Painting brake calipers

[custexplorer]

I thought you could just jack up, take off the wheels and unbolt the calipers, then brush and clean them and paint them separate from the car. For some reason whenever I find a tutorial it says to cover the wheel well with newspaper. If you can take the calipers off to paint them, why is it necessary to cover the well?

 

[symon_say]

If you take then out, you don have to cover anything, but not everybody have the skills or the tools to take then out or just don't want the additional work, so a lot of people paint then mount.

 

[SyberTiger]

I thought you could just jack up, take off the wheels and unbolt the calipers, then brush and clean them and paint them separate from the car. For some reason whenever I find a tutorial it says to cover the wheel well with newspaper. If you can take the calipers off to paint them, why is it necessary to cover the well?

Probably because the calipers are being unbolted but the brake lines are not being removed. If you disconnect the brake lines you are going to leak brake fluid out and possibly introduce air into the brake system. Either way you will need to bleed the brake system of air once you get it back together.

I suspect those who have unbolted the calipers then use a coat hanger to suspend the caliper while leaving the brake line connected. That way you have free access to cleaning and painting. This is what I did and I masked off the wheel wells and other areas when I painted since I used spray paint.