AndyK

My front hubs are really rusty looking...car came from MA. The rear ones are fine. Is this a normal occurance?? Should I be worried? Are new hubs available?

What do you think?



<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

ERAU-944

yep, thats rust alright. have you had the wheels off?... what do the rest of the hub/spacer/brake system components look like?

initially i'd say its no big deal, if you REALLY think its a problem take a ride down to the local porsche dealer or your mechanic and ask them what they think.

MadMax

Okay, I'll bite. I am assuming that this is a serious post. That would be (say it with me slowly) surface rust. It is NOT a big deal and that is not your hub. That is the hat portion of your front/rear rotor. They are attached to the rotor disc (as in, they are the same integral part)unless you have "floating rotors" like the 993tt. If it bothers you, take off your wheels, remove the rotors, sand off the rust, mask off the disc, prime them and paint them. The rotors are steel and they will rust, always.

Best Regards,
Max

AndyK

Thanks Max...

I originally thought that it was part of the rotor...but looking at my tech manual CD, a photo clearly shows those recessed phillips screws as being part of the hub, and they say unscrewing those screws will release the rotor disc from the hub.

That said, if it is just surface rust, why isn't the back wheel rotor/hub rusty too? Brake dust?

Andy

MadMax

Andy,
The phillips head screws you mention do hold the rotor to the hub. The rust question I can't totally answer. My rear rotor hats show more rust than my fronts do. Yours apparently are just the reverse. My guess is that some manufacturers use more iron and less of other metals in their alloys when making the rotors. Therefore, the rotors with more iron content tend to show rust more prominently. That is just a guess. Don't get me wrong, the rust annoys me also. I plan to remove my rotors again and paint them. I am going to use a high temp engine paint.

I would not worry about the rust being a safety issue. It would take quite a long time for the rotors to "rust through". You will wear them out and replace them years before they would rust off of the car or anything even close to that.

Regards,
Max

AndyK

The rust is ugly! Specially against the refinished phone dials that should be coming in a week or two.

I ordered new back rotors to replace the grooved ones that probably came with the car (along with a full set of OEM brake pads). I think I'll order new fronts for the hell of it, to start fresh.

As far as painting goes, how do you plan on masking the braking surface of the rotor?? I envision a paper plate with a hole cut in the middle???

Andy

Damian in NJ

Andy, guess what I'm doing today? I'm off to Pep Boys to buy some high temperature grey paint to apply to my newly arrived cross drilled rotors, they'll be mounted later on this week. I'm in Millburn if you want to take a ride to see them, and my mo30 sways that will go on at the same time. And my Prospeed powder coated calipers too.

Dave

Two items here, first.
Max, the rotor on an 8v na car mounts to the rear of the hat/hub, so what you see in the picture is the hat/hub itself, not part of the rotor. When I replaced my front reotors last spring, I found that the whole assembly must be removed from the spindle before the rotors can be removed. (EDIT; If this changed with the '87 offset change, disregard the above)
Second,
Andy, Max is right, in that this is only surface rust and while unsightly, will cause no harm. If you really want to paint it, the best way to isolate it from other parts is disassembly. I hesitate to reccomend this due to a problem I had many years ago with a similar project. I painted the center portion of the rotors and the outside of the rear drums of a VW using hi temp engine paint, looked great, but it turned out that the heat generated by the brakes was enough to soften the paint a bit. Turns out that paint and glue have alot in common, you should have seen me trying to get the f^@&!#$ wheels off, I could have driven it with no lug bolts. Maybe a better paint has been developed since then, YMMV.
Edit #2; Damian posted while I was typing, perhaps a drive in his direction is in order.

MadMax

Dave,
We are both correct. I was only addressing Andy's picture. I was not commenting on the earlier cars with the narrow offset. The rotor/hub/spindle setup did changed significantly with the later offset cars (87-).

Best Regards,
Max <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

Peckster

Mask the rotor with a bunch of smaller pieces of masking tape and then trim it with an x-acto knife. They make really high heat paints for manifolds and barbeques, either of those should do the job.