Paints & Coatings

Paints and coatings let you refinish a car’s details without a body shop. The range covers brake caliper lacquer, two-component spray paint, peelable spray film and tint spray for clear plastic. Colour sprays, with primer and sealer to match, take care of interior trim, seats and leather.

The chemistry follows the job. A caliper runs hot, takes road salt and brake cleaner and may meet brake fluid, so its lacquer must stay hard and keep its colour. Two-component (2C) paint carries a hardener in the can, released before spraying, and cures chemically rather than by drying alone. Once cured it resists fuel, solvents and chips much better than a one-component paint, but an activated can must be used within its pot life.

Spray film is the removable option: it builds a rubbery skin that colours and protects, then peels off in sheets when the look changes. It needs several full coats to peel cleanly, and neon shades need a white base coat underneath to glow.

Pick the product for the part:

• Brake calipers: lacquer sets and single lacquers in glossy, matt, metallic and neon finishes. Colours run from racing reds and blues to green, gold, copper, silver and violet, and a 100 ml thinner adjusts the flow and cleans tools.
• 2C paint: a black gloss made for exhaust pipes, plus universal glossy black, red, blue and yellow for parts that need a tough finish.
• Removable colour: spray film in 150 and 400 ml cans and in sets, glossy, matt or metallic, with a remover and a spray gun for larger areas.
• Interior: colour sprays for trim and for seats and leather, in black, white, red, beige and cognac, with a clear primer and clear sealers.
• Clear plastic: tint spray in smoke grey-black or red.

Preparation decides how long a finish lasts. Wash, degrease and dry the part: silicone, grease and brake dust are the usual causes of poor adhesion. Key glossy surfaces with a fine abrasive pad before paint, but not under spray film, which must still peel. Mask what must stay bare and build thin coats, leaving the stated flash time between them.

On a caliper, keep lacquer off the disc, the pad faces, the dust seals and the bleed screw, and let it cure fully before hard braking. Tint on a lamp lens changes its colour and light output, which road rules in many countries forbid, so check local regulations. 2C hardeners often contain isocyanates, so spray outdoors or with extraction and wear a suitable respirator and gloves.