Can disc brakes be kept nice looking?

[Bird Horse]

We've seen them, calipers that are just a ball of crust and rotors that will give you tetanus just lookin' at them. You buy 'em nice and, well, grey. And the next day? reddish-brown. Is it possible to stop, or at least slow this down? For context, still fixing up the old '94 SHO. This is a car that does see at least two good long highway trips a year, but sits in the driveway most of the time, well at least when my Kia isn't sitting and waiting for her new engine . And no wintertime drving. If I choose to have them redone, I will probably have the calipers done in the zinc-type plating that I believe was factory, not the cheap grey paint all the store brands use. No idea if the factory rotors had any sort of coating, but still wanna mitigate the dark crusty edge and hub.

 

[Wylie6G72]

Have everything except the friction surfaces and surfaces that have been machined, where the brake pads ride, powder coated.

The coated GM rotors I bought for my 2015 Canyon many years ago are still in factory condition. You can get quality, you just have to pay for it.

 

[Bird Horse]

I see. Perhaps a clear powder coat over zinc plate? Factory look with two layers of protection? But i assume I wouldn't want it coated where the pads ride in the caliper? If that goes rusty, wouldn't it spread to the rest of the caliper under the powdercoat? Sorry if its a stupid question, I havn't graduated to that from rattle cans yet.

 

[f355spider]

I've done this. I just clean them up a little with a wire brush, then mask off with newspaper. I rattle can two coats of zinc primer, then two coats of the paint of my choice...usually basic silver, then a coat or two of clear. It will last for several years before I feel the need to repeat. This is on a daily driven truck that sits outside.

You can do the same with the rotors, but easier to remove them. I have prepped the same with a wire brush, took a box and made a simple cut out to expose just the hub. Same paint process with rattle cans. I never worried about the edge..but you could buy some zink paint and silver paint and a small roller brush and do them. I would think the heat will cook it off the edge pretty fast the first time you get some good heat in the rotors though.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Coated rotors are awesome. The coating lasts years, and even then, they slide off easy when it's time to replace them. Powerstop Geomet coated rotors are often the best in price and availability

Also, any of the new zinc coated calipers last a long time too. The coating holds up. Even the cheap ebay calipers are coated nicely.

 

[Bird Horse]

Coated rotors are awesome. The coating lasts years, and even then, they slide off easy when it's time to replace them. Powerstop Geomet coated rotors are often the best in price and availability

Also, any of the new zinc coated calipers last a long time too. The coating holds up. Even the cheap ebay calipers are coated nicely.

Lol, not the case with Carquest. Powerstop stuff does look pretty nice, maybe for my other Taurus.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Lol, not the case with Carquest. Powerstop stuff does look pretty nice, maybe for my other Taurus.

I installed ebay calipers 5 months ago, and they still look good

 

[TheMAN]

Coated rotors are awesome. The coating lasts years, and even then, they slide off easy when it's time to replace them. Powerstop Geomet coated rotors are often the best in price and availability

Also, any of the new zinc coated calipers last a long time too. The coating holds up. Even the cheap ebay calipers are coated nicely.

as long as it's not ROHS compliant junk trivalent chromate zinc plating, but the evil hexavalent chromate plating... the latter should be a dark OD green color for brake calipers... ROHS junk is the silver crap that doesn't really last but looks pretty... you might as well paint them to get the corrosion resistance you need if you have those

 

[iCurious]

Coated rotors are awesome. The coating lasts years, and even then, they slide off easy when it's time to replace them. Powerstop Geomet coated rotors are often the best in price and availability

Also, any of the new zinc coated calipers last a long time too. The coating holds up. Even the cheap ebay calipers are coated nicely.

Not quite in my case. I am trying out Bosch Quietcast now. We will see..

 

[Hall]

I painted the calipers on a previous car with POR-15 silver paint. Used some type of surface rust remover - it was some viscous goopy stuff first. That POR-15 held up perfect after ~10 years (I sold the car). Brake dust would accumulate on them and I would hit them with brake/parts cleaner and lightly scrub 'em with a small bristled brush if I had the wheels off.

 

[buck91]

Coated rotors are awesome. The coating lasts years, and even then, they slide off easy when it's time to replace them. Powerstop Geomet coated rotors are often the best in price and availability

Also, any of the new zinc coated calipers last a long time too. The coating holds up. Even the cheap ebay calipers are coated nicely.

I, too, am having pretty decent service out of Powerstop Geomet. Seems to hold up a little better than the Raybestos but thats hard to say

 

[Burtess]

as long as it's not ROHS compliant junk trivalent chromate zinc plating, but the evil hexavalent chromate plating... the latter should be a dark OD green color for brake calipers... ROHS junk is the silver crap that doesn't really last but looks pretty... you might as well paint them to get the corrosion resistance you need if you have those

The standard stack for OEM calipers now is Zn/Ni + trivalent passivate + seal… performs better than Zn + hexavalent chromate of the past