merceBENZ

I have them in the box since November. Waiting for good weather to put them on.
I would hate them to spot rust as my rear oem do and cheapo fronts. I know they have antirust cover but I don't think it will help. Any advice? Experience?

Rudeney

Whatever rust you get on them will quickly be cleared away by the brake pads. Heck, my rotors are all rusty just after washing and waxing the car.

merceBENZ

I knew that I'm going to get that kind of answer. Oh, well.. I meant no contact areas (around hub, rim, etc).

Rudeney

Whatever rust you get will be purely cosmetic. The brake pads will wear down the rotors long before any non-contact surface rust causes problems. Regardless, they are no more prone to rust in storage than on the car. In fact, being in the "rust belt" you'll likely get more rust with them on the car.

merceBENZ

I'm talking about cosmetics. I really don't like rust appearance. It ruins entire look. I store them in the bedroom so there will be no rust for sure.
So, how do I prevent non-contact rust?

merceBENZ

No one cares about rusty rotors? Co-mon!

floridawriter

As long as they work, I don't care that the hubs get rusty, it's the disk surface that matters.

merceBENZ

That rust is on very visible side. You look at the rim and rust is right here! Few inches lip!

sailorben

Yes the OEM discs do rust to quite an ugly appearance on the hub part. My fronts weren't too bad, but they are now new anyhow, but the rears have been on there a while, so I painted the hub section silver when I did the calipers. It all looks nice and smart now.

merceBENZ

Did you use G2 paint system?
These brand claims rust protection but some users experienced rust plus in some places coating got stripped to bare metal. Not hugely a lot but it is here.

sailorben

I don't know about the US market, but in the UK there is a product called Hammerite. I used the smooth silver. I had used this on my last hubs and calipers, quite often using the brakes quite hard; putting some serious heat through them, and have since painted those parts on my newer CLK with the same paint without any issues. No need for high temp special paint, not for me at least; since I've found this product more than capable.

merceBENZ

Did you use as a spray?

sailorben

No, I used a drill with a wire brush attachment and a dremel to clear off the rust, then applied the paint, which I applied with a brush. Quite a very light coating, and then between 4-8 hours, another thin coat on top.

merceBENZ

And no strokes? Plain and smooth?

Fatz

I painted my rotors and calipers several years ago. I don't like the rusty rotor center either. I used Rustoleum (sp) caliper spray paint. It is glossy black and still looks good after 50K miles.

Just replaced the rotors, so I will paint them again. I used blue painters tape to and newspaper to cover the things I didn't want painted. Used a razor blade/exacto knife to trim around the edges. Applied 2 light then a heavy coat about 20-30 minutes apart.

I painted mine, as well as the calipers, without removing either from the car. It is also less time consuming to do jack the front wheels off the floor using the front jack point. Tape off and paint the fronts. Then raise the rear using the differential as the jack point and repeat for the rear.

The Rustoleum did not require any primer. I used 000 steel wool to prep, then just sprayed them....

merceBENZ

That sounds as an awesome tip! Thanks! Why did you choose black over silver? How many cans?

sailorben

As you can see they are pretty dirty right now, but when washed it comes up very nice. Not garish as red or blue would be, but still somewhat noticeable. I thought about black, but for me, the hub part had to be silver to match the wheel and the disc. Black would have been too abrupt a change in colour, and it is nice when the calipers are shiny and clean.

The hub bit is perfect and smooth; no brush marks, and the calipers is only dimpled as that's the finish on the new calipers.

merceBENZ

This is very decent result. I really like it. Do you think brush is better than spray for that application?

sailorben

Personally yes. As the result is just as good imo. Maybe not when first finished, but with a light coating of brake dust you wouldn't know any difference anyway. And as I say the finish is decent.

And it is a lot easier to do with a brush, no need to mask up the unwanted surfaces, just use a small brush around the seals and stuff. And as for getting it on the disc, don't worry about that, just drive off with your foot on the brake for a couple seconds and the paint will burn off. That way you get a nice coating all the way up to the edge of the disc.

Be careful on the surface where the hub contacts the wheel however.. That surface should be clean and even, so apply very thinly on there. But I've had no issues.

merceBENZ

You are right about masking. Definitely easier. Disc is brand new and still in the box so it shouldn't be hard to paint. Do not want to kill new pads with paint though.

sailorben

I wouldn't worry about that personally, the new pads will need to wear off the top friction material anyhow to bed on to the disc. Wipe as much off, of course, but I would worry about getting everything off. When you bed the pads in, that should take care of any issues.

merceBENZ

Got it ! Thanks!

Fatz

The colors on my car are silver, black, and chrome (I like shinny stuff), and I wanted the contrast between the hyper silver wheel spokes at the hub and the polished rim and calipers. I think the colors offered by them for their caliper paint is aluminum, black, red, and yellow, and I think they were all high gloss.

I tried dupli-color initially but did not like the finish (dull). It took about 2/3 a can of Rust-0-leum to do all four wheel hubs and calipers. The finish feels "hard" to the touch, whereas the Dupli-color felt "soft". The difference, I guess is a baked on feel vs a; well "just painted" feel.

Heck, I even tried to paint them chrome, but it looked like crap......

merceBENZ

It will be hard to spot dust on silver color unlike on black one

merceBENZ

I'm lost now. Spray vs brush