Just picked up some Dupli-Color Caliper paint and the instructions say to paint the calipers on the car without removing them.. With temps dropping into the 30's around here I doubt very seriously this paint will ever cure, even in the garage. Plus, I just want to go ahead and take them off so I can thoroughly clean and prep them. I do, however, want to avoid bleeding the ABS system so I want to know if my little "short-cut" will work..

-Take the calipers off and submerge each individual line in a container of brake fluid.

-Depress the brake pedal a couple times while the lines are submerged forcing whatever air manages to get in the lines out..

My thinking is that by having the lines fully submerged in brake fluid that there'll be no opportunity for any more air to enter. So when the pedal returns to its normal position the brake system can only suck in fluid..

Sound like it'll work??

 

to submerge the entire caliper/line in brake fluid, you would need a bucket and enough brake fluid. Probabally the same ammout of new fluid you would use if you bled the system. Why not bleed the lines? Its not that difficult...

 

Don't get fancy and messy, that's my opinion.

Keep it simple and do them the right way (or get someone to do them for you?)

 

wtf? brake fluid would probably kill all the paint on your calipers if you had any. bleeding the brakes is easy if you have a friend help you. alternatively, just get some speed bleeders and you can do it yourself with a bleeder bag. its not hard...

just paint it on the car and use a heat dish (?) to help cure.

 

This will not work one bit. Even if you managed to keep the air out of the lines (which you won't) you would instantly have air in the calipers once the line comes off.

 

Aaah… You’re kidding right?

Basic physics is at play here. Unless your containers are at the same height or higher than the fluid in the reservoir, the fluid will just drain and the whole system will empty itself in your containers. Provided they are large enough to hold it all. The floor with take care of the overflow…

 

Actually no I'm not kidding.. Unless the cap is removed from the reservoir I don't think any fluid will drain out of the lines..

Did not think about the air in the calipers and bleeding the barkes is really no big deal to me. If it was something that I could avoid doing, which it doesn't look that way, then I'm cool with that..

 

I wouldn't try doing that. Although you may keep air from entering the system, you are giving a big opportunity for moisture to enter your brake system. Moisture in the air passing over the buckets, or condensate from changing temps can enter the fluid in the bucket. If you feel like having spongy brakes, feel free to go ahead and do that. If you want to do things right, and possibly avoid a lot of clean up or running into problems, just bleed the brakes again.

read here about brake fluid dry/wet boiling temps:
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...fluid_1a.shtml

moisture is a killer!

 

I woudn't count on the cap holding enough vacuum for the whole duration of your paint job. Try it, but plan to bleed them anyways.

I would take my calipers off to paint them in any case. But that's because I'm clumsy and I'd end up with paint everywhere !

 

The cap does not hold any vacuum, if it did then the pistons within the calipers would be sucked back into the bore and with each use of the brakes it would then have to push the piston further and further out as the pads wear down. The brake fluid must be able to flow to the calipers, in a vacuum it would not happen.

 

atlsupdawg#2, your shortcut will not work. You will fight a loosing battle with gravity. Just put some rubber caps on the brake lines to prevent leakage. You WILL will still need to bleed the brakes though. It's easy! I use a "One-man" bleeder bottle I picked up at AutoZone. Just open the bleeder about 1/2 a turn, let gravity fill the hose, then get in the car and pump the brake pedal 4 times. Get out and tighten the bleeder. If there are no air bubbles in the clear line, you should be done.

I've bled all 8 of my bleeders over 30 times using this method with great success!

 

For what it's worth, my calipers were painted (without my knowledge / consent!) by the tech guy who installed my brake pads. He just spray-painted brake caliper paint all over the calipers while the wheels were off the car. It worked fine. He didn't even bother covering up the rotors... he got a little bit of paint on the e-brake drum and rotors and everything. The calipers were pretty dirty to begin with, too. This is definitely what you'd call a dirty job, but it didn't matter, it still came out fine.