I thought 'd share my caliper wrapping mis-adventure. Figured how hard could it be; i have youtube as my guide. I have to say i've had better ideas. And you wrappers out there my hats off to you.
I bought a pair of old used front MS calipers to stick on my car. They looked old and that was fine but since i've had some free time i though i'd look into cleaning em up a bit. Powder coating was going to be $300 not including the the rebuild kit. (if i took em apart i just assume rebuild them) I decided on trying a Wrap instead of paint that way when it started looking nasty i could easily go back to factory brake dust black.
Ordered a $27 kit and i was good to go or so i thought.
The 3M 450deg temp caliper kit has 4 12x6 sheets and the caliper is about 12" so the kit was too small. I looked around and found all the kits were that size so i was stuck.
I decided i could cover it in 3 pieces and since the only thing people really saw was the face unless they looked close.
Using the old racing adage if "looks good at 50ft or 50 mph" it'll be good enough.
Starting on the top of the caliper I applied a piece on the front and back of the caliper that wrapped under.
I then applied 1 solid piece on the "face" and tried really hard to not wrinkle, tear, bubble or over stretch it. I failed. The seams are along the edges.
I'd start at one end then work my way down. Carefully heating it up then re-laying it (as needed) working to remove the bubbles while not wrinkling it. If you stretch it to much it tears. It's really hard to get that thing to conform to the irregular shape.
Applied stickers, sprayed with clear high temp paint to seal/protect. And yes the pic is blurry for a reason.
50-50 rule applies
Hopefully it sticks for a couple of years cause i don't want to do it again anytime soon.
bondo
I bought a pair of old used front MS calipers to stick on my car. They looked old and that was fine but since i've had some free time i though i'd look into cleaning em up a bit. Powder coating was going to be $300 not including the the rebuild kit. (if i took em apart i just assume rebuild them) I decided on trying a Wrap instead of paint that way when it started looking nasty i could easily go back to factory brake dust black.
Ordered a $27 kit and i was good to go or so i thought.
The 3M 450deg temp caliper kit has 4 12x6 sheets and the caliper is about 12" so the kit was too small. I looked around and found all the kits were that size so i was stuck.
I decided i could cover it in 3 pieces and since the only thing people really saw was the face unless they looked close.
Using the old racing adage if "looks good at 50ft or 50 mph" it'll be good enough.
Starting on the top of the caliper I applied a piece on the front and back of the caliper that wrapped under.
I then applied 1 solid piece on the "face" and tried really hard to not wrinkle, tear, bubble or over stretch it. I failed. The seams are along the edges.
I'd start at one end then work my way down. Carefully heating it up then re-laying it (as needed) working to remove the bubbles while not wrinkling it. If you stretch it to much it tears. It's really hard to get that thing to conform to the irregular shape.
Applied stickers, sprayed with clear high temp paint to seal/protect. And yes the pic is blurry for a reason.
50-50 rule appliesHopefully it sticks for a couple of years cause i don't want to do it again anytime soon.
bondo
