Painting my calipers red

[m3f_tectonic]

you can always resort to http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RED-G...=p4506.c0.m245

[m3f_Blutarsky]

if you wanna get arty then go black and paint the ///M logo. but red

[m3f_kukok]

If you like red color, go for it but be ready to keep them clean all the time.

[m3f_jbate]

Hide your brake dust with black.

[m3f_fiveightandten]

Fail.


Gaudy calipers belong in a Civic hatch with a stolen B18C in it and in Corollas with VTEC stickers on them. Just think for a second about what the German engineers that designed the car would do to you if they found out about this.


And "Hellrot Red" is a redundancy. Department of Redundancy Department. MSDS Sheets. Rot is the German word for red. Hell is the German word for bright. Hell Rot = Hellrot = Bright Red.

[m3f_fiveightandten]

Is there a stigma that goes along with doing this or not?

Ha. Ha. Ha. Go find something else to do in your spare time. We don't need any more useless threads mucking this place up.

[m3f_WRXEATR]

I powder coated mine in a splatter coat/texture black. Black>red IMO

[m3f_and1bball4mk]

Ha. Ha. Ha. Go find something else to do in your spare time. We don't need any more useless threads mucking this place up.

Do you mind taking whatever is up your ass out? I asked a legitimate question that has gotten some good responses. I really don’t understand “car culture” as I’m new to this stuff, so asking if something has a certain stigma or not is helpful for me.

[m3f_sivikvtec]

Red calipers are ugly. It will not make your car look cooler or attract any more women, or give you "street cred". Black or silver.

[m3f_fiveightandten]

Do you mind taking whatever is up your ass out? I asked a legitimate question that has gotten some good responses. I really don’t understand “car culture” as I’m new to this stuff, so asking if something has a certain stigma or not is helpful for me.

Apologies if you're being sincere. It's not uncommon for people to come on to forums and ask stupid questions just to get a rise out of people. My assumption was that's what was going on here. If not, then it's not a stupid question.


There are many facets of car culture, as with anything people are passionate about. You'll find that a good percentage of people perform modifications to their car that fall into a form over function category. A sub-category of this would be modifications that are there to make a car *look* fast/elite/rare, when it isn't. An example would be people that put ///M badges on normal 3-series cars, or VTEC stickers on Honda Civics without VTEC motors. But, I digress.


Here, you'll find that most people are on ther other extreme and are very careful with how they choose to modify their car. The M3 has a lot of heritage and history behind it, and many people hold the decisions of the designers and engineers in very high regard. The US M3s are inferior to the Euro models in a lot of ways, and for that reason it's considered pretty acceptable to modify a US car to be closer to its Euro counterpart.


On the other hand, making modifications to the car just for the sake of doing it, or making modifications that are form over function, or trying to make the car something it isn't...these things aren't generally accepted as worthwhile and you'll get a lot of flack for that sort of thing around here.


Some will say it's your car and you're free to do as you please with it. Some will say that any time you modify a well thought out and respected automobile, you'd better have thought it through. Most people lie in the middle, and to be honest a lot of people catch the mod bug and wind up changing the car just because they can.


All I can say is...have some class. The car has a lot of heritage behind it. Don't cheapen it by making low-class form over function modifications, or making modifications in lieu of maintaining the car (you'd be surprised how often this happens).


Good luck and welcome to the forum.


P.S. To answer your question directly...painting the brake calipers on an M3 with red rattle can paint will put forth the stigma that the car has more class than you do, and the designers had better taste in 1995 than you do now. Guys that refer to their girlfriends as "yo, woman" and who drive Civic hatches with HIDs they got off eBay, hack-saw cut springs, and chrome rimz will think your brakes are "mad tyte, yo". Guys who drive the M3s that made you drool over buying one in the first place will roll their eyes at it and chalk it up as being driven by one more of the noobs that doesn't get it.


I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. Come to some meets, see some other peoples' cars. I think you'll find most of these guys are very humble, knowledgable, and down to earth. It's a great way to get a feel for things. It's easy to come off as an ass on the internet.

[m3f_Chris.MM3]

Wow there's a lot of passion coming out in this thread in a pretty aggressive way. I'm a car enthusiast so I understand car culture, but I'm pretty new to BMW's so some of these posts were kind of surprising. Having said that I understand the difference between modding an M3 and modding a Civic. I believe that less is more with any car but especially with good European ones. As far as M3's are concerned, I would stick to companies that focus on BMW's like Dinan, ACS, Hamann, etc. I think it maintains more of the class than other brands, and it doesn't diminish the car's heritage. But overall if you have good taste in general your car should come out ok.


As far as the brake calipers are concerned, leave the red to Brembo. I'd go with black but no painted M logo. I think its too much and the car has enough M logos as it is. its all about being discreet. I know 99% of the people here are going to disagree with what I'm about to say but I also wouldn't mind blue. I think its not as in your face as red and isn't it the BMW motorsport color? But whatever color you go with do a good job of painting it. And go with a flat color instead of gloss. More subtle.

[m3f_ArBrnSnpr]

I would go with either flat black, or semi-gloss black. And I would avoid the craft store detail brush painted ///M emblem. The stock calipers were never meant to be display pieces, so making them a catchy color so they stand out more is kind of like trying to polish a turd.



To me, painting the stock calipers red is like painting the stock muffler, or shocks red....

[m3f_inkaholic]

Not mine but something I saw over on bfc and was fairly impressed. I may end up doing this sometime but probably not anytime soon and not in gloss black.

[m3f_Roland H]

Looks good. I'd do it myself, but I'm too lazy... Much rather get a PF.c BBK...

[m3f_M3Works4Me]

I went with black, because it looks clean, not gaudy, and black gives off heat rather nicely...