70Yellowbird

Happy New Year Everyone!

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that original brake rotors were unfinished. I’m in the process of cleaning up mine, and trying to determine how to keep them from rusting again.

Would it be okay to apply a clear or natural-looking coating into the cooling fin areas (not sure what they are really called) that would remain there? Would coating those areas interfere with their cooling function?

If there is a coating out there that is made for rotors, if I coat the entire rotor, then store them for later installation, would it be necessary to remove the coating from the brake pad/parking brake pad contact surfaces? Or, is there a coating available that would wear off when the brakes are applied, without gumming up or otherwise ruining the pads themselves?

What have you guys and gals done in this area?

Thanks for heading me in the right direction.

doorgunner

My rotors had only .005" surface wear and were parallel within .002". I bead blasted the rusty rotors and painted all surfaces EXCEPT brake pad surfaces and wheel bearing surfaces with heat resistant engine/header paint. Personally, I would not put anything on the rotor surfaces where the pads will rub/I would put them in plastic bags to prevent rust (which will happen after the first humid day.

Wait for the experts to answer your question(s).

TimAT

I would use something like "Cast-Blast" to paint both the hub and the fins. The swept surfaces, nothing. If they're going to set for a while, you could wipe then with any rust inhibitor, just remember to clean before installing. You could paint, and then use a scrubby pad to remove the paint, again, clean before install. Just my $.02

PainfullySlow

Eastwood makes a product called 'after blast' that applies a phosphate coating to prevent rust and if I recall it is removable with acetone. Do your research but if that is true I would coat the entire rotor and then just clean the brake surface when it comes time to use them.

I would then toss them into a plastic bag with some desiccant packs (you can get them on Amazon) until it was time to use them.

Street Rat

There are different brands of paint for calipers available in spray cans. That is what I would use.

SPCL FX

Bead blasted mine, treated with Ospho to inhibit rust then painted and cleared all surfaces except where the pads touch ! Took the new calipers and painted with caliper spray can paint and then cleared them !

P.S. They calipers are new!





They were pretty nasty before that !

70Yellowbird

I would like to thank all of you who responded with suggestions and/or experience.

I have another related question? As I continued to research solutions I found a few discussions that Waxoyl (turpentine, paraffin, light oil) was used as a temporary coating to prevent rusting on stored parts. Anyone familiar with this stuff? Thanks.

69Vett

mask off the brake pad surface, and paint with high temp. paint your choice of color.
make sure you have cleaned the surfaces.

540 vette

i bought drilled and slotted rotors. To avoid rust in the drilled and slotted parts I painted the whole rotor including the braking surface. Went around the block a few times and all the paint is off.

The calipers I painted with eastwood brake paint.

C6_Racer_X

I now prefer rotors that are coated on the hats and the passages between the rotor disks, the vane area.

Back in the day, when rotors were bare from wherever you got them, I'd use "barbecue grill/wood stove" high temperature paint on rotors. Before painting, I'd wash them in acetone or chlorinated brake cleaner, to remove any rust-inhibitor that was applied at the factory. Then I'd paint in the passages, to paint the vanes in the casting and the back side of the disks, and I'd paint the hat area. I never worried about getting paint on the friction surfaces. As a matter of fact, "spares" that were going in storage would get a full coat of paint on the friction surface as well.

When installing, I toss them on the brake lathe, and carefully turn off the paint on the friction surfaces.

Use chlorinated brake cleaner with painted rotors and/or calipers. The "non-chlorinated stuff seams to be a very efficient paint stripper.


If you do that, a couple suggestions. 1) Use the old pads, not new pads that you're installing, and 2) gluing a piece of very fine sand paper/emery cloth to the pad surfaces will help to clean the paint off the surface.

Brake cleaner (the chlorinated type, see my note above) will strip that stuff off. Strip it clean before trying to apply paint. Acetone will strip it off as well, if you prefer that.

SPCL FX

Mine are sprayed with a chemical called Ospho ! It turns iron oxide into iron phosphate which is inert ! Essentially it kills the rust ! Once it is dry it turns the rust a black color, then a scuff pad to clean it up and paint! No , I didn't paint the friction surface!

540 vette

I have been painting the rotors for years and have had no stopping problems.

DUB

I know no one could get me to paint a rotors friction surface. I do paint rotors...if that is what the owner wants...but not where the pads ride against it.

And the reason for this is that I worked on the axle line at Fruehauf trailers...and they were SUPER PICKY on making sure the shoes and drums were the way we were shown in a training video. So seeing on that video what can happen to the shoes or drum if a foreign substance gets in there....I choose to not tempt fate. Kinda like what can happen to a flywheel and clutch disc.

DUB