gecko

Sorry I couldn't find better pics, but these were all that I had left. I used the Folia-Tec paint kit which came with a cleaner for the calipers, the paint and the paint hardener. This is what I remember:

First, I had to clean the calipers. I used medium grade sandpaper (the one used for metal - I don't know what they are called). You can get this at any hardware store. My brakes were pretty well caked with brake dust since I already had the car for several years and never really cleaned them before. This took a while. Once I got most of the brake dust off, I used fine grade paper just to make sure everything was as smooth as possible. Then I used the cleaner that came in the kit. It probably would help if you used some sort of wheel cleaner on the calipers before using the sandpaper. In retrospect, it would have made life a little easier.

Then, I taped up any part that I didn't want to get paint on (i.e. brake pad, rotor). After that I started painting. The Folia-Tec stuff was easy to use and I did one coat and two wheels per night. If you have the time and equipment (I only had two jack stands) you could do all four at once. I let them sit overnight. The second night, I finished up the second coat on the front calipers and started cleaning and putting the first coat on the rear calipers. Once the calipers were all painted and completely dry, I put the Audi Ring stickers. I used clear coat engine enamel and sprayed the entire caliper to lock in the sticker and make the caliper a little glossier. I put 3-4 coats of the clear coat on the caliper (may have been overkill, but better safe than sorry). Before you start spraying the clear coat, make sure everything is pretty well covered (i.e wheel liners, rotors, fenders), you don't want to get that stuff all over the place.

All in all, it took about a week, but I did it after work. You could probably do it over a weekend, but then, you wouldn't be able to use your car all weekend. They've held up pretty well, the picture of the front wheel (below) was recent and the picture of the rear wheel (below) was right after I painted them (no comments about ride height please...the car was still on the jack stand) I hope this helped. Good luck and be sure to post some pics when you're done.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5729/caliper2.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5729/caliper3.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5729/caliper3.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5729/front_rim.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5729/rearwheelwithcaliper.jpg">

wnut

damn it's christmas already?

gecko

I know...I love the performance of the EBC's, but I almost got the Mintex because of the color!

Becker

Whenever I get around to doing it I'll post pictures!

2tu®bos1mission

nice!! looks great

gecko

Thanks!

DanDog

did u use the rings from TTstuff.com? or anothe rbrand, i heard the TTstuff one's fall apart, is this true?

gecko

and I've had no problems with them falling off. I don't know if they are made of a different material or if it's because I put so much clear coat over them.

TTStuff.com - Sales

We have never had a problem with our decals "falling apart" we only use the highest quality material