Advice for painting M/Cyl

I want to paint my m/c w/out disasembling it for a full rebuild. What can I use to fully clean the brake fluid from it? I will be disconnecting the line/removing the cap, I just didnt want to disturb the plunger mech/seal.

Any experience/advice appreciated

sand the hell out of the outside and wipe it down really good with thinner before primer.

It seems like there would be a very good likelihood of getting crud or something where you don't want it if the piston is left in place.

mjg15 wrote:

I want to paint my m/c w/out disasembling it for a full rebuild. What can I use to fully clean the brake fluid from it? I will be disconnecting the line/removing the cap, I just didnt want to disturb the plunger mech/seal.

Any experience/advice appreciated

Which type m/c? Barrel? Trapezoid? Rectangular?

Why remove cap?

By disconnecting line, presuming this means at banjo bolt. Could replace banjo bolt with ordinary bolt to plug output hole.

With m/c on bench, plugged and capped, could use common household rubbing alcohol to flush exterior of m/c. A hand held sprayer attachment works well. The alcohol flush should remove all traces of brake fluid from the exterior of m/c.

Then, as Plummen suggested, sand as needed and wipe with thinner. Follow with primer, then paint.

Good Fortune!

I don't know any paint that won't get damaged by brake fluid. A master cylinder is not a good candidate for painting.

Brake fluid is nasty on paint...Maybe hammerite paint, it might be more resillient to brake fluid then regular paint.
But if you get brake fluid on your paint reguardless, wash is off with soapy water as quick as you can. thats about the only thing you can do.

I used the ceramic paint designed for brake calipers on mine.Worked great.bj

hocbj23 wrote:

I used the ceramic paint designed for brake calipers on mine.Worked great.bj

X2:) but i use dot 5 fluid. it doesnt eat paint.

Thanks for the ideas. I ended up leaving the line attached during paint process. I was switching over to a shorter GPz line after paint so I left it sealed. I used chemical paint stripper , then I used scotchbrite to clean it up from there. Sprayed it with some hi-temp semi-gloss I had laying around. Looks ok, I'll just try to be very careful during filling/bleeding. I was just doing a quick refurb on this bike so I didn't want the whole process to escalate. Next one will get full rebuild and maybe gunkote for a finish. I think that that would stand up to brake fluid.

i dont spill brake fluid,paint lasts a really long time! :laugh: