Rusty rotors, cover up

[stedyedy]

Hey guys, i ended up with a flat tyre the other day and i struck up a convo with the mechanic about my rusty rotors, i asked if there was anything i could do,

He recommended this spray thing, which you spray all over the rotor and it masks the rusts with this black substance,

yea its pretty vague but he told me the name of it but i totally forgot...

any idea what he was on about

Cheers

Edited October 12, 2010 by stedyedy

[Guest]

rust converter perhaps?

[DJKOR]

Sounds like rust converter to me. Not really something I would suggest to use for your callipers though.

[Guest]

Sounds like rust converter to me. Not really something I would suggest to use for your callipers though.

I guess it would be OK on the outside of the caliper... but make sure you take your pads out and take the caliper off the rotor.

I would then mask it all up and paint it to prevent this from happening again.

[stedyedy]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, i don't think it was rust converter,

When he was describing it he was saying it was a dust or something, and you can just spray it all over the rotor and it won't damage the caliper or rotor, think i need to go back and find out what he was talking about.

Cheers

[eviltwin]

rip the wheel off and wire brush the rust off , place the wheel back on and shes good to go!

[Guest]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, i don't think it was rust converter,

When he was describing it he was saying it was a dust or something, and you can just spray it all over the rotor and it won't damage the caliper or rotor, think i need to go back and find out what he was talking about.

Cheers

Perhaps not, but the only thing I can think of is rust converter, it turns the iron oxide (rust) into iron tannate (the black/dark colored material)

[SuperDave]

Pics of rusty calipers?

[stedyedy]

Pics of rusty calipers?

here is a photo

[Guest]

Pics of rusty calipers?

here is a photo

Thats the ROTOR, not the caliper... its also nothing to worry about. It happens when they get wet.

[trentmeyer23]

Ahh i know this substance, it's called black paint But seriously i painted my rotors around the hub area, i just cut a template and sprayed them, any overspray will be wiped off with the pads. Just cut your template to allow that area to be painted and there goes your worries.

[stedyedy]

Pics of rusty calipers?

here is a photo

Thats the ROTOR, not the caliper... its also nothing to worry about. It happens when they get wet.

haha yea i had it right in my title...

I know its nothing to worry about except from a visual point of view,

thanks for the help guys.

[Guest]

Pics of rusty calipers?

here is a photo

Thats the ROTOR, not the caliper... its also nothing to worry about. It happens when they get wet.

haha yea i had it right in my title...

I know its nothing to worry about except from a visual point of view,

thanks for the help guys.

Then go with trents suggestion above, paint the middle section of your rotor with some caliper or high temp paint

[SuperDave]

I wouldn't bother painting it as you will have to prep the surface to clean the rust off. Not doing so will cause the paint to flake off and look worse after about 6 months. If you do prep it you will have to use high temp paint as the heat created will burn the paint off otherwise. The amount of effort involved just to hide a minor amount of visual rust, that has no effect on performance/reliability, far out weights the results in my opinion.

[trentmeyer23]

Yes sorry i forgot to mention removed any rust, i did my fronts from new and rears after, and both are still fine, 12 months on

[col2560]

i once saw a part once that was just a flat disc of black metal that bolts between the rotor and the wheel so you can't see through the rims, it covers the rotor and caliper.

[STYLSH]

^^ A hub cap? Steelies?

Always thought that if you had big wheels, you'd want to show off the brakes and not hide them. Plus it'll be better in terms of cooling too.

[White Lightning]

I've contemplated this also and agree that it's a bit of a faff unless u have a show car. I just live with it. Perhaps the objec to hide this that u were thinking of were spacers? But the purpose of them is not to hide rust but rather adjust ur wheel offset and / or wheel base width.

[trentmeyer23]

Some new cars use a backing type plate(like the rear backing) to cover the fronts of the rotors so you can not see the rotors.

[White Lightning]

really? thats stupid... how does the whole brake and hub area breathe properly then?

[DJKOR]

really? thats stupid... how does the whole brake and hub area breathe properly then?

Fords seem to use those shield things as well. I personally think it just looks stupid.

As for cooling on a ventilated rotor, the way it is meant to cool is by air being drawn in from the inside centre of the rotor and then passing over the vanes on the inside and then leaving through the outer sides of the rotor. With that in mind, the shield shouldn't have much effect on it... but I guess it depends on the use the brakes get.

[Hiro]

Some new cars use a backing type plate(like the rear backing) to cover the fronts of the rotors so you can not see the rotors.

Falcons have had that sort of thing for at least 10-15 years on most of their factory alloys...

[White Lightning]

fair enough... was not aware of that... but still... i wouldn't worry about slightly rusty rotors :P

[trentmeyer23]

Braking heat is dissipated through a variety of methods, from air hitting the rotor itself right through to the wheels. I prefer to give the rotors and calipers a hit with high temp black, just to take attention away from them.