Brake Disc Protection?

[DFish]

My new rear discs and pads arrived today, but I want to stop them rusting up like the originals currently fitted. I'll be taking a goold ol wire brush to the calipers to clean them up and ensure they are moving freely.

Thanks

Fish

[craggle]

Did my Range Rover discs with a Zinc rich primer from Halfords. It's actually called Upol Weld #2 and is designed to be a primer used between panels when you spot weld them together but it also works as a very good paint primer I find and it's silver in colour to start with.

I degreased the discs well with paint thinner or brake cleaner then a coat of the zinc primer then a coat of silver Halfords spray and a clear coat over the top. Worked very well on that and no corrosion to be seen after 3 years.

I intend to whip the wheels off the iQ in the summer and do the same to those discs and callipers.

Craig.

[Guest]

Well, that sounds just Dandy Craig. I think in the summer/warmer days that are ahead I will be taking my wheels off and hopefully paint the calipers. Still have not decided on a colour yet, but edging toward red. Have to think of colour that will stand out but not 'clash' (there's a girlie word- no offence girlies) with the car colour. Of course, I'll have to borrow my Dad's wheeled jack and ramps, but the effort should be worth it. Of course, it might never happen either. I now have an X-Box 360... game on! BTW, can you paint any part of the discs? Obviously, the non contact parts I am talking about.

[craggle]

Hi Bob

You can pretty much paint the whole disc but avoid the inside face that mates against the hub as that needs to remain clean so when the disc is bolted on it runs true to the hub and dosen't wobble about making your brakes vibrate. I normally just apply some grease to this face to stop it sticking to the hub. On the Range Rover ones I didn't bother to mask the brake surface either, just let the overspray get on there then it gets scraped of again as soon as you use the brakes.

I have painted callipers before too using the standard range of Halfords paint. You can buy proper high temperature calliper paint but you won't need it unless you intend to race your iQ, Brake pads during normal road use just don't build up enough heat to bother the paint.

On my Kit car I used a brush on enamel paint from the local tractor spares place over a sprayed red primer, looked great and still looks the same a few years on.

Craig.

[Guest]

Hi Bob

You can pretty much paint the whole disc but avoid the inside face that mates against the hub as that needs to remain clean so when the disc is bolted on it runs true to the hub and dosen't wobble about making your brakes vibrate. I normally just apply some grease to this face to stop it sticking to the hub. On the Range Rover ones I didn't bother to mask the brake surface either, just let the overspray get on there then it gets scraped of again as soon as you use the brakes.

I have painted callipers before too using the standard range of Halfords paint. You can buy proper high temperature calliper paint but you won't need it unless you intend to race your iQ, Brake pads during normal road use just don't build up enough heat to bother the paint.

On my Kit car I used a brush on enamel paint from the local tractor spares place over a sprayed red primer, looked great and still looks the same a few years on.

Craig.

Sooo, how long did it take you to make your Kit Cobra? I definitely think the brake calipers look best painted, especially when seen through alloy wheels. Nice wheels on the Cobra BTW. Thanks for the tips Craig. That'll save me some money on the paint. Hammerite paint; is it any good for the calipers?

[craggle]

Spent about 3 years of evenings and weekends building the car.

It's a Dax kit with Jaguar XJS running gear and a 5.7 litre Chevy V8 with somewhere around 400bhp. I've recently been working on changing it from a carburettor induction to a fuel injected system which is working very well at the minute. Need to get it on a rolling road sometime though to get it all dialled in properly.

Hammerite should be fine on the callipers I reckon, Might be worth a coat of zinc or etch primer before just to make sure it sticks to the zinc plating finish already on there.

I can't decide on colour for the iQ callipers either. I did the Range Rover ones dark green to match the body colour but my iQ is silver and I think plain silver callipers might look a bit, well, plain. I'll have to do some photoshopping and colour them red to see what I think.

Craig.

[tarquin]

Fantastic "Cobra" work Craig.

