Paint calipers or just clean them?

[Mark B]

Hey everyone,
I have a 91 RS with 12" LS1 front & rear brakes on it. I will be getting new wheels before the end of the winter and with the new wheels, everyone will be able to see my brakes/suspension very clearly. The car is white & I just installed red Koni shocks at all four corners.

Now heres my question. Should I paint my calipers or leave them aluminum? I could paint them red to match the shocks, but I am worried that it will look cheesy. My second option is to just clean them really well & let the aluminum show through. What do you guys think?

[94Z/28]

My vote is dont paint, just clean them up good.

[Joe 1320]

I've done both. There are good and bad points about both. Red will stand out, aluminum doesn't so that right there will be a matter of preferance. The paint is an easier upkeep if properly done on the initial application. If not, it will peel. My 94 has the calipers done in red and it looks acceptable.

[4THGEN Z]

I also say leave them aluminum....When I installed the LS1 brakes on my 95, I used a dremel to remove the casting marks and sanded the caliper smooth.

Here is a pic of mine just after I did the swap when I still had the salad shooters.
smooth LS1 caliper

[Blazer]

I painted mine red but the car is red an I love the way it looks.And a lot of people have said it looks sharp.I can send you pic's but will need a E-mail Do not know how to post small pics here.
Blazer

[ryan34]

you could paint them a silver color, that way the look "stockish" without them getting the weathered look

[Mark B]

Im kinda leaning towards keeping them silver/aluminum. If my car was any other color than white, I would just match the calipers to the cars paint, but with white, I would have to clean them every day. haha

Painting them silver isnt a bad idea though. I'll have to think about it some more.

[Dragkid1917]

i painted them red... with the nice polished rims it makes your car look like its a rocket

[01Y87]

My vote is for the aluminum stock look. They can be cleaned up. I've got the stock 2001 rims and you can definitely see them thru the wheels. I dont like paint unless its a show car because whenever you drive, they ARE going to get yucky looking and you'll have to pull the wheels to fully clean them. Mine are not perfect and shiny, but I have looked at other 99 - 02 F bodies that I see on the road and mine are better than most - considering that they're also approaching 100k miles.

[LoudLT1]

paint them a nice satin silver..
just my 02 cents..
i have mine painted red on my red Z28

[FroSSty]

Another vote for paintedaluminum/silver color. Just make sure you clean them up really good and use the high temp paint. You might even look into a high temp self-etching primer before the paint.