My Rotor Clean Techniques
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
Likes: 3,841
From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
My Rotor Cleaning Techniques as Requested
Originally posted in 2006 from another thread
Having 1200 dollar rotors look like 1200 dollar rotors five years later and 55,000 miles later is all in the technique: Ive posted this hundreds of times in PM when asked,but Ive never really posted it in public forum...
Thanks for the Kudos Veteran
These procedures are designed for when your zinc coating is starting to go.... BTW I bag my wheels and tires if I'm washing the car...
This is very labor intensive so the first rule is, do not attempt to do more than two rotors in one day. ( very important ) You want to be able to invest the same energy and focus on this job... You do not want to spend an hour on the first rotor, then wind up spending 15 minutes on the fourth one. So just plan to do 2 in one day..
1)It requires that you remove two rotors.
2)You want to clean both sides of the rotor with any brake cleaner... make sure you clean the inside cooling vanes. Wash them out and blow them off with compressed air.
3) Cut some 120 grit emery paper into 1/4 in squares. ( it will take 8 or 10 squares to do one side of one rotor.) If you force the sq into the hole you will tear up the emery. You only want to flex the emery slightly into the hole. AS the emery becomes more flexible you can return to the same holes and go deeper to remove any rust they may have built up inside the hole.
4) Take one of the squares and poke a hole in the center with an ice pick or awl. Using a dremel with a screw type arbor, remove the screw from the arbor, put the screw through the grit side of the emery, and screw it into the arbor. You now will focus on only the first angle of the hole. You want to push the emery into the hole only about .060 in. This will do two things: 1) it will radius the top ( Major angle ) angle, 2)it will also create something called a sinus radius. This sinus radius will, in effect, reduce internal stress at the opening of the hole by removing the sharp angle. After you do about ten holes, and if the emery is still good ( this is were the technique comes into play. ( I can do about 15 holes with one piece of emery) you can now take the broken in emery and do the next angle ( the minor angle ) of the chamfer.
5) Now you polish these holes until they look like diamonds. This is actually fun.. I suggest you take a before picture and after picture.
you do both side of the first rotor.
6) Once the holes are done, you take some #00 steel wool, then using a paint stirring stick, you place the steel wool under the stick and run it up and down the slot, like you were trying to start a fire with a stick. you do both sides.
7) you then take some steel wool and polish the outer diameter and the chamfer on both sides of the outer diameter.
8) Now the rotor should look awesome, so now you need to protect it.
9) You need a minimum of 1200 F Clear VHT paint, or 1500F clear header paint.
100 You now spray some clear into a cup, allowing some of the thinner and suspension agent to flash off. With a q-tip, you dab each hole with some clear, and each slot Allow this to dry for about 20 minutes.
11) Now you start on rotor # 2 while # 1 is drying.
12) After 20 minutes turn the #1 rotor over and dab the other side, don't forget the slot.
13) Continue to work on Rotor #2 for 20 minutes, then turn # 1 rotor over again and dab each hole and slot a second time making sure some clear runs down inside the rotor. You can be sloppy here and don't worry about getting too much on the fire path.
14) At some point you will be done polishing rotor # 2. You can now dab the slots and holes of # 2 rotor.
15) the idea here is to get two good coats on the holes and slots, both sides.
16) at this point it would be good to allow the paint to dry overnight.
17) Next morning, with a wood block and a piece of 120 emery under it you can sand down the fire path to remove any of your sloppy q-tipping.
18) You can now use some masking tape and tape up the fire paths, both sides.
19) Making sure the slight chamfer of the outside diameter is exposed, use a razor blade to remove any masking tape from this chamfer, or you can use an exacto knife to clear that chamfer.
20) you can now spray the outside diameter with the clear spray , getting close with the nozzle to allow plenty of paint to enter the cooling vane area. Give them ( Both rotors )two coats. Allow them to dry, then remove the masking tape, Don't forget to take a picture.
install on the car and stand back and smile. I suggest you do a front and back rotor in one sitting. At least one side will look awesome while you catch your breath to do the second two rotors the next week end.
I have done this the last two springs and it looks great right up to the fall.
AS I have said, it is important not to bit off more than you can chew...
You want the last rotor you do to look as good as the first one you do, so spread out the workload.
If you have any questions, you can pm me
NEW STUFF: Added March 2006
Go to home depot and get a few 100 plastic drop cloths, you really only need one but they are good to have. You may be able to do you rotors on the car ( I know you like that idea.....
