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Page 4: - Photos of Angel/Demon Eyes
Page 5: - 99-01 DIY headlight upgrade
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Page 7: - Rear powered sunshade retrofit
Page 8: - Exhaust tips project
Page 9: - M Parallel Wheels and Pole Positions added
Page 10: - DIY SilverVision bulbs
Page 11: - Adding the 99-01 Rocker Panel Covers Project
Page 12: - DIY HID retooling/retrofit
Page 13: - BMW Navigation Retrofit (retooling) for a virgin E38
Page 15: - DIY Shdowline Trim with Blackout Tape

Bettie's Calipers get painted
I saw a bunch of guys writing up their caliper painting projects and it motivated me to finally get out there and clean and paint Bettie's front calipers. I had purhcased some Caliper 2-part epoxy paint @ two years ago, and I never got to it until the past few weeks. I actually used it on one caliper and the other one I sprayed with a High Temp paint. I actually prefered the finish of the spray paint much better than the brush on 2-part expoxy. The spray paint filled in much of the "orange peel" texture on the cast caliper whereas the brushed on paint was thin and did not soften this texture at all. Look carefulluy at the painted shots to see the spray vs. brush texture difference. I beieve I will re-spray these again.

I broke this project into two sessions so far: Driver's front and Passenger's front. Each caliper took me most of the day to clean and prep for paint. Here is what my calipers looked like before the prep work:

I used the usual tools for this type of work, detergent, brake parts cleaner, stainless wire brushes, stainless wire wheel on a drill motor, and some Naval Jelly. The process is slow and painstaking to get them all the way down to bare metal. I have read that some guys just spray the brake parts cleaner on them, wire brush the loose materials and paint over the rest. This may be OK, but I felt it was important to get down to bare metal to allow the paint to bond instead of laying it on top of a layer of rust.
Here is how they looked when I was done cleaning them, just prior to paint:

Once painted, you have to let them sit for at least 24 Hours to allow the paint to cure before driving and getting the calipers hot. Here are some shots of the painted calipers:

I completed the passenger rear caliper today (07-30-05). Again it took me all day to prep and paint one caliper. I don't know how some guys do all 4 in a day? Oh-well, the results were great amd today was warm (Hot!) so the paint dried fast enough that I decided to apply the High Temp BMW Decals I got from Xenonmods.com. Here is a shot of the decal on the freshly painted caliper before I replaced the caliper clip and wheel.