Painting rotors - think this will be ok?

[spta97]

I purchased rotors and cermaic pads from Autozone back in July. After about 1000 miles they started squealing so I got replacement rotors and pads today. The ones I put on previously formed rust around the hub part as well as on the surface of the rotor near the edges (the pad does not make contact with the last 1/4" or so of the rotor on both sides).

Not wanting these new ones to rust and look crappy, I decided to paint them with rotor and caliper paint. Originally I was going to tape off the surface, but that would have allowed the edges of the rotor to rust so I decided to hit it un-taped with the spray paint.

My hope is that one sweep with the pads will cut / wear the paint off and leave the edges painted. My fear is that this paint will gum up the pads and cause me some problems.

So what's the verdict, should I be worried about guming up the pads?

Thanks..

 

[Alec]

yes you should be worried. rust is normal on brakes and paint on the friction surface is a nono.

 

[spta97]

Can you elaborate? It's not to late for me to remove the paint. I understand rust is normal, but I don't like it!

 

[Robb]

Remove The Paint From The Contact Area Of The Rotor Now.

edit: do they actually make caliper and rotor paint?

double edit: can't capitalize all letters now..............cool

 

[spta97]

Remove The Paint From The Contact Area Of The Rotor Now.

edit: do they actually make caliper and rotor paint?

double edit: can't capitalize all letters now..............cool

Please explain why. Since the friction of the surface would wipe off anything on the rotor would not the paint heat up and disentigrate?

Yes, it specifically says on it that it is made for rotors and calipers. It is high temp paint (900 degrees f) that is resistant to brake dust. A buddy of mine painted his calipers and they looked awesome.

 

[Robb]

My fear is that this paint will gum up the pads and cause me some problems.

You answered your own question.

 

[spta97]

Since I will be returning the old pads, I'm thinking of doing an experiment on them. I found this link on line where the guy did the same thing and didn't mention any issues:

Painted Rotors

I'll inspect the old pads once the paint is removed and see if they do gum up or not, then install the new ones. I appreciate the advice, but I don't know if anyone has experiance with this. I've accidentally gotten caliper grease on the friction surface of pads in the past and it just wears away with a few presses of the pedal. I can't imagine paint would be worse and it's only 3 very light coats.

To be on the safe side, I'll take the truck out with the new rotors late at night so there is no one else on the road.

 

[Glacier991]

I'll look forward to your update. The advice you've gotten is old tried and true, but in fairness to you, a lot of old tried and true thoughts have been proven misplaced. Candidly I am on the side of those giving you the advice against your plan, but I wanna see how it works, since you have a set of pads to "burn" as it were. let us know. That's where this site shines. Think out of the box and share. May not work at all (my money is on the don't side) but hey, it may be fine ....go for it. SHARE.

added thought: Try em out on a deserted road.... you ARE expecting some early "bad" braking results I would assume, until you burn em off?

 

[nailhead_sled]

Nice link….No surprise that the same individual who works on his front end without jackstands also thought it would be a good idea to paint the entire rotor.

If memory serves, on the side of caliper paint kit it states ‘Avoid overspray on contact areas…may affect braking performanceâ€￾

 

[Black Magic]

That link is a perfect example of bad information being passed arround on the internet! His method could cause you brakeing problems. You should try your best to not get any paint on the contact area of the rotor. I can't say that it would break your brakes but it might cause them to not work properly for a period of time.

Just clean them off. Clean the pads or replace them and Drive Happy.

 

[Charlie's_93EB]

I remember some like this before, some guy painted his rotors and pads silver, and everyone warned him to get ones, and a week later him said it was a joke.

 

[spta97]

Nice link….No surprise that the same individual who works on his front end without jackstands also thought it would be a good idea to paint the entire rotor.....

Hmmmm....THAT is a bad idea!

