Hello,

After some thoughts and opinions please.

 

I am thinking about painting the centres of my brake discs to tidy them up as they are starting to look a bit untidy.

 

I'm happy with the idea of painting the part of the disc between the face the wheel bolts to and the brake pad swept area, but what are your thoughts on painting the face the wheel bolts to?

 

The reason for asking is that although the OEM wheels have a circular centre which covers all of this face, my aftermarket alloys don't. Therefore there is a portion of this face visible between the spokes. I've done a little reading online and the biggest issues I can find are the possibility of the paint not being the same thickness causing an alignment issue, the paint fusing the wheel and disc together, or the paint 'vaporising' behind the wheel causing the bolts to go loose.

 

Any thoughts would be interesting.

Thanks,
Matt

Similar to the last potential problem you mention, there's a possibility that if you paint them, even super-evenly, but then don't give the paint long enough to totally harden before you use them, the paint will get squished out of the contact areas after you've torqued up the wheel bolts, leading to a reduction in pre-load on the bolts (loosening, in other words). Re-torqueing the bolts after a few days should overcome this worry though, as would leaving it to dry for plenty of time before use, but the latter may be tricky if you need the car next day after painting or whatever.

I can see your thinking. Maybe I need to choose a day (or two!) I can leave the wheels off for a while!

I wouldn't paint the whole mating face. Use a scribe to mark out where the wheels sit with them in situ if you can. Then just paint up where the wheel will touch.

 

Or, mask everything off and spray paint the whole face, at least that way the coat of paint will be a lot thinner and of a uniform thickness

I'd had that thought. If I used spray paint, surely the paint would be thinner (?) so would be less likely to cause issues.

 

I like the idea of scribing, but then when I put the OEM wheels on there would be 5 raised areas they could be resting on.

I have always wanted to paint my brake hubs, never had the courage to do it in case it looks a mess..... is they specific paint you can buy for this type of job ?

It shouldn't look a mess if you take your time. Just make sure whatever you are painting is clean and dirt free. Although I painted the discs on the car, in the past I have painted them whilst new off the car which was easier.

 

In terms of paint, I've used this:

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-body-repair/specialist-decorative-paints/halfords-high-temperature-engine-enamel-paint-gloss-black-250ml

 

I have found it easy to apply with a 1/2" brush and gives a good finish. I've now used it on brake discs and exhaust trims! You can buy brake calliper paint, but I had this already. Also, I think that the brake disc is more likely to get hotter than the calliper.

 

If I remember, I'll take a picture tonight and post it.

I have always wanted to paint my brake hubs, never had the courage to do it in case it looks a mess..... is they specific paint you can buy for this type of job ?

I've used normal Hammerite before and it hasn't caused any issues, there is not that much heat in that area under normal driving, especially seen as the wheel act as a heat sink. If you are hard on your brakes or drive it hard I would maybe get something that could cope with the heat better.

Make sure it's dry before you use the car, I painted mine a while ago with some left over brake calliper paint and I ended up rushing it and got spec of red paint over my alloys.

Other than that make sure it's clean and free of rust and grease mask up the areas you don't want to paint and away you go, give a coat of two of lacquer and you should be good.

As well as "squeezing out", paint on the clamping surface can also chip, leading to a loss of clamping pressure. DAMHIKT!