Painting brake discs??

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R2D2

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 23, 2004
Messages
6,957
Car
C350
This might sound mad but I'm getting my brakes changed this week and I hate the way the "hub" bit of the discs and also the ventilated edge rust over time. Is there any merit to painting the sides of the hub (the bit you still see when fitted) and the ventilated edge. Obviously I'd have to use high temperature paint which I happen to have a tin of in the garage.....any thoughts welcome.
 
You'd be slightly reducing the disc's abiility to radiate its heat away. Can't imagine that'd make any real difference though - just don't paint the middle of the vented "sandwich".
 
R2D2

I do this on my C55 with a brush on primer and brush on smooth Hammerite. With very open wheels it just cleans everything up nicely. Anyway luminous pink is a good colour.
 
R2 - you need help! (statement not question)
 
New tyres going on soon, refurbed AMGs, new cross drilled brakes- can't have rust appearing anywhere!!:)
 
R2,

I did the same, satin black hammerite on the outer vents and the hub part, dont worry about being too exact as any overpainting gets cleaned away by the pads, try and keep roughly to the unworn area tho.
 
As post 2 you should never paint the hub or edges as it affects heat dissipation and braking performance and is particularly more noticeable on high performance cars and it can glaze the pads.
 
Meyle sell brake discs that are zinc coated to stop this from happening.
 
R2 if you use genuine MB discs they come with a grey protective coating. Do not remove this, let the pads clear the braking surface ( which they do within the first couple of applications) and the coating will remain on the hub and rim. Mine haven't rusted.
 
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Imagine worrying about rust on the brake discs of a Mercedes ...

What about the rