E36 Caliper Painting

[The_Stig]

The BMW section needs more DIYs

For the record, I'm not the most mechanical person so I was given a tutorial on how to do this by my friend Anders (Philosomatika). He is the one in the pics doing the work on the front right wheel. The rest, however, were done by me.

I did this with one jack stand and one floor jack as it was all that Bimmertim had that weren't being used.

Materials needed:
17mm socket (to remove lug nuts)
16mm socket (to remove bolts on caliper)
3/8" drive Socket wrench
16mm combination wrench
Pneumatic impact wrench with compressor (not required but it makes it so much easier)
Breaker bar with 3/8" adapter
Jack
Jack Stand
Wire brush
180 grit sandpaper
320 grit sandpaper
Sanding block
High-Temp paint
Masking Tape
Newspaper
Mallet
Water
Duplicolor Caliper Paint
High Temp Primer (if you can find any, I couldn't)

Starting on the front passenger side tire, repeat write up for drivers side angling wheels the opposite way. Before you start, make sure the e-brake is off when removing rear calipers.


1) Loosen the lug nuts on one side of the car (in this case, the passenger side)

2) Jack up the front wheel of the car

3) Place the jack stand under the car

4) Jack up the rear wheel of car and keep jack there


5) Remove the wheels


6) Turn the car on to "accessories" mode and turn the wheels as far left as possible for maximum access to the caliper


7) Use the 16mm socket/combination wrench/impact driver to remove the 2 bolts behind the caliper
I just now realized I have no pics of the actual bolts, but they are the only two bolts on the back of the caliper. Hard to miss.

8) Use a mallet to knock caliper off of the rotor

9) Use a wire brush to scrape off large deposits of
rust/dirt on the caliper, wetting the caliper to keep dust
to a minimum (unless you want to use a mask)


10) Use 180 grit with or without block to get finer materials left on removed. A block is nice to have as my hands got tired after while, so it came in handy a few times.


11) Finish for a smooth surface with 320 grit sandpaper


12) Tape off fender/shocks/springs with newspaper and masking tape


13) Repeat steps 7-12 for the rear wheel (Remember, you have both wheels on that side off and jacked up)

14) With the paint I used, black Duplicolor Caliper Paint, I sprayed 3 light coats with ~20 mins between coats to let each coat dry. I prefer this over other high temp paint because it doesn't require baking. For instance, Plasti-Kote High Temp Paint requires being baked for 3 hours at 600 degrees. Not ideal.


15) After both calipers have been sprayed 3 times, remove paper and tape.


16) Use a mallet to re-align caliper with hub and use the 16mm socket/combination wrench/impact driver to re-connect the caliper to the hub

17) Tighten the bolts completely (it's your brakes...they're important)

18) Put the wheels back on


19) Tighten lug nuts with 17mm socket/impact driver

20) Lower the rear end (it's got the floor jack, the front has the jack stand)

21) Jack up the front end and remove jack stand

22) Lower front end

23) Finish tightening the lug nuts

Repeat all 23 steps for the drivers side.

Finished product:




That should be it

[Die Frau]

Once a year (late spring) I paint my calipers and clean the wheel wells really well and touch up paint in them... It is amazing how much better a car looks when the wheel wells shine too.

[BimmerTim]

Good work on the write-up.

[The_Stig]

Also, I forgot to credit and thank Tim (BimmerTim) for letting me use his garage and tools for this project, and Anders (Philosomatka) for showing me what to do and how to do it.

[BimmerTim]

I sure wish I would have had beer that day. It would have made things much better. Oh well. You just better be ready for tomorrow.

[ShowCar]

One thing I do to save time masking is to poke a hole in a grocery bag and then stretch it over the caliper. It does a great job of covering nearly everthing on the disc/hub. The last time I did it, I didn't even need to use masking tape.

[The_Stig]

Wow, that's a really good idea! I'll do that when I have to spray them again.