball, or an improvement over stock?


http://tinypic.com/1pf4mx


http://tinypic.com/1pf4o2

I actually like those. They look OEM.

When done tastefully they look good.

http://www.polakgraphics.com/images/caliperstencils/done5large.jpg

http://www.polakgraphics.com/images/caliperstencils/usermsdecal2large.jpg

http://www.polakgraphics.com/gallery.html

Hmm, I guess. But the texture of iron shows right through on the blacks. Maybe if I didn't know they were painted.

heh im taking an angle grinder to them this spring.