Bought new rotors, painting them...

**t/as&dds** · 03-22-2006, 05:57 AM

But can anyone tell me (aside from the pad contact area) where I can/can't paint? Is everything fair game? I'd like to have decent looking rotors for more than a week so I bought one of the Duplicolor caliper painting kits to paint the rotors. Can I paint the hub portion? Thanx...

**rbob93** · 03-22-2006, 06:14 AM

Everything but the pad contact area as you stated, but I would also avoid where the wheel and the hub contacts the rotor. (no one will see these areas anyway)

What color?

Long Drive · 03-22-2006, 08:04 AM

What have you done to prep the metal? Like to do mine, but seems like a lot of work to get them to the point where you know the paint will stick!

**billyb** · 03-22-2006, 01:25 PM

hi a good degreaser (i use greased lighting ) make sure it dry and several light coats,look at the caliber when is on the vehicle note what shows, and paint,but dust the whole caliber so you have a hint of color,do not put back together until paint is cured,not dry 2-3 days the paint will be hard/cured.i painted the bottom of the caliber first then the top a 3 day process that way the paint is cured!!!

**t/as&dds** · 03-22-2006, 06:11 PM

Well, I bought them new so I just used some brake cleaner to get the anti-rust crap off of them. I have put on a light coat on the part that the wheel touches. I will probably wait a few days before I put them on so I'll have plenty of time for the paint to cure. I'm using a silver color just so it looks good but doesn't stick out. I'll let you know how it comes out. Thanx for the input though!

**Mr. Luos** · 03-22-2006, 08:27 PM

Don't paint your rotors.
Probably can't see the section you would be painting behind the wheels anyhow.

Get your calipers looking good and leave it at that.

**DaddySS** · 03-23-2006, 01:29 AM

Eastwood makes brake drum and rotor paint that is a gray color similar to cast iron and looks great on rotors. Otherwise use a high temp gray or black paint. If you still have the boxes the rotors came in, there should be a good outline of the rotor on the bottom of the box. Cut this out and use it to mask the pad surface area. Paint the whole rotor after cleaning with some brakeclean, be sure to paint the sides where the vents are too. put two good coats on and your rotors will look good for a long time and when it comes time to dress them up again in a year or two it will be real easy to just give a quick clean with paint thinner and shoot them again if necessary.

**ZeeVert** · 03-23-2006, 04:26 PM

Don't paint the wheel or hub mounting faces of the rotor. The main reason to avoid the inside is that paint thickness variation could cause runout on the rotor braking surface, which will lead to pulsing brake pedal and shuddering. The other reason to avoid paint on both sides is that the paint can compress and fret, causing the lug nuts to lose torque.

In the way-to-much information category...
The OEMs are trying to keep runout on the hub face (with the wheel bolts) down to less than 0.001" for brake warranty costs. So, if you remove or replace the rotors, make sure you clean the mounting surfaces as much as possible.