David

[s44gtw]

I am a bit iQ less at the moment & my face is almost as Red as the brake calipers that i have so obviously on show.

(& my tiny rear discs on show to all.)

They will be covered by the end of the day when a set of sensible wheels/tyres are fitted.

Enjoy the weather over the next 48 hours.

Looks like Winter tyres while be favourite for many this weekend.

george

[DFish]

Here's the reason why I needed some new brakes to be fitted. :o

http://fish.247id.net/Pictures/iQ/Pads.jpg

Just a little uneven!

Fish

[craggle]

Hmmmm, That looks a bit worn!!

Are they all like that or just a one off?

Craig.

[DFish]

No it was just that one, but the squicking was doing my jead in and the discs were rusted to crap also.

Fish

[craggle]

Red callipers on my car?

Craig.

[Guest]

They look good Craig. I think the red suits the silver of the car very well. It's not going to be so easy for me with ours being purple. I think I will follow your lead and try a little Paint Shop Pro- s'what I use. If I get it to look good enough, I'll post on here. Don't hold your breath though. Red does stand out on yours well good innit?

Well, here they are. Judge as you like, You Like? You no Like? And in Yellow too.

[DFish]

On purple I wouldn't go red. Either Black or Yellow IMO. Black to be hidden, ot bright lambo yellow to be seen. :)

Fish

[Guest]

On purple I wouldn't go red. Either Black or Yellow IMO. Black to be hidden, ot bright lambo yellow to be seen. :)

Fish

That's it. I am going to try the Yellow. I think Black is a good colour too, kind of stealthy... in a way. But the yellow! Sounds good. Funny you say about the disk/s squeaking, ours are still making that damn irritating noise when we pull away from the house, or if the car has been parked a while in a car park. I thought at first it was because the disc faces were a little rusty and just needed to wear off with breaking. Yesterday we noticed it was making a rhythmic squeaking leaving a multi-storey car park. I hope ours are not like that or I can see we'll be calling Motorline Toyota in Canterbury again wondering why they are so damn worn!

--------------------------------------------------

08-02-2012 Well, it looks like I'm not going to be painting the calipers at all. My wife does not like the idea of painted calipers, in any colour. So, Black it is then.

[DFish]

Bob, its worth checking them. Took me a little over an hour to replace both discs and pads on the rear, and that was becuase I dont have a nice ramp and air tools like a pro garage. :(

The squeaking was down to the simgle pad above! Pants but all sorted now.

If I'm parking the car for a while I stick it in first and dont use the handbrake. This I've found helps stop the brakes binding/sticking if not being used.

Fish

[Guest]

Bob, its worth checking them. Took me a little over an hour to replace both discs and pads on the rear, and that was becuase I dont have a nice ramp and air tools like a pro garage. :(

The squeaking was down to the simgle pad above! Pants but all sorted now.

If I'm parking the car for a while I stick it in first and dont use the handbrake. This I've found helps stop the brakes binding/sticking if not being used.

Fish

Thanks for that Fish. First dry day we get I'm going to have a closer look, and put into practice leaving it in gear -with a big note on the dash saying so cos I forget easily- to see if that makes any difference. They look alright, and they brake very well, no squeaking then -during braking. They did the same thing today too. Trouble is, there are so many roadside puddles on the roads here, they don't get much chance in this weather not to go rusty. I think I'm going to take it to the garage we used to use in Bishops Castle. Mike, or one of his 'colleagues' will have a look at it on the ramps, whip the wheels off and lend an opinion or two.

Unfortunately I don't do maintenance any more as I would forget the reassembly procedure, what went where. Even if I wrote it down, did diagrams and so on... sad but true.

[Guest]

Decided to buy some paint to make the brake calipers (?) look better. I got some Hammerite Silver Smooth. Waiting for a few nice days to get it done. BTW- An earlier post above (number 16 by Dan) mentions me checking the brakes as they were squeaking. When I took the car in for it's new computer -good job by William A. Lewis of Shrewsbury- they checked the whole car -a visual check- and said they (along with lots of other items) were fine.