A Quick Saturday Morning Project

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the oem hats are zinc plated and tend not to rust. the aftermarket zimmermans don't have paint or zinc plating on the hats. they rust quickly.

[23109VC]

i have OEM rotors on the back - the hats are matte black. NO RUST.

I recently redid my front rotors and used zimmerman rotors. didn't paint the hats - as the m echanic did the install for me - and they rusted quickly.

I am going to be painting my calipers this weekend - and when the wheels are off, I am going to paint the hats. I want to do it with the rotors ON the car - I am too lazy to pull it all off.

any suggestions on masking to make sure I do this right? I am also going to probably toss on some spacers too.... H&R which are silver in color.

i had thought about just painting the fronts - but odds are it will look weird if the front / rear hats are different in color.... i'll notice it and will buck the heck out of m e... so i will likely repaint all four hats.

not sure if I should do them in black - or go with a silver to try and match the spacers. or should I spray the spacers too so they exactly match the hats??

also - should I brush the hats or should I mask and spray?

any suggestiosn on what kind of paint to use? i ordered the G2 kit for the calipers - in red - but I figure for my hats I can just hit the local pep boys and get inexpensive high temp paint - and either brush the hats or spray.

i don't think it will be a big deal to paint the main front surface, but the part that is immediatley next to the braking surface - any suggestions on how to get a nice clean line there and not have it all messy loooking.

if I mask it with blue painters tape - how do I nicely mask it so that it is perfectly"round" like hte shape of the rotor? i havne't pulled the wheel off to try it but it just seems like when I go to do it the painters tape will not easily conform to a nice shape... or will it?

i'm open to suggestions. this is gonna be an all day deal, and at least a 6 pack.

"any suggestiosn on what kind of paint to use? i ordered the G2 kit for the calipers - in red - but I figure for my hats I can just hit the local pep boys and get inexpensive high temp paint - and either brush the hats or spray."

also you may want to take a look at this link, it has a DIY for painting the calipers using " Dupli-color engine enamel ", the link is to Pedros Garage

http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site%203/Paint%20the%20Calipers.html

[rockbox]

[QUOTE=23109VC]
if I mask it with blue painters tape - how do I nicely mask it so that it is perfectly"round" like hte shape of the rotor? i havne't pulled the wheel off to try it but it just seems like when I go to do it the painters tape will not easily conform to a nice shape... or will it?


Some hobby shops have special masking tape for models that is very flexible and you can make some nice curves with it, comes in widths up to 1/2 in. or maybe 3/4, been a while since I've used it, then the blue stuff on top of that should work fine.

later
dave

[Blue-S]

If you paint the hat area of the rotor, including the area where the wheel mounts, you should regularly check lug torque. This is because the paint film under the wheel will fatigue with use, resulting in loss or reduction of torque on the lugs. This is why OEMs don't paint the portion of the hub where the wheel mounts. The exception is rotor plating, such as the Dacromet zinc-rich coating that some manufacturers use; in this case the whole rotor is usually plated.

[23109VC]

I am NOT going to paint any of the surface area where the wheel actually mates up to the rotor.

I found some websites showing guys basically use lots of smaller pieces of blue painters tape to mask off the rotor braking surface and the flat area where the wheel bolts up... then they bagged the caliper and then sprayed with hi temp spray paint.

i'll probably use silver of some kind.. similar to the color of the wheels....