I'm rebuilding my 77 280z brake calipers and plan on blasting and painting them. What was the original color? I'm seeing both silver (or raw casting??) and black when doing a google image search.  It's not a huge deal, but I figure I'll try to make them look original if possible.

My '77's were not painted. The replacements I bought from rockauto.com are unpainted also.

I posted this up before, but cannot find the link to that discussion now! Here is a picture from a 260Z brochure, along with some images of a NOS caliper. The flat grey finish matches between the brochure image and actual part.  

Well I blasted them and they look pretty good raw so I think I'll leave them like this. I'm attaching some before/after pics. Thanks for the quick replies everyone! I left piston/seals in place so I didn't have to mask the bores. I'll replace all that stuff tonight when I rebuild.

That looks really good. Maybe a flat or matte clear spray would keep them looking good for a long time?

56 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

That looks really good. Maybe a flat or matte clear spray would keep them looking good for a long time?

Yeah they cleaned up nicely. Either a coat of clear or even some wax spray. This was just a quick and dirty blasting-- I would probably need to do a little better job blasting and then solvent clean them really well to get a good surface for paint.

They look great!! But as you know yourself, they will go rusty pretty quickly after being washed / introduced to humidity or rain!

In my experience, I VHT silver paint mine out of the spray can and they last a VERY long time. They look OEM but the paint isn’t thick like other calliper paints.

But, having said all that, I LOVE the idea of matt finish clear coat as suggested above.

While a primer only, this would be better than bare, and to my eye, looks like the factory finish.  Maybe buy a can, and if you don't use it for the calipers, ultimately, it is a very good primer.

 

Edited November 29, 20231 yr by inline6

I thought that those calipers were dark grey?  (Maybe unpainted..?)  I hear nobody talk about temp resistant paint? I would use some paint on it that can handle well over 150 Celcius.. (How much fahenrats that is i don't know 😉 )

I thought that those calipers were dark grey?  (Maybe unpainted..?)  I hear nobody talk about temp resistant paint? I would use some paint on it that can handle well over 150 Celcius.. (How much fahenrats that is i don't know [emoji6] )

I did!! ;) VHT = Very Hight Temp (paint).

I’ve done this for decades on callipers and it seems to be pretty good - however, if you let lots of brake dust sit on it for a long time, then you need to touch it up.

I’ve found Simonize VHT with a light spray over of Matt clear coat does the trick for years.


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