 

[spta97]

I'll look forward to your update. The advice you've gotten is old tried and true, but in fairness to you, a lot of old tried and true thoughts have been proven misplaced. Candidly I am on the side of those giving you the advice against your plan, but I wanna see how it works, since you have a set of pads to "burn" as it were. let us know. That's where this site shines. Think out of the box and share. May not work at all (my money is on the don't side) but hey, it may be fine ....go for it. SHARE.

added thought: Try em out on a deserted road.... you ARE expecting some early "bad" braking results I would assume, until you burn em off?

I appreciate this board for exactly the same reason. I'm not stupid by any stretch of the imagination and have given thought to how paint behaves once dry and applied. I'm theorizing that it will flake off on the first or second pass as if you were running sand paper on it. The heat generated on the pad surface is an extreme that most materials (actually any I can think of) cannot survive.

I do expect the brakes not to have the same performance as any new rotor / pad would (the spongy feeling) but I don't think they will suffer for more than 2 rotations of the wheel. I refer back to the rushed brake job I did where I smeared caliper grease on the pad surface and when I wiped it off it just soaked into the porous surface. It was about 30 seconds before they were back to normal.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Why not just sand it off as much of the contact area as possible?

 

[spta97]

Why not just sand it off as much of the contact area as possible?

Originally I had taped off the whole contact area, but then I realized that the pad did not make contact with the edges (near the hub or near the edge of the rotor). I had taken a pad and tried to measure where it did not contact but it would be impossible to get the tape in perfect position to cover the contact area and not cover the non-contact area. The same would hold true for sanding.

If all works out, when I do the rear rotors the rust outline is already there so I may be able to fill in the contact area with liquid masking or just regular blue painters tape. Then I'll have to use a dremmel to remove the rust, then paint.

 

[spta97]

Well I did it - on one side anyway. I figured since I had to take apart both sides after putting on the new rotors I would just try it on the driver side with the old pads and save me some work. I'm happy to report everything was fine. The braking was a little spongy for the first 10 feet then I pulled over to check the rotor and about 1/2 the paint was removed from the surface. It was smoking a little where the paint was burning off (as I expected) and after a couple more feet of braking they returned back to normal.

I was happy to see that I didn't have to compress the pistons so at least the rotors I got did not wear down in the 2000 miles or so that I put them on. The pads did have a little wear so I'll have to compress when I put the new ones on.

There were a few stress cracks in the paint around the surface so I don't know how long it will last but I'm hopeful at least the rotor hub will remain rust free. I'm waiting for things to cool down at which point I will post some picks of the old pads and the new pads to see if any of the paint material worked it's way into them (I don't think it would have lasted).

So, all and all it seems to have worked as I had hoped! I'll wait a few hundred miles before I go after the rears. On the rear brakes I will be using the existing rusted rotors so they'll be more of a challenge.

 

[spta97]

I got an e-mail back from the guy's link that I posted. He said that eventually all the paint wore off of his rotors (including the hubs)

I'll give it a few thousand miles before I try the rears to see if mine will wear off as well. I'm happy I tried it though - nothing ventured nothing gained!

Only down side is I'm cooking like a hamburger in the sun today :fire:

 

[spindlecone]

Cool
You have gone where all others have feared to tread, a true pioneer.
What color did you paint them? can you post a pic?

 

[expo5.0]

i just taped off the rotor where the pad didn't actually contact it, so that i painted about a 1" ring on it. i think that is the best of both worlds

 

[spta97]

Here is the finished product after the wheel has made contact with the rotor hub and scratched it some:

Here were the old pads, one with the painted rotor and about 5 miles and the other without the painted rotor. I forgot which one was which so I guess there wasn't any difference

After all that my SQEAK IS STILL THERE :fire: I give up! I've lubed and re-lubed everything so I have no idea where it is coming from. All the bolts are torqued down to spec (according to my Haynes manual) so if anyone has ideas of what could be causing the sqeak please let me know. It happens after the rotors are warmed up and when coming to a stop (at the end of the braking process).

I need a shower now....

Edit: After seeing those pics it looks like I'll have to paint the calipers down the road as well. What a can of worms I've opened up