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Calipers- paint or not?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by egcycle72, Feb 12, 2014.

  1. egcycle72

    egcycle72 Junior Member

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    Can the brake calipers on a Gen III be painted without interfering with charging system? I'm not sure how it works.
     
  2. Mike500

    Mike500 Senior Member

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    I bought the blue Dupli-Color kit at Ollie's for $2.99 and painted mine, this Spring.

    Works just fine.
     
  3. graham hendren

    graham hendren Geeman .. taximan

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    brush and paint them . if its gonna float ya boat
     
  4. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    The calipers are part of the friction brakes and not in any way related to the regenerative braking done by Motor/Generator2
     
  5. c4

    c4 Active Member

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    As others have said, not related to regen, which happens in the transaxle and inverter/converters..

    I have been painting my calipers since my 2001 Classic.. I don't use caliper paint though: my objective was to prevent rusting, so I use Walter Zinc-100, which is an industrial-grade bright zinc cold galvanizing spray.. I spray all the exposed components, including slash/heat shields, the rotor, rear drums, exposed bolt heads, etc on a bi-annual basis, when I swap winter/summer tires.. When I retired the 2001, the brake components still looked almost new.. First order of business with the 2013 was to zinc spray the brake and also the exhaust components.. The zinc coating keeps the rust away and the silver finish looks like factory original finish..
     
  6. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    You coat the rotor? Please tell me you mean the inner hub, not the brake disc/rotor. :eek:
     
  7. c4

    c4 Active Member

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    I'm really after the edges and the hub area and don't deliberately coat the rotor braking surfaces, but I also don't worry about the overspray that ends up on them- it gets removed the first time you use the brakes. I'm serious that my 2001 Classic brake components looked virtually new the day I retired the vehicle, after almost exactly 14 years to the day after it was made..
     
  8. egcycle72

    egcycle72 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the responses. They really helped!