Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice

It is said that we learn from our mistakes, or rather that we should learn from them. The latter applies to me today as I did not learn from my first attempt with the POR-15 Caliper Paint on the rear differential cover. Painting that red was a nightmare. It took four coats before it even began to look solid red and another three before I was satisfied enough to give up. I decided that the result was not worth the effort.

So today in my infinite wisdom, I decided I was going to paint the calipers red. Brilliant, I know!

Here are the calipers with one coat of POR-15 black. Don't they look awesome? Wouldn't they even look better with another coat of POR-15 black? Did this occur to me this afternoon? Nope, not once.

The caliper paint is ready to go.

The first coat of red caliper paint is on and...this all feels strangely familiar.

Wait a minute...this looks like crap. I know I decided before that the results were not worth the 45 minutes it took to get this coat to look as good as it does. [The next 15 minutes after this all sunk in has been censored as my language and actions were not family friendly.]

Okay, I am back and I have calmed down. Do you know what happens when you make a mistake for the second time? You have to find a way to fix it before anyone finds out. I decided to try some lacquer thinner and to my surprise it did lift off the red paint and did not appear to harm the POR-15 underneath. This was not going to be easy, but better than sanding it off. I continued to scrub until I had removed about 95% of the red paint.

I am just about finished and just have a few of the crevices and tight spots to clean up yet. Thanks Sara for taking these two pictures! I promise I will return the favor when we get back to working hard on this project again. :)

This is how I left the caliper tonight. You can still see a little bit of the red paint, but for the most part it is gone. It also seems to have dulled the gloss on the POR-15, but I will be recoating this anyway. I plan to add another coat to the outside of all the calipers to add another layer of protection.

The bottom line is although POR-15 has some excellent products, in my opinion their caliper paint deserves to be in the Hall of Shame right next to their worthless daubers!