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Rotor Paint

quickjagg

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2002
Messages
149
Location
Maine
Corvette
White 1981
My rotors seem to rust quickly(seeing as how I have my vette sitting in a dirt floor garage) and I'm doing my best to protect everything from rust, by painting everything I can (I'm also building a wood floor in the garage to help keep my vette safe). Anyway, I was looking at VHT Brake Caliper, Drum & Rotor Coating, and was wondering if anyone has used this, or if anyone thinks that it will work. Wouldn't any paint I put on the rotor just rip rate off as soon as I used the breaks?
Thanks for any help!

-Chris
 
I cleaned mine up with a wire wheel and die grinder, then put a couple coats of hi-temp engine paint on them (plasti-coat I think). They came out nice, just don't spill brake fluid on them....the trick when bleeding them is to put the line wrench on the bleeder then attach a rubber tube to the bleeder and feed it into a bottle, haven't had a problem yet.

If you really want nice looking calipers and can afford not driving it for a while, take them apart and have them powdercoated, just make sure they understand where NOT to powdercoat as the sealing areas are critical.
 
I already painted my calipers, was just wondering about painting the rotors
-Chris
 
Hi
Never heard about painting the rotors.
For show use only on a trailer queen, yes, but as soon as you brake, gone is the paint and braking will be hopeless.
Wonder if there is any kind of stainless type rotors avail ?
Gunther
my_vette_spoke_wheel.jpg
 
Gunther said:
Wonder if there is any kind of stainless type rotors avail ?
Gunther

I'm no scientist but I've always thought that one reason stainless isn't common in high temp/friction applications is because it's composition makes it much more brittle when hot. My understanding of (again, I'm no metalurgist either so this is just li'l ole me) stainless steel is that it is created through extreme heat which causes it to become more dense and that it is also combined with nickle(?) making it essentially an alloy. Anyhow, I think the density would make it more likely to fracture at high temps. By all means, if I'm speaking through the wrong end, someone correct me.
Ignore everything you just read and scroll down to John's (JHL) post, I'm wrong:D
 
Chris (quickjagg), if you're talking about painting the center portion of the rotor assembly, aka the "hats", you can use just about any paint you want, except maybe house paint. ;)

However, I would recommend using a high temperature paint designed for such applications. That's what I did with my stock rear rotors when they started looking bad. I just painted 'em black. :upthumbs

_ken :w
 
71,

Cast Iron is very brittle hence it is common for the cooling vanes to crack when heavly used but in the right composition can be very hard and withstand constant heating and cooling along with excellent wear resistance. Nickle alloys at high temp can remain very ductile but are probably not suitable. Mechanical properties depend a lot on the mix of the alloy.



Nickel is an important alloying element. In concentrations of less than 5%, nickel will raise the toughness and ductility of steel without raising the hardness. It will not raise the hardness when added in these small quantities because it does not form carbides, solid compounds with carbon.

Chromium in steel forms a carbide that hardens the metal. The chromium atoms may also occupy locations in the crystal lattice, which will have the effect of increasing hardness without affecting ductility. The addition of nickel intensifies the effects of chromium, producing a steel with increased hardness and ductility.

Copper is quite similar to nickel in its effects on steel. Copper does not form a carbide, but increases hardness by retarding dislocation movement.

Molybdenum forms a complex carbide when added to steel. Because of the structure of the carbide, it hardens steel substantially, but also minimizes grain enlargement. Molybdenum tends to augment the desirable properties of both nickel and chromium.

Stainless steels are alloy steels containing at least 12% chromium. An important characteristic of these steels is their resistance to many corrosive conditions.

Summary

The important information in this chapter is summarized below.

Physical Properties Summary

Strength is the ability of a material to resist deformation. An increase in slip will decrease the strength of a material.

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is the maximum resistance to fracture.

Yield strength is the stress at which a predetermined amount of permanent deformation occurs.

Ductility is the ability of a material to deform easily upon the application of a tensile force, or the ability of a material to withstand plastic deformation without rupture. An increase in temperature will increase ductility. Ductility decreases with lower temperatures, cold working, and irradiation. Ductility is desirable in high temperature and high pressure applications.

Malleability is the ability of a metal to exhibit large deformation or plastic response when being subjected to compressive force.

Toughness describes how a material reacts under sudden impacts. It is defined as the work required to deform one cubic inch of metal until it fractures.

Hardness is the property of a material that enables it to resist plastic deformation, penetration, indentation, and scratching.
 
JHL said:
71,
Cast Iron is very brittle hence it is common for the cooling vanes to crack when heavly used but in the right composition can be very hard and withstand constant heating and cooling along with excellent wear resistance. Nickle alloys at high temp can remain very ductile but are probably not suitable. Mechanical properties depend a lot on the mix of the alloy.

Thanks John! See, I knew I was talking out of the wrong end again:L:L.
- Eric
 
Thanks for the help guys, I thought that the paint would just ge ripped off when I stopped, but the can said "Rotor Paint will withstand 9000* temps" so I had to ask.
Thanks again for the help!
 
I thought about "super paint" for the caliper's and decided if they get hot enough to hurt wal-mart paint the seals and stuff would melt also.I just looked yesterday and they look o.k. with plain old black spray paint.
 
quickjagg said:
... I thought that the paint would just ge ripped off when I stopped

Chris, you're not thinking of painting the surface area where the pads contact the rotor are you? You can't do that. :nono

_ken :confused
 

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