Rim Painting & Brake Caliper Painting in Abu Dhabi

The single most important factor in any wheel or caliper painting job is preparation. It is also the step that most cheap and rushed painting services skip or do inadequately. Paint that is applied over a poorly prepared surface — old paint layers that have not been fully removed, dust or contamination not cleaned off properly, metal that has not been primed correctly — will look acceptable for a few weeks and then begin to peel, chip, and flake. In Abu Dhabi’s extreme temperatures, on wheels that cycle through heat and cold repeatedly with every drive, inadequately prepared paintwork fails faster than anywhere else.
At Muller Motors, we do not paint over old coatings. Every rim that comes to us for painting is stripped back to bare metal or bare alloy — either by chemical stripping, sandblasting, or full mechanical preparation depending on the wheel type and condition. Only once the surface is completely clean, smooth, and free of all old coating, contamination, rust, and imperfection do we move to the next stage.
After stripping, we apply the correct etch primer for alloy or steel wheel surfaces — this is a chemically bonding primer that creates the foundation for every subsequent layer. Over the etch primer, we apply a filler primer to address any surface imperfections and create a perfectly smooth base for the colour coat. We then apply the colour in multiple thin coats, allowing each coat to flash off correctly before the next is applied. Finally, we apply a clear lacquer or clear coat over the colour to protect the finish and give it the gloss level required — whether that is high gloss, satin, or matt.
For caliper painting, the process is different because the material is different and the operating conditions are far more demanding. Brake calipers experience extreme heat cycles — from ambient temperature to several hundred degrees Celsius under hard braking, repeated multiple times on every journey in Abu Dhabi’s stop-start traffic. Standard automotive paint cannot survive these temperatures. We use caliper-specific high-temperature paint products rated for continuous exposure to brake operating temperatures, applied over a properly prepared and primed caliper surface. We also apply a clear top coat rated for the same temperature range to protect the colour and make the caliper easier to clean.