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-   -   DIY: Installing Brake Caliper Covers (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-do-yourself/158859-diy-installing-brake-caliper-covers.html)

Ordered caliper covers from ebay.in , this is a universal product and fits mostly every car that has wheels bigger than 15".

It took me 5 hours to install them. This involved unmounting all four wheels after raising the car using multiple jacks, checked the caliper for fit and had to cut some excess portions. Applied glue and taped it for a perfect fit till the glue dried to become solid, and then cleaned alloy wheels before fitting them.

Tools Required
Socket Spanner - To open wheel nuts
Jack - To raise the car
Cutter - To trim the covers accordingly

Materials Consumed
Glue - Anabond 6 tubes
Soap to clean calipers, I used Pril from the kitchen.
Tape - To hold caliper covers in position till they dry.

Precautions taken
Engaged the car in 1st gear and pulled the hand brake
Cleaning hands every now and then - because if the hands were having traces of glue (anabond), every place I touched became dirty. Also glue dried quickly and was hard to clean, so it was better to clean hands.
Check if the caliper has stuck rigidly after installation before driving vehicle.

Let the snaps do the talking

Contents of the package that arrived form www.ebay.in, it has 2 sets of caliper covers and 4 tubes on anabond glue.


Stock look of front wheel.


Similar stock look of rear wheel except for the caliper position.


Unmounted all wheels.


Cleaned calipers for a good grip when the covers are glued to them.


Covers were not fitting directly so I had to mark the extra portion and cut it.


Checking for fitting after cutting.


Applying glue generously so that majority of the portion is covered up.


Caliper covers were sliding down after they were glued and placed in position, so taped them in position until they dried.


Had to wait till glue dried before fitting wheels, so started cleaning alloy wheels.


Looks like those diamond cut alloys needed a wash.


It took 3 hours for glue to harden and this is how it looked.


Fitted front wheel


3/4 front view after fitment


Red caliper covers look like cherry on the cake


Left Side View


Right side view


Night View


Also got her Aligned & Balanced the same day.


Enjoyed installing these covers and they did grab many eyeballs the very next day, so the effort was worth it.

Very good Detailed DIY Guide! Perfectly done. They look nice.

But I would not recommend buying and installing such covers on the calipers.

While braking - The pads generate a lot of heat - The Calipers can generate a lot of heat and these plastic covers stop the calipers from cooling down as they normally would while in use.
The Excess heat can damage the pins, bushes, the caliper and ultimately will also effect braking.
With heat build up your brake efficiency goes down.

The Ones that fit with clips are OK (I would still not install this)
but this one with anabond is just not good.
You will have to remove them when changing brake pads, or greasing the calipers?
Paining your calipers is better.
Edit - Here is a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USxss2ASNAs

Again not meant to undermine your good guide, :)

Thankyou for liking the D.I.Y. I had painted calipers in my oldeer car but the colour fades away due to the heat and becomes hardly visible.
Considering the harm to brakes that u suggested i will remove these after a couple of months - after i have enjoyed them enough.
I tried sourcing the ones with clips but they were not available in india.

You might want to try and find the correct type of paint. There is special heat resistant paint, specifically for these sort of jobs. Wont fade at all.

Not sure if you can get it in India though. In Europe you can get this at most car part shops, such as Halford etc.

https://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliperPaint/

Jeroen

@197horses: Although the DIY is great, it is not one which seems safe purely because of the safety aspect involved.
Any caliper cover getting loose due to the heat involved/ shocks endured could seriously foul with the brake and the wheel spokes, more so at higher speeds that your car is capable of doing.
Since aesthetics is the only priority here, I highly recommend you stick to high temperature caliper paint.

Looks really nice. Though considering others advice i would rather try a heat resistant paint rather than the stick-on version. Anyways, Enjoy all the attention while you have it on.

There are a few heat resistant paints available locally specifically used for painting chimneys. The shades available are rather limited e.g. silver & black.

These are available at most stores specializing in industrial paints.

Only if the shades were not limited, it would have been great using industrial paints.Still i will try to source heat resistant paints as they would be safer to use.
I look forward to use these caliper covers for not more than 10000 kms and i don't think that this would make much of a difference to the brake calipers in a short duration, by the time i will surely be able to find heat resistant paints.

The thing is, imagine the intense heat when you're braking hard. Do you think the anabond and cheap plastic will hold up?
This seems to be a very dangerous DIY. You should remove them ASAP.

It has been up since 2 months and i dont think there is any problem.

Erm... how will you go about replacing the brake pads one they wear out ? The covers will not allow the caliper assembly to swing open.

And the cooling aspect others have mentioned is also valid. Though you may not be experiencing any -ve effect till now there is a very good chance that your car will experience brake fade earlier than other vernas. Trust me, car not stopping when you want it to stop badly is the worst scenario one can get into!

The anabond you have used is Silicone Rubber RTV.

Rubber = Insulator for Heat.

I did not understand your point well,Anabond being an insulator for heat is good or is it bad ?

Mostly a bad thing. The caliper will not be able to dissipate heat as effectively

Insurance companies look for loop holes like these. Be careful bro.