Painting Calipers and...rotors?
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Painting Calipers and...rotors?
Hey, my car is currently getting re-painted but one thing that isn't is the calipers. I painted them a while ago so I will need to put some fresh paint on them, just looking into what else I can do when my wheels are off.
My question is: can you sand and paint the part of the rotor that is rusted where the pads do not touch, near the center. It's not really an issue in the front because the pads touch most of the surface keeping it clean and rust free, but in the rear because of the smaller pads with my new rims the rust near the center of them is VERY easily seen. If possible would it turn out ugly? I would think that painting that part silver would look alot better than rust.
My question is: can you sand and paint the part of the rotor that is rusted where the pads do not touch, near the center. It's not really an issue in the front because the pads touch most of the surface keeping it clean and rust free, but in the rear because of the smaller pads with my new rims the rust near the center of them is VERY easily seen. If possible would it turn out ugly? I would think that painting that part silver would look alot better than rust.
- solo_ryder
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My friend had his rotors on his 300zx painted black, the center hub part and the outer edge. Looks much better than ugly rust, there is still a small ring of rust between the paint and where the pad connects, but its only noticeable if you get up close. When I got new rims I hated seeing the rusty rotors, so I bought some Brembos that have the zinc coating, check out my worklog to see how they look. Now my friend wants to do the same thing, but if you are short on money, I say paint them.
- Hoodzy
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if u painted the rotors wouldnt they just get insanely hot and bubble/crack off??
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- PATDIESEL
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Yeah, you need to tape off the contact area and don't paint the face that touches the wheel or the heat and pressure will stick the paint to the wheel.
If will look good though. (Make sure to use high temp paint. The rotors get pretty hot)
If will look good though. (Make sure to use high temp paint. The rotors get pretty hot)
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- jschrauwen
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DJ, I haven't got pics yet and will in the next while. Not necessary to buy new calipers. I acquired rebuilt ones for the front and rear and lightly sanded them to remove anything that would impede the paint from bonding. I got some (Brembo gold) caliper paint ( they carry actual caliper paint) from Canadian Tire store and painted them ensuring all rubber parts and piston face were sufficiently covered (masked off). Once paint had dried....(an hour or so) I placed all 4 calipers on tinfoil covered cookie sheet into oven and baked at 150 degrees for 3 hours. I then let the oven cool with them in there for another 30 minutes. I've now got a very hard and smooth coating on them which will make for easier cleaning in the future and "should" prevent future fading and cracking......touch wood. The CD rotors I also put on were new NiCad plated (goldish colour) and should hold up......again - touch wood. Your idea to clean the original rotors from all rust is a good idea although I'm not sure how long that will last without a good controlled paint baking process. There are slightly larger pads available to give a larger swept area (contact patch) on the existing rear rotors. I purchased them through ebay and I believe they are made in Australia, but not sure. Those specific names of pads and such is contained in the suspension forum.
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- jschrauwen
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Periodic checks in the oven showed me that they were still a little tacky after about 30 minutes so maybe i was just lucky at the time period. My biggest concern was the rubber seals and made sure that i didn't compromise those. After about 1.5 hours the calipers paint felt hard to the touch but left them in there longer just on speculation.Macen wrote:I didn't bake mine for that long. 5-10 min max. And the paint isn't that hard now afterwards, so maybe I should've baked them longer.
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90 JDM RHD 300ZX TT - 572.1 RWHP | 590.0 RWTQ | 21 PSI | Pump gas
90 JDM RHD 300ZX TT - 572.1 RWHP | 590.0 RWTQ | 21 PSI | Pump gas
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I finally got around to painting them all and it turned out well. The silver I used for the rotor is pretty much the same color as the rim. I'll take some pics when I get a chance. My car has to go back in to repair my bumper since it was rear ended less than 200KM after getting it back from a full body and paint job.
I have some pics of the fresh paint but I havent put up any pics yet because the camera really doesnt show much of a difference from what it was before.
I have some pics of the fresh paint but I havent put up any pics yet because the camera really doesnt show much of a difference from what it was before.
I've gone through the same process almost yearly with my car. Originally I had all the calipers painted with Hi-temp white, but it tended to be hard to clean. My last attempt I stripped my calipers down to base parts and had them shot-peened, then used the gold stuff from Candian Tire that's meant for brake parts. It's held up pretty good for close to 2 years, they have some rust on em (Canadian winter's fault, even with extremely minimal driving)
I've also had the niCad plated brembos for maybe 3 and a half years, they look better than the old stockers I had but still show rust (Damn road salt in action again) The one thing I've found with the gold paint or the niCad is it's close enough to a light rust color that a little bit isn't noticable until you get close. I think I'm gonna respray everything next spring tho.
I've also had the niCad plated brembos for maybe 3 and a half years, they look better than the old stockers I had but still show rust (Damn road salt in action again) The one thing I've found with the gold paint or the niCad is it's close enough to a light rust color that a little bit isn't noticable until you get close. I think I'm gonna respray everything next spring tho.