The best $25 I've spent on my Escalade

[River Caddy]

I picked up my 08 Escalade a month ago. It has Eibach springs on it and 24" black Momo's with a stainless lip. I liked the wheels but I didn't like the unpainted calipers and rusty looking hubs showing thru the spokes in the wheel. I did some research and instead of dropping several grand on an upgraded brake kit (maybe later) I spent $25 on the Duplicolor Hi Temp Caliper paint and got to work. If your interested here is what I did/learned:

1) Clean the wheels, wheel wells and axle components as best you can before starting. Make sure the brake components are not hot from driving (let them cool down before starting).

2) Take the standard precautions with chauling wheels, jacking up an axle, etc.

3) Remove the wheel your going to be working on and use the supplied break cleaner and a tooth brush to get all the parts you want to paint clean.

4) Get some sandpaper and remove rust or larger deposits off the hubs where you will be painting.

5) I decided to leave the calipers on for this job so I masked off all the areas where I did not want paint. Successful preparation makes all the difference.

6) Use the duplicolor hi temp paint where you want it. I choose black but it comes in different colors. The only thing the kit lacks is a few decent paint brushes. Go to Home Depot and spend another $3 and you'll have better/faster results.

7) The kit says to do multiple thin coats. I found this paint pretty thick and did two coats and it worked great.

8) while your waiting for the paint to dry between coats take this opportunity to better clean your wheel wells, backside of your rims, etc.

9) Reassemble and drive. You will get some burning paint smell for the first few miles but after two weeks I am really happy with the results.

One final note. I took the time to clean, lightly sand, mask off and paint the outermost lip of the brake rotor beyond where the pad and rotor wear. This took the most time but turned out great as well. [IMG]

I attached a few before and after pics or you can see the whole spread in the Gallery Section under 08 Escalade WIP pics.

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/album.php?albumid=835[/IMG]

[hcvone]

Nice work, I always paint the "hats" black to hide the rust, thanks GM, and usually powder coat the calipers gloss black, only because my neighbor does that type work, but have painted them with Duplicolor Hi Temp paints in the past, makes them look nice like yours.

[Punmax]

Wow thanks for the pictures man. You have a nice truck. Can you get paint on the rotor? And can you use this paint on the frame/suspension? Mine is pretty rusty.

[hcvone]

On the frame I would use Rust-Oleum rust primer and then paint, you will want to mask your trucks paint to prevent overspray damage.

[CTS-V Racing]

If you are doing the frame and want to stop rust consider the POR-15 line of paints and coatings. They are every bit as good as advertised. You have to be carefull because they stick to what they cover and are hard to remove if you make a mistake.

[River Caddy]

"Can you get paint on the rotor"

The answer is yes. I painted just the outer edge. If you do get any paint on the surface where the rotor and pad meet it won't be there for long. I masked this area of carefully but there were a few spots where the paint crossed the line. It was gone after the first trip around the block.