As I had to partly dismantle the rear calipers anyway as they were binding, I thought I’d brighten up the calipers with a coat of caliper paint.  I’d used the Halfords stuff a few years ago and got a good finish so picked up a fresh tin of red.
Is it just me, or have they changed the formula and it’s now rubbish?  Paint is very thin and runs easily, and I can’t get decent coverage.  Given them 3 coats and it’s still really patchy.
Anyone got any recommendations?  Alternatively how do I remove the mess - I’m thinking of wiping off with cellulose thinners, but a bit worried that will attack the rubber seals.
I think the Halfords caliper paint is very good but as you say it does normally take 3 coats (leaving 4 hours between coats)I find it is better to hang the calipers in the garage to paint and dry.
 If it is a really warm/hot day, then do them on the roadster, as drying times will half,  but as taff as said they will need 3 coats, on 4 axle stands.
Another vote for Hammerite (smooth black), one coat, no primer and it looks like factory finish. Just wire brush the rust off first. Also does a good job on the non contact areas of the disc.
 Thanks all. I’d put 4 coats on and still wasn’t happy with the finish - so spent 2 hours last night stripping the paint off one caliper using cellulose thinners. I’ve now got a nice red tinge on my right hand…!
Picked up some red hammerite and will use that - as a couple of you have said, 1 coat and it’s job done.Â
Halfords must have changed the formulation as I used their caliper paint around 3 years ago and 2 coats gave a really good finish. I’ve still got a small amount left in that tin - it’s a lot thicker consistency, and the instructions say you can only recoat within 1 hour otherwise you have to leave for 6 weeks before recoating - whereas the new tin says you can recoat within 1 hour or after 18 hours.
Great! So thanks to new legislation we now have paint that doesn’t paint very well and paint stripper that doesn’t strip very well. Gotta love progress!
There was a big thing about Dulux gloss a while back, that was going yellow in about 6 months thanks to the same issue with the reduction of the VOCs. They had to spend a year or so developing a new formula to meet the regulations and still works as a paint, but it’s sorted now. I suspect whoever supplies that halfrauds own brand hasn’t spent quite so much time or money in the lab and haven’t managed to sort out a good new formula yet.
Can’t argue with that point! Would be nice if they could have spent a bit more time getting the new formula right though - it’s not exactly chap for a small pot of paint…
So the new paint from hellfords is now crap to use, and I bet it’s a lot more £’s than the last good stuff, and the good stuff was not that cheap either, great, looks like I will be going back to engine paint again, or finding a better make of calliper paint, I’ll see what frost restorations  have got.
 Yep I went for engine paint on the discs and backplates a few weeks ago as I wanted silver brush-on which Halfords don’t do in caliper paint. I also noticed on their site that the caliper paint isn’t particularly high temp 80C http://answers.halfords.com/answers/4028/product/363374/questions.htm
The Car Plan Engine Laquer from everywhere except Halfords is available in Silver, blue, red, black, etc, is 150C and goes off fine without baking,
The silver covers really well with just one coat (stir it up well!) though it is like the old brush on silver we used to know, bright and without a lot of depth, fine for this job though it may go grey quite quickly. I used 2 coats on new disc surfaces and 1 coat over Kurust primer on the backplates whilst the discs were off. Very quick, it is cellulose and is dry in a few minutes.
This is true, although to be fair on them, everybody making oil-based paints will have had similar issues. It’s just a matter of who has managed to develop a good cellulose or acrylic formulation to replace it…and in Halford’s case it looks like they haven’t managed it yet.
Like I say, it took Dulux’s labs a good year of work to sort out a good formula for skirting boards and I figure it’s even harder for high-temp paints and for people with less money to spend on R&D.
 Yes I suppose the proof of the pudding is if it works, heard various things, and Hammerite don’t seem to say anywhere how heat resistant it is so I dodged it for this job.
It’s not particularly heat resistant… But if it covers well and easily, it doesn’t really matter. A quick and easy job every year or two is better than a pig of a job every 5 years, in my book anyway.
