ph0bolus

It was a cloudy day yesterday and rain was forecasted, so couldn't bust out my new foaming hose I had just bought. Decided to paint my brake calipers in my garage, after winging it and finally managing to get off the wheels to get my hands on the calipers I began to prep, prime, and paint them.

I put on about 4-5 coats of burnt copper VHT paint, waiting about 5-10 minutes in between each color coat. Being the idiot that I was decided to put the white vinyl decal I had purchased on after letting them dry for about 10-15 minutes. Stupid mistake, because when I peeled off the decal film, off came the 4-5 coats of paint along with it. Luckily for me I only put it on one side. So, I had to essentially repaint the stripped part to try and get it even with the existing part.

It was about 9PM by the time I had finished getting it semi-even, the paint on the messed up caliper hadn't dried yet, so I decided to let it dry overnight and put the decal on in the morning. Woke up this morning, it was dry, but when I put on the decal and peeled off the clear film the decal wouldn't adhere to the caliper, it just came off with the film. I'm guessing it's because it's too cold and the paint was too slick? Any ideas on how I can fix this and get the decal to stick so I can put some clear coat on?

TL;DR, painted my calipers, didn't wait for them to dry before putting on decal, screwed up the paint, repainted, let it dry overnight, now the decal won't stick to the caliper.

Here are some tips from an idiot though, so you don't make any mistakes like I did

1) Loosen the lug nuts before you jack up the vehicle (it took me 2 lug nuts, and a lot of wasted energy before I figured this out)
2) Use light coats to prevent running, it'll pay off in the end.
3) Be patient (make sure you have something else to do while you're waiting for it to dry, watch some youtube if you have to)
4) BE PATIENT
5) Did I say be patient?

phins2rt

Heat gun and a lot of rubbing preferably with a plastic squeegee. Good luck!

ph0bolus

Thanks! yeah, that's exactly what I did except I just used a hair dryer. The vinyl decal was left outside overnight so the glue had "hardened". Just needed to be activated with some heat and it went on A-OK.

UDel

Lets see a pic. I think I am going to do my calipers in copper next, I think that is a good color for white, black, and grey cars. Did you spray the calipers or use a brush?

ph0bolus

I sprayed them

lovemyGSFS

They look good I may do mine over the summer

Jayson

Looks fantastic!

UDel

They look very nice, I was looking for more of a penny metallic copper color or a reddish copper for my calipers.