Painted Calipers [PICS]

So this painted caliper thread got me thinking about doing it to the Tahoe.
 
http://www.chevroletforum.com/m_16462/tm.htm
 
I decided to do it yesterday and it came out great. Used the Duplicolor caliper kit. The pictures IMO don't do it justice. I really like this.





Also gave me a great chance to clean the inside of the wheels.

They look great.

very nice!

New & Better Photo
 

Damn  Doo, you ever get any dirt on that thing?  It looks GOOOOOD. 
 
A few questions on the calipers. I have never removed any, for any reason.  Did you have to take them completely off?  What does removing the calipers entail?  Do you have to bleed brake lines, what all issues would I run into?  Thanks for the info and pictures.

Nope, don't have to take the calipers off for this. It's done on the car. Clean the calipers with the stuff provided in the kit. The kit comes with masking tape to mask off the area. Gets a little tricky in the circular areas but no big deal. Follow the painting instructions and it worked great. I added 5 coats to the front calipers. One coat every 15 minutes. The rears took paint great so they got 4 coats. Did the fronts first then moved to the rear. Put the wheels on after about 2 hours of drying time and then let it dry for about 10 hours before driving. It was super simple.

Here's a picture of the calipers masked off and in the process.



BTW...I'm a fire officer. I have a nice clean fire station to wash every shift. Keeps the truck sparkling clean!

Doo,
Thanks for the info!  Looks good.

However, one of the reasons I was asking is that last night my wife was driving our Jeep Liberty and it seems the rear brake is locked on!  I dont think it is super tight, but it is locked up.  I am guessing it is a caliper!  I would think it is to new to have a collapsed line.  I have never changed a caliper and it happened to lock up a long ways from home and in a small town.  I dont know anyone there than can even work on it.  We live to far away to drive it home.  So I guess it is up to me.  Anyone have any suggestions about replacing a caliper?

I would first try to pry the caliper back to free it up.  Another possibility is the lining in the brake line hose has broken loose and is acting as a check valve and doesn't release the pressure when you take your foot off the brake.  Had this happen to me once and took a while to figure it out.  Good luck and Happy New Year.

Shark,
What did you do whening the lining broke lose?  DId you have to replace the entire brake line? 

Check the emergency brake. If it's o.k. in the car check it under the car. The cable may be stuck if the rears are on. Changing the caliper is no big deal. Email me at lillge8208@comcast.net if you need step by step instructions on changing and bleeding the system.

Just had to replace the hose to that caliper and then bled that caliper.
 
doo600 has a good suggestion, one I should have thought of since Sharks were famous for parking brake sticking due to the cable rusting inside the housing.

Well here it is!  This happened Saturday when we were going to a family dinner in our home town, less than 2k people.  WE drove the 45 mintue drive, the entire ride (i wasnt driving) I thought the vehicle was riding funny!  We get to our destination and I get out and you can smell something hot.  Turns out the drivers side rear wheel was HOTTER than hell.  Seemed it was 1,000 degrees.  Anways, we didnt have any tools at this location.  So I drove to the nearest shop that was open, of course they werent much help just said it seemed it was a bad caliper.  There wasnt anyone that could look at it Saturday.  So we left it there in town.  This morning I went and bought a new caliper, rotor, pads, etc.  Just so I would have what I may need since the location of the vehicle doesnt have much for parts in that town. 
 
I call a buddy up who owns a body shop!  He tells me he will look at it.  I get in and just for "****s" pull the ebrake all the way up and down a few times.  I drive it for about 10 minutes, not a damn thing seeems wrong, no heat, no nothing!  So he takes it off anyways and says he doesnt see anything wrong with it.  I guess it had something to do with the Ebrake.  I dont know.  It was not engaged in anyway, however it is now fixed!  Crazy, i was prepared for the worst and I guess the new year is already treating me right!  Thanks for the help guys!
 
 

Based upon my experience, if you don't use the parking brake (not an emergency brake cuz there's no way in hell it'll stop you) all of the time, then never use it.  What happens is moisture gets in the cable housing and rust eventually fills the gap between the cable and the housing so that when you do decide to apply it, it wedges the rust and the spring isn't strong enuf to release it.

