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I finally had a free weekend to get started on this project. I've wanted to do this for a while, but with a Suzuka car I wasn't sure what color to go with. What goes with light blue? Tough call. I wanted a Brembo-like gold color, but I was afraid the available kits would be more of a "blingy" gold color. So just in case, I ordered a gold and a silver. If I didn't like the gold, I'd put on the silver, or even mix the two colors together to get something in the middle.
Anyway, I got the already well-known G2 kits. They are $38, I got mine from decalgirl.com, and I got some blue S2000 caliper decals as well. The kit has pretty much everything you need, but I would recommend some better paint brushes (I used some Testors model brushes) and blue painters tape.
The first step was getting the car up on 4 jack stands. I had to drive the car up on ramps to get it high enough but it wasn't hard to get the car up with 4 jack stands under the frame rails.
After the car was up, I had to clean the calipers. I drained the included brake cleaner, which did an OK job. Then, on a hunch, I broke out some NevrDull metal polish material, and surprisingly that stuff did an even better job. The calipers were actually a little shiny.
Now I broke out the paint. When I opened up the gold paint, I new right away it would be just fine. They really should call the color "bronze" or just "shamelessly copied from Brembo gold". Pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. I taped off with painter's tape, and then I put on a total of three coats. You have to wait 15 mintues in between coats, but it took longer than that to do all 4, so I just went around the car 3 times. I think two coats would have been totally sufficient, but there was enough paint for about 5 coats so what the heck. The paint gets thicker as the epoxy/resin starts to harden. The final texture is almost smooth...like it was powder coated.
I then let the car sit for 24 hours per the directions. I went out this morning, took the tape off, and put on the caliper decals. On the rear, I just put the "S" on as there isn't room for the smaller S2000 decal decalgirl gives you.
That done, it was time to put the wheels back on. Having read a ton of posts on here about people chipping the paint off the caliper with the rim, I decided to cover the calipers with a rag when putting the wheel back on.
OK well if you're still with me here are the finished products:
Overall I am very pleased with the results. The color is subtle enough that this almost looks OEM. I definitely didn't want flashy calipers on a Suzuka, and thankfully they aren't. They really hide behind the OEM 17s anyway.
Opinions are welcome...if you think it's terrible let me know so I can fix it! I still have the silver.
+1 on the love of the calipers Nice subtle bling factor
G2 is the way to go. Just becareful and check them each and every time you take the car in for any service on or around the wheels. the tire shop chipped mine and now I have a gaping silver spot on one of my rears.
Those high temp decals from Handa gal hold up real nice too
Calipers are now painted
Later Matt.