Pugnacious P

+1 my next trip to home depot will include stop in paint aisle. I hate that rust it's just as bad as the crappy bolts holding the wheels on.

AndyK

Yup! If I had the energy, I would have painted the bolt heads. Or, better yet, I'd buy a set of stainless bolts on ebay.

For now, I moved the most rusty bolts to the back wheels, where they are burried in the rim.

I never had this paint flake off, it seems rock solid, like it bonded with the rotor. Give it a try!

perryinva

I just did all 4 of mine today, with Duplicolor high temp caliper paint (with ceramic)...less than an hour total, once the car is already up & wheels off. All 4 of my wheels are getting refurbed, straightened, trued, welded, powder coated, so the car is up on 4 jacks for a few days. Perfect time to do it. I'd post pics but I have to resize them and upload them. Personally, tho, I'd much rather put 5 or 6 light coats sprayed than hand brush. The masking takes like 3 minutes a wheel, and the finish is so glossy you can see the holes in the rotor reflected in the paint. Rock hard finish, too..All the time is in the prep, derusting, etc, which you have to do regardless. The other reason I did mine, was that the wheels were VERY difficult to remove, and the cause was easily seen by the galvanic corrosion residue on the tangs of the wheel hubs. Even painted, I'll still use some anti-sieze on the tangs to be safe.

AndyK

I hear ya, but my 'prep' was wiping the rotors down with a towel soaked in simple green. That's it. And, I really wasn't going for a showroom paint job on my rotor hats - just something that looks better than rust. I also didn't want to go anywhere near my car with spray paint. No matter how I mask something, spray paint always tends to wind up somewhere I don't want it!

perryinva

AHHH, when I post my pics, you'll see why that was not possible for me!! My fronts (which are about a year and 6k miles old) were SOLID 100% rust on all non-pad surfaces...impossible to paint without a lot of prep. My rears were about like yours, so prep was much shorter

deckman

I did mine yesterday also. I sanded down the fronts because they were rusty. They turned out well. I took pics but have to figure out how to resize them for posting here. I have doubts about the paint lasting due it not being high heat spec'd. The wheels get hot and they are attached to the rotor hat so I assume they get hot as well. The rotor disc certainly gets very hot. We'll see. If the paint fails it's no big deal as this was an easy job and could be redone with the caliper paint, even though I'm not looking for a high gloss look.

I uploaded some pics. The first is one of the fronts before. The second is one of the fronts after being sanded. The third is after painting but before wheel mounting. I'll take another with the wheel on and the paint edges smoothed from the pads.

AndyK

Let's see some pics then! Sold rust must have been pretty ugly - I bet your wheels look 100% better!

deckman

And here it is mounted with the excess paint rubbed off by the brake.

AndyK

Nice! Man, your rotors were rusted to hell! So, you used the same paint I used in spray form? Looks like the same texture.

deckman

Andy, yes same paint brushed on. The reason they were so rusted (just the front ones) is because when I painted my calipers late last fall I was going to paint the hats then so I prepped them. Which means they were down to bare metal over the winter. Anyway, after I finished with the calipers I was exhausted and didn't feel like messing with the hats. That's about 6 months of rust.

AndyK

Had you known how easy it would be to brush on the Rustoleum, you probably would have done them 6 months ago, right?

deckman

Absolutely! I was going to spray last time and that really requires a lot of prep.

perryinva

That's a nice gloss on that finish!!! As glossy or glossier than mine..easy to see the rotor holes. Mine were bit rustier than yours, but I did more prep and got 99% of all the rust off, then wiped down with acetone before I sprayed. I'll post pics tonight. deckman, you painted your black calipers, red? With spray on caliper paint?

deckman

Perry, I painted the black ones red using Duplicolor caliper brush on paint. It took at least four coats for the calipers if I recall correctly. I did spray on a couple coats of clear. I should have done my hats then when the car was masked, but i was shot and done with it.

Funny you mention the high gloss on the hats. I wasn't going for that really, just wanted to get rid of the rusty look. The flash from the camera makes it appear more glossy that it really is. This was a truly easy job. Took the opportunity to clay and wax the inside of the wheels while all of them were off.

perryinva

Pretty self explanatory