I now still use the dremel to do the holes... while on the car...
I use a high speed grinder with a wire wheel to wire the outer diameter, and the slots... when you are done wire wheeling they will like like they are zinc coated..
OK now the holes, slots and diameter is shiny as hell..
now you cut a hole in the center of the drop cloth, like a dentist would do when working on a tooth,,, use some painters masking tape when you buy the drop cloths.. the blue painters tape..
now your wheel wells and suspension is protected from the paint..
now mask off the caliper and bracket area making sure you can still rotate the rotor,, Now here is my new trick,, a can of silver header paint,,,it will etch without using primer...
I get about 5 inches from the vane opening, and spray right into it, I noticed this year that all of the zinc coating a clear was almost gone.. started to see signs of rust inside.,,,
spraying right into the vanes will cause over spray to also coat the holes.. from the inside out,, rotate the rotor using the wheels studs, do two or three coats..
then dust the fire path lightly,,, allow it to dry about 10 minutes and dust again... after 15 minutes, take a paper towel with some break cleaner or choke cleaner.. not real wet just slightly damp and wipe the fire path,,., this doesn't have to be perfect because the pads will finish the job... if you have 2 piece rotors with black hats you will have to mask them off... this method is much faster than using the old method with a paint brush and a q-tip.
If you have any other question I'M here for you
Here is a picture of my five year old rotors with over 55,000 miles on them, this picture was taken a week ago.
HERE IS THE UPDATE: March 2010:
Baer EradiSpeed two piece rotors 14 inch rears, 13.25 fronts.... the zinc plate lasted 2 years... If I went out to my car right now and took a photo, my rotor would look exactly like those photos I shot 2 years ago.... I have posted my process on this forum about a dozen times... in any event my car is now 11 years old and has 80,000 miles in fact to prove my point I may take a shot of them... I put them on when the car was 2 years old and had about 9,000 miles... I spent many hours on one rotor.. I wire brushed ever inch of it...including using a dremel tool to wire brush each vane... I used a dremel to change the chamfer of each hole to what it called a sinuous curve chamfer a stress free chamfer where stress can be high. the rotors looked like a diamond... after all the cleaning and wire brushing and polishing... once the rotor was prepped, I used a halogen lamp to raise the surface temp to 110 degrees F and then I used high temp header paint HDTV Silver... I coated the edges of the rotors and inside the vanes. A single light coat where I could see some of the paint depositing in the holes.. I let it sit for 20 minutes then turned off the heat lamp.. and let it sit for another 20 minutes colling.. during this sit cycle . I started on another rotor.. making sure that I did not try to do this too fast...I set my goal on doing two and investing 8 hours... after prepping and wire brushing and cleaning, I heated up the second rotor to 110 F and painted it. after 20 minutes I put the heat lamp on the first rotor brought it up to 110 F and gave it a second coat.. I did this three times for both rotors .. it wound up being about ten hours.. No rush and no hard work, only focused work, with time for a few breaks for lunch and dinner... once they were don't three times I used a wire wheel to remove the paint from the fire path, and then took a q-tip and hit each hole and each slot three times, and then the brake pads did the rest.. Using soft pads is key here.. Ceramics are a definite NO NO, they are way too hard and increase rotor temps and discolor the rotors...... Ceramics on a street car are just so wrong.. luckily most brake pads sold for street use only have a very small amount of ceramic... but its enough to increase rotor temps .. Soft pads will dust but they will stop a street car much better than ceramics which dust less only because they are so much harder... soft pads have a high coefficient of friction, which is what stops your car.. ceramics are harder therefore the friction coefficient is less...
OK I went out and shot a few photos of my rotors alittle while ago today..Now these rotors are 8 years old and have 70,000 miles on them..
My car is 11 years old and has 80,000 miles on it... I put these rotors on when the car was 2 years old
Just shot today 03/10/10
EXIF Info
Date Taken: 2010-03-10 15:53:46
Camera: SONY DSLR-A700
Exposure Time: 0.025s (1/40)
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 55mm (82mm in 35mm)
Date Modified: 2010-03-10 15:53:46
Photo Dimensions: 4272 x 2848
File Size: 8.39 MB
JPEG Quality: 8/18
Flash: flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode
Metering: pattern
Exposure Program: shutter priority
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Mode: auto
Light Source: cool white fluorescent
White Balance: manual
Digital Zoom Ratio: 0/1
Contrast: 0
Saturation: 0
Sharpness: 0
Color Space: sRGB
Brightness: 487/100
Having 1200 dollar rotors look like 1200 dollar rotors five years later and 55,000 miles later is all in the technique: Ive posted this hundreds of times in PM when asked,but Ive never really posted it in public forum...
