Sorry to be a pain, but please excuse me as an older women asking this: I have purchased a can of Holts professional brake cleaner, which I will use as instructed on the callipers and pipes. But can this be used to get the grime and any rust off of the shocks?

Brake cleaner’s main attraction is that it dries/evaporates in seconds, which is handy when you want to clean and paint brake calipers. It’s not really necessary for shocks and other parts to be dry in an instant so soapy water is fine.

In my view, brake calipers are either painted and shiny, and with decals, like mine

, or grubby and ordinary. To answer your question that you asked somewhere regarding painting them, I’ve used Foliatec Brems and E-Tech caliper paint with good results. I have only ever needed to paint them once, and my Omega calipers painted with Foliatec, and with decals, were still nice and shiny fifteen years later when I sold it.

If you choose Foliatec, do not follow the instructions to mix enough to paint all four calipers. Mix enough paint and lacquer to do one caliper and then repeat for each caliper. If you follow their instructions, the paint will be bullet hard in the pot before you’ve finished caliper number two.

E-Tech is more forgiving as there is no mixing involved.