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Well, I'm looking at my 2001 Acura EL calipers (front and rear), and they're starting to rust like mad....

What's the best method of dealing with this? I mean, if I were to prep this for spray paint, so I just use brake cleaner, then paint? Or is there something to handle all the rust? How exactly do you "clean" the brak cleaner off? Water? (If so, that means I'd hate to wait probably another 30 mins (if hot weather, longer if cooler) for it to dry?!

In taping things off, is it ok if bits of the brake pad is coated in paint? I'm assuming that it'll just scrape off the first few times you use the brakes again...

Looks like I'll be doing a ghetto job using Crappy Tire spray paint (brake or engine enamel, whatever I can find), and the emergency jack (Don't have jackstands.)

 
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What I did was jack up the car on jackstands (they're not expensive, price 'em while at Crappy Tire, they come in super-handy anyway), then use brake cleaner on the calipers, rinsing them off with a low-pressure stream of water. You don't want brake cleaner to touch any painted surfaces of your car, which is why I don't just spray it off with a pressure washer. Once that's done, you can use some steel wool to get at some of the rusted spots. No biggy if you can't get it all off, you're covering it anyway. I used Duplicolor Metalcast so I didn't need primer or anything, I imagine the enamel you're considering will go on by itself as well. Since I spraypainted mine, what I did was mask off the entire brake assembly except the caliper. The inside of the brake pad would be hard to get paint onto anyway, so don't worry about that. Oh and you'll have to watch for overspray so do your best to cover up the fenders with newspaper held on with masking tape.

 
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I went to Crappy Tire and was looking at the products available....

- What do you recommend for paint application? Spray paint, or paint-on? (There was a duplicolor kit that had a small brush and a can of paint that you brush on.) There are pros and cons with both, the biggest ones being that spray paint is fast but gets all over the place, and the brush that you can see brush marks and it may get too thick.

- As for the brake cleaner, I'm most likely going to spray the brake cleaner into a cup and brush it on, and wipe it off. I don't want to risk it splashing or spraying all over anything I don't want to be covered.

- How do you paint the "back side" of the calipers? i.e. since you're not taking it off, you can't get all areas. I'm only painting the calipers because they're getting rusty - Hope the paint will prevent/stop the rusting. So, if only half the caliper is painted, it won't stop the rust.

- Does paint temp really really matter? One of the paints was "only" 280C (intermittent), while some others were 500C, and others were like 890C. I drive normal, and won't be autocrossing.

- Also, I intend to use a pretty flat, deep red paint colour... I'm not too crazy about super-glossy bright red calipers.

 
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To paint the back of your caliper try turning the steering wheel all the way to the right or left and see if it makes it easier to spray in there.

 
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I used spray but if you're not experienced with spray cans then paint-on will allow you more time and precision. IMO spray is faster and looks just as good.

You don't want to be holding on to a cup of that stuff while working. Fumes'll hurt ya. Just spray carefully.

Since I had my car jacked up I just crawled under and got at it from the back.

I forget what Duplicolor Metalcast is rated at but it's not very high. My calipers are still deep red, so I imagine safely 500C is your limit, I don't think 280C will cut it.

Call me up if you need any more tips or help, I'll be around this weekend. You remember the digits right?

 
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Thanks Telly for the tips....

I had a few hours of time at my gf's garage, and did a quickie job....

- Bought some kinda "VHT" caliper paint for like $10 from Crappy Tire, and some Brake Cleaner
- Jacked up the car, and put it on jackstands (my gf's brother owns them.)
- Sanded down the caliper as best I can to remove the rust, using sand paper, toothbrush, and tissue. Some of that rust was pretty caked on ... Then used some brake cleaner on it, and wiped that down.
- Covered it up as best I could using newspaper (I actually did quite a crappy job, some rubber hoses were painted red )
- Sprayed the sucker, x 4 for all calipers... waited only 20 mins until I put the wheels back on, so the paint was dry, but sticky.
- The ghetto job took about 3 hours, 4-5 if it was a good job.

Overall, I'm actually smiling now when I see my calipers, they stick out nice and red It's my ricey mod of the year ... yay

All in all, looks like I'll have to touch it up again in the fall when I swap rims...

(I figure the paint'll 1) keep it from rusting alot slower, and 2) if I ever sell, no one will notice the caked-on rust.

 
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Good job bro! Let's see some pics!