AudiWorld Forums - I joined the 'me too' gang

After seeing what others have done with their brake callipers, decided to try this also.

Now I don't have those big SQ5 callipers that are worth drawing attention to, so I did not want to go over the top. I do have 20 inch wheels though and the callipers are quite visible. I elected to paint the callipers (front only for now) in a satin black finish. The original silver finish is nearly 2 years old and was looking a bit patchy and drab. Photos are not that great (cell phone) and taken in my garage (not the best lighting).

Before image:
[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...eon/Before.jpg[/IMG]

This is the kit I purchased from Duplicolor. The paint was "matt black' in the kit though and I thought I would rather go for a satin finish so also purchased a small tin of high heat Rust-oleum paint. I used the Rust-Oleum paint but did make use of the brake calliper cleaner aerosol that came with the Duplicolor set. I gave the callipers a thorough cleaning and rinse with hot soapy water and a brush before using the Duplicolor cleaner.

[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...eon/TheKit.jpg[/IMG]

Nothing ever goes smoothly. Never had to change a wheel on my Q5 before - the jack supplied with the car is a joke - it will actually physically damage the trim and paint work! Pretty poor of Audi on that score. Glad I found this out in a controlled environment, not at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere! So off I went to buy another jack before I could get the wheels off. Excuse the mud - rainy season here. While the wheels were off I did use the opportunity to give them a thorough clean inside and out.

[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ackClosein.jpg[/IMG]

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...cheon/Jack.jpg

After that it was easy. initially I thought it would look better/more pro to mask off the two 'bolts' on the front side of the callipers. This can be seen in the following images. I subsequently decided it looked much better by painting these black also. Each calliper took no more than 15 minutes to paint. Extremely easy to do this with the calliper in place on the car if using a brush. I chose the brush method for that reason and also because my callipers have a fairly rough finish anyway.

Some during and after photos:

[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...n/IMG_0549.jpg[/IMG]

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...n/IMG_0553.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...n/IMG_0572.jpg

[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...n/IMG_0573.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...n/IMG_0568.jpg[/IMG]

I ordered some vinyl decals (both ones that say S-Line and Q5 off eBay but those have not arrived as yet. However I did have a set of the fender S-Line badges lying around and thought that they might work nicely. I removed the adhesive backing that comes with these as I was not sure it would be suitable for this application. I swapped this out with a strong double sided tape and "stuck" them on.

Pretty pleased with the result. Even my wife who does not get excited about cars thought it looked "nice". When the vinyl's arrive, will make a decision on whether to swap them out or leave it as is. Also not sure whether to bother with the rear callipers - they are not particularly large.