Here are some photos of the restoration work I have been doing on the rotors from my 1981 Vette. This one is the original passenger side.






Here's how it looked on the car at about 12G miles







This is the same rotor after de-rusting with Evaop-Rust, which is a product I love. After de-rusting I didn't get to the rotor right away, that's why some new rust crept in around the wheel studs. If you notice, you can still see the stamped part number in white.






This is how it looks after some work. I got to this point by using a 4" wire wheel in my drill and running it over the surface to shine it up.

It doesn't show in the photo, but I sprayed the cooling vanes with Dupli-Color cast iron spray for some extra protection. The last thing I did was mask off the pad sweep area, and coated the hat and edges with VHT satin clear.

I'm not done yet though. I've come across a metal protectant that I have read a lot of good things about, Rust Prevention Magic. I am going to strip the VHT clear and use the RPM. I may also darken the forged area of the hub, and blacken the tops of the rivet heads. All of this should bring it very close to the factory finish.

I hope this will be of some help Fatcat!!

 

Those like great, I want to see the vent too!
Did you use a wire brush in the vents or anything?
Scott

 

Hey thanks Scott, I knew you were going to like them. The Evapo-Rust did an excellent job of cleaning out the rust from the vent, but since I had a bead blaster setup I hit them with that for the hell of it.

Here's some pics of the vanes and the back of the hub:

 

Man those look great! I also soaked mine in evapo rust and now I will have to figure out how to clean my cents now but don't have a bead blaster. Hahaha do you have the part number on the Duplicolor paint?
Scott

 

Thanks Scott!! As long as those vents are rust free you should be able to just paint them. What I did was hit the edges of the rotor with the wire wheel until they were as shiny as they were going to get, then I taped up those edges with blue painters tape. I sprayed those things 3 times, waiting about 10 minutes between coats as Dupli-Color instructed. I left the inside hub on this rotor natural, but on the drivers side I painted the whole inside with the cast iron. Even if the car was being judged, no one can see in there.

The color is #DE1651. Pretty much every manufacturer does a cast iron spray, I used that one cause they had it locally.