Well, turns out problem not solved.  Recap:  Remember, drove to home town for holidays and vehicle seemed to be driving strange!  Got out and the rear driver brake was hot as hell!  So park it and get parts the next day.  Go to fix it, drive it first and the problem is gone.  No heat in the rear wheel area.  So, we take the wheel of and caliper and dont see anything wrong.   It has since been driven for 2 days with no problem.

My wife calls me tonight on her way home from work and says it seems to be happening again.  She gets home and smell is aweful!  The rear wheel area is hot has hell again! 
 
Anyone have any suggestions?  Can a caliper lock up, unlock, lock up, etc?  What could it possibly be? 

Have you been using the emergency brake? If so I would guess that's your problem. You will not notice anything out of whack because the e-brake is a seperate drum type brake pads which do not use the main claiper. Instead it uses a curved pad which contacts the inside of the rotor. Here is a picture.

You can see the brake pads behind the spindle. The rotor is then placed over these pads and they contact the inside of the rotor.

We may have used the ebrake once or twice about 3 weeks ago.  But nothing constant, nor do we seem to remember using it anytime around the first occurance. 
 
We for sure have not used the ebrake in the last 2 days since the first occurance either.  One other thing, if it were the ebrake, would it be on just the one side/driver side?  Or should it be both rear brakes smelling and getting hot?
 
I just dont want to take it in, and have them say they cant figure it out since it isnt occuring at the time I may take it in.  I also dont want to pay for them to put on 100 new parts and none of them solve the issue.  I just dont know much about brakes and all components and the functions.  Grr!  Vehicles without warranties suck!
 
 

I can certainly understand your position but I would say there are 2 systems on a vehicle I would absolutely not mess around with if there was a problem. Brakes and steering. I doubt it's a caliper since it seems to be intermittent. You may have a bad brake line. I've had brand new brake lines go bad so don't gauge it on age. You may also have a rock stuck behind the caliper which is engaging the e-brake. I wouldn't chance a failure.

Well, I am going to take it to a shop tomorrow.  I am just worried they wont see an exact problem just as I did when my buddy and I took the wheel and caliper off!  Hopefully it will be malfunctioning tomorrow when I take it in!  The rock theory would suit me fine!  Thanks for all of you help, I kind of butchered your thread.  SOrry!  Thanks again for the input! 

quote:

ORIGINAL: doo600

New & Better Photo

Looks Sharp Brother!!

ETA:  Makes me wish I had a summit white LTZ. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: biglg

Well, I am going to take it to a shop tomorrow.  I am just worried they wont see an exact problem just as I did when my buddy and I took the wheel and caliper off!  Hopefully it will be malfunctioning tomorrow when I take it in!  The rock theory would suit me fine!  Thanks for all of you help, I kind of butchered your thread.  SOrry!  Thanks again for the input! 

 
No problem, let us know how it turned out.
 

quote:

ORIGINAL: engine2


Looks Sharp Brother!!

ETA:  Makes me wish I had a summit white LTZ. 

 
Thanks!

Well, we wont be taking it into the shop until tomorrow.  Turns out I had to stay home with a sick lil one! 
 
Your Tahoe is so damn clean!  Makes me want to go wash mine, however it is raining at the moment.
 
I had a set of chrome handles and decided not to put them on. However, I think they look good on your tahoe.  I just thought it gave the tahoe a cleaner look to keep the factory matched handles.  Now I am seeming to lean towards the chrome handles.  Grrr.

Looks great.  I had been contemplating doing mine in a royal blue to match the Indy Colts color.  With my truck being white also I thought it might look good.  I kinda have a Colts theme going on.
 
~digdug

doo600, did you steal my car?  No just kidding...  Looks great.  Now you need to put HID's, Zoomer's exhaust, Alpine overhead DVD and mudflaps and it would be a carbon copy of mine!

Seriously, I love my HID's.  I put 6800K ones on for lo's and hi's.  The Zoomer's exhaust is good for some rumble, hp and mpg, but the wife hates the tone!  Mudflaps front and back make the car look great, and it keeps the cra** of the car.  I love the white.  My wife says it's boring and gets dirty just looking at it!  I just keep it clean!

Great SUV!!!

Actually white shows dirt less than any other color.  IMO.

The parking brake cable could stick on one side only.  If it's not the pbrake or collapsed hose, it could be a caliper piston sticking in the bore.  Remote tho.