Hello everyone! Okay, I'm looking for help on painting my calipers on my mazda 3. There's a pin in the back of the caliper that does not take a 5/16" allen key or a 1/4" key, it just falls right in the middle of these to sizes in my key set....so I was thinking it must be a 5/8"...does this sound right to anyone? Has anyone done this before that can help me out here? Thanks, Jo :)

in between 5/16 and 1/4 is not 5/8. 5/8 is bigger than 9/16. 11/32 is in between those. but im gonna have to say its metric. try a 7 mm. that might work. if you got any more questions hit me back up man

I just painted mine today.

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nice work jshuler, did you do them yourself? once i get my 3, i was thinking of painting mine the same clor, well, not me, a buddy of mine that owns a paint shop.

well i knw my car isnt a 3 but it should be the same for all cars. i just jacked the car up and put in a jackstand. pulled the wheel off. took a abrasive pad and put it on the electric drill and grinded off the dust and then sprayed it with brake cleaner. got some gray primer and sprayed them with the primer then after it dried i painted them with some engine enamel. ive had them painted for like 2 months so far no cracking or chipping. also any paint u get on the drum will come off after u drive it awhile. hope tht helps ya some

Heres a pic of my painted calipers. It's so hard to see, though. And they get dirty with brake dust so easily. Have to clean them alot.

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when i got my car about 3 years ago...i just put some newspaper from the inner fender well onto the fender to be careful of overspray, and after removing the wheel, i just scrubbed the calipar very well, and sprayed it with "caliper paint"...no primer or anything...it is still on there, with no problem after 3 years..no cracking or anything...

I bought a paint kit from PEPBOYS, I had to special order it. That took about 4 working days to come in . It's a two part kit and the good thing about it is you put it on with a brush like an artist brush. So you can leave the calipers on if you want . And you don't have to worry about over spray getting all over the car. These kits will last alot longer than the aerosol cans also because it is a more durable paint. They sell about 6 or 7 different colors. I bought the red cause it goes well with my silver 05 "3". But it is not bad for a $27.00 investment.

metallic black looks oh so nice even when it gets a little dirty...

calipers look good with metallic paints... then again thats just my opinion

funny story:

my friend's friend has a sunfire GT, and one day he decided to paint his calipers red....so he painted them and then he realized they had the bake at 400 F for 2 hours or something like it. so he asked my friends mom if they could use her oven for no apparent reason, and she was suspicious and said no. so then they were all like, what are we gonna do?? so they put the calipers in some tinfoil and tossed them in the bbq for a few hours.....his calipers still look good to this day

true story.

I know a guy who used to be "the guy" you go to to get your motorcycle wheels custom painted/polished...well I was at his place one day and his house really smelled bad inside. when I inquired why...he showed me that he had a set of wheels baking in his oven!! [sm=bangbang.gif]

I couldnt believe this was how he cured his paint jobs!!

Well, the oven is also commonly used to unseal the headlights on the 3... so you can install angel eyes.

I have seen those 2 part kits for painting calipers. Mid America Corvette sells them. I don't know how the price compares to Pep Boys, but I ordered a few things from them before, and they shipped right away

I once did my calipers on a different car I owned. I sprayed them, but it is a hassle because you have to contend with wind, and overspray. If I do the calipers on my 3, I'll definitely be using the brush on kit this time around.