Thanks for the Kudos Veteran
These procedures are designed for when your zinc coating is starting to go.... BTW I bag my wheels and tires if I'm washing the car...
This is very labor intensive so the first rule is, do not attempt to do more than two rotors in one day. ( very important ) You want to be able to invest the same energy and focus on this job... You do not want to spend an hour on the first rotor, then wind up spending 15 minutes on the fourth one. So just plan to do 2 in one day..
1)It requires that you remove two rotors.
2)You want to clean both sides of the rotor with any brake cleaner... make sure you clean the inside cooling vanes. Wash them out and blow them off with compressed air.
3) Cut some 120 grit emery paper into 1/4 in squares. ( it will take 8 or 10 squares to do one side of one rotor.) If you force the sq into the hole you will tear up the emery. You only want to flex the emery slightly into the hole. AS the emery becomes more flexible you can return to the same holes and go deeper to remove any rust they may have built up inside the hole.
4) Take one of the squares and poke a hole in the center with an ice pick or awl. Using a dremel with a screw type arbor, remove the screw from the arbor, put the screw through the grit side of the emery, and screw it into the arbor. You now will focus on only the first angle of the hole. You want to push the emery into the hole only about .060 in. This will do two things: 1) it will radius the top ( Major angle ) angle, 2)it will also create something called a sinus radius. This sinus radius will, in effect, reduce internal stress at the opening of the hole by removing the sharp angle. After you do about ten holes, and if the emery is still good ( this is were the technique comes into play. ( I can do about 15 holes with one piece of emery) you can now take the broken in emery and do the next angle ( the minor angle ) of the chamfer.
5) Now you polish these holes until they look like diamonds. This is actually fun.. I suggest you take a before picture and after picture.
you do both side of the first rotor.
6) Once the holes are done, you take some #00 steel wool, then using a paint stirring stick, you place the steel wool under the stick and run it up and down the slot, like you were trying to start a fire with a stick. you do both sides.
7) you then take some steel wool and polish the outer diameter and the chamfer on both sides of the outer diameter.
8) Now the rotor should look awesome, so now you need to protect it.
9) You need a minimum of 1200 F Clear VHT paint, or 1500F clear header paint.
100 You now spray some clear into a cup, allowing some of the thinner and suspension agent to flash off. With a q-tip, you dab each hole with some clear, and each slot Allow this to dry for about 20 minutes.
11) Now you start on rotor # 2 while # 1 is drying.
12) After 20 minutes turn the #1 rotor over and dab the other side, don't forget the slot.
13) Continue to work on Rotor #2 for 20 minutes, then turn # 1 rotor over again and dab each hole and slot a second time making sure some clear runs down inside the rotor. You can be sloppy here and don't worry about getting too much on the fire path.
14) At some point you will be done polishing rotor # 2. You can now dab the slots and holes of # 2 rotor.
15) the idea here is to get two good coats on the holes and slots, both sides.
16) at this point it would be good to allow the paint to dry overnight.
17) Next morning, with a wood block and a piece of 120 emery under it you can sand down the fire path to remove any of your sloppy q-tipping.
18) You can now use some masking tape and tape up the fire paths, both sides.
19) Making sure the slight chamfer of the outside diameter is exposed, use a razor blade to remove any masking tape from this chamfer, or you can use an exacto knife to clear that chamfer.
20) you can now spray the outside diameter with the clear spray , getting close with the nozzle to allow plenty of paint to enter the cooling vane area. Give them ( Both rotors )two coats. Allow them to dry, then remove the masking tape, Don't forget to take a picture.
install on the car and stand back and smile. I suggest you do a front and back rotor in one sitting. At least one side will look awesome while you catch your breath to do the second two rotors the next week end.
I have done this the last two springs and it looks great right up to the fall.
AS I have said, it is important not to bit off more than you can chew...
You want the last rotor you do to look as good as the first one you do, so spread out the workload.
If you have any questions, you can pm me
NEW STUFF: Added March 2006
Go to home depot and get a few 100 plastic drop cloths, you really only need one but they are good to have. You may be able to do you rotors on the car ( I know you like that idea.....
I now still use the dremel to do the holes... while on the car...
I use a high speed grinder with a wire wheel to wire the outer diameter, and the slots... when you are done wire wheeling they will like like they are zinc coated..
OK now the holes, slots and diameter is shiny as hell..
now you cut a hole in the center of the drop cloth, like a dentist would do when working on a tooth,,, use some painters masking tape when you buy the drop cloths.. the blue painters tape..
now your wheel wells and suspension is protected from the paint..
now mask off the caliper and bracket area making sure you can still rotate the rotor,, Now here is my new trick,, a can of silver header paint,,,it will etch without using primer...
I get about 5 inches from the vane opening, and spray right into it, I noticed this year that all of the zinc coating a clear was almost gone.. started to see signs of rust inside.,,,
spraying right into the vanes will cause over spray to also coat the holes.. from the inside out,, rotate the rotor using the wheels studs, do two or three coats..
then dust the fire path lightly,,, allow it to dry about 10 minutes and dust again... after 15 minutes, take a paper towel with some break cleaner or choke cleaner.. not real wet just slightly damp and wipe the fire path,,., this doesn't have to be perfect because the pads will finish the job... if you have 2 piece rotors with black hats you will have to mask them off... this method is much faster than using the old method with a paint brush and a q-tip.
If you have any other question I'M here for you
Here is a picture of my five year old rotors with over 55,000 miles on them, this picture was taken a week ago.
HERE IS THE UPDATE: March 2010:
Baer EradiSpeed two piece rotors 14 inch rears, 13.25 fronts.... the zinc plate lasted 2 years... If I went out to my car right now and took a photo, my rotor would look exactly like those photos I shot 2 years ago.... I have posted my process on this forum about a dozen times... in any event my car is now 11 years old and has 80,000 miles in fact to prove my point I may take a shot of them... I put them on when the car was 2 years old and had about 9,000 miles... I spent many hours on one rotor.. I wire brushed ever inch of it...including using a dremel tool to wire brush each vane... I used a dremel to change the chamfer of each hole to what it called a sinuous curve chamfer a stress free chamfer where stress can be high. the rotors looked like a diamond... after all the cleaning and wire brushing and polishing... once the rotor was prepped, I used a halogen lamp to raise the surface temp to 110 degrees F and then I used high temp header paint HDTV Silver... I coated the edges of the rotors and inside the vanes. A single light coat where I could see some of the paint depositing in the holes.. I let it sit for 20 minutes then turned off the heat lamp.. and let it sit for another 20 minutes colling.. during this sit cycle . I started on another rotor.. making sure that I did not try to do this too fast...I set my goal on doing two and investing 8 hours... after prepping and wire brushing and cleaning, I heated up the second rotor to 110 F and painted it. after 20 minutes I put the heat lamp on the first rotor brought it up to 110 F and gave it a second coat.. I did this three times for both rotors .. it wound up being about ten hours.. No rush and no hard work, only focused work, with time for a few breaks for lunch and dinner... once they were don't three times I used a wire wheel to remove the paint from the fire path, and then took a q-tip and hit each hole and each slot three times, and then the brake pads did the rest.. Using soft pads is key here.. Ceramics are a definite NO NO, they are way too hard and increase rotor temps and discolor the rotors...... Ceramics on a street car are just so wrong.. luckily most brake pads sold for street use only have a very small amount of ceramic... but its enough to increase rotor temps .. Soft pads will dust but they will stop a street car much better than ceramics which dust less only because they are so much harder... soft pads have a high coefficient of friction, which is what stops your car.. ceramics are harder therefore the friction coefficient is less...
OK I went out and shot a few photos of my rotors alittle while ago today..Now these rotors are 8 years old and have 70,000 miles on them..
My car is 11 years old and has 80,000 miles on it... I put these rotors on when the car was 2 years old
Just shot today 03/10/10
EXIF Info
Date Taken: 2010-03-10 15:53:46
Camera: SONY DSLR-A700
Exposure Time: 0.025s (1/40)
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 55mm (82mm in 35mm)
Date Modified: 2010-03-10 15:53:46
Photo Dimensions: 4272 x 2848
File Size: 8.39 MB
JPEG Quality: 8/18
Flash: flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode
Metering: pattern
Exposure Program: shutter priority
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Mode: auto
Light Source: cool white fluorescent
White Balance: manual
Digital Zoom Ratio: 0/1
Contrast: 0
Saturation: 0
Sharpness: 0
Color Space: sRGB
Brightness: 487/100
Last edited by Evil-Twin; Jul 13, 2010 at 01:15 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 19,304
Likes: 85
From: San Diego CA
Dang, Evil, just get some REAL rotors, you know, the cadmium-plated kind, and be done with it! My PowerSlot Cryos look great after many years.
Nonetheless, if you DO have to bust your butt doing all that work, it really helps to be retired. I won't know how that feels for anither 10 years.
Nonetheless, if you DO have to bust your butt doing all that work, it really helps to be retired. I won't know how that feels for anither 10 years.
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
Likes: 3,841
From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Dang, Evil, just get some REAL rotors, you know, the cadmium-plated kind, and be done with it! My PowerSlot Cryos look great after many years.
Nonetheless, if you DO have to bust your butt doing all that work, it really helps to be retired. I won't know how that feels for anither 10 years.
Nonetheless, if you DO have to bust your butt doing all that work, it really helps to be retired. I won't know how that feels for anither 10 years.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 931
Likes: 35
From: Rowlett, Texas
Well, I have cad plated rotors, and they sure don't look that good.
Evil, you're a true obsessive-compulsive. My kinda guy.
Oh, FYI. Since retirement I've found I actually seem to have less free time than when I was working. What with golf, housework (yep), and grandkids I hardly ever get to polish my Ti mufflers.
Cheers,
DG
Evil, you're a true obsessive-compulsive. My kinda guy.
Oh, FYI. Since retirement I've found I actually seem to have less free time than when I was working. What with golf, housework (yep), and grandkids I hardly ever get to polish my Ti mufflers.
Cheers,
DG
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Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 25,044
Likes: 1,265
From: Virginia
St. Jude Donor '11
Bill>>>Fantastic looking rotors and wheels...wonderful writeup as usual
Team Owner
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 174,312
Likes: 1,217
From: Here
Pilot of Beer Force 1
Tampa Regional Coordinator
CI 4-5-6-7-8 Veteran
Organizer St. Jude Fundraiser
I believe in the Beer Fairy
Thread clean up complete.
If you like what Bill has posted and would like to use his information, fantastic. If you do not agree with a statement made in the thread that is fine too. However if you want to debate it this is not the place. Start a new thread, I am sure if Bill is so inclined he will follow you there and debate it with you.
If you like what Bill has posted and would like to use his information, fantastic. If you do not agree with a statement made in the thread that is fine too. However if you want to debate it this is not the place. Start a new thread, I am sure if Bill is so inclined he will follow you there and debate it with you.
Just Passin' Thru
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 236
Likes: 1
From: Diboll TX
Just let me know...
Dang ET!! Your car always looks spectacular. If you ever decide to sell it, just let me know. If I have the funds available, I'll buy and haul it to the first car show I can find - where it would win Best In Show, without a doubt. Great work and a great write-up.
Joe C.
Joe C.
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
Likes: 3,841
From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Dang ET!! Your car always looks spectacular. If you ever decide to sell it, just let me know. If I have the funds available, I'll buy and haul it to the first car show I can find - where it would win Best In Show, without a doubt. Great work and a great write-up.
Joe C.
Joe C.
I forgot to say.. there are lots of beautiful cars on this forum... many that in comparison make my car look enemic... I am flattered at all the kind words, but some of the members cars are just plain fantastic. IN ten years Ive seen the transformation of many members cars... The C5 is certainly a great platform to personalize your car. I still get a buzz every time I start my car.
Last edited by Evil-Twin; Jul 22, 2010 at 08:47 PM.
Pro
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 554
Likes: 12
From: southeast
Amazing! So...if I followed correctly this would need to be done about once a year (after the zinc is gone)? I guess humid climate/washing/driving in rain would have an impact?
great work and thanks for sharing!
So...if I followed correctly this would need to be done about once a year (after the zinc is gone)? I guess humid climate/washing/driving in rain would have an impact? great work and thanks for sharing!
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
Likes: 3,841
From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Yes once a year... the zinc only last about 2 years.. the inside of the rotors is very rough and doesnt take to the plating . the first sign of rust comes from inside and you get some rust bleed through the holes.. winds up on the barrels of your wheels. The good news is once you do this procedure, it gets easier and easier.
Team Owner
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 174,312
Likes: 1,217
From: Here
Pilot of Beer Force 1
Tampa Regional Coordinator
CI 4-5-6-7-8 Veteran
Organizer St. Jude Fundraiser
I believe in the Beer Fairy
Bill if you want me to add your info to the DIY thread I will be happy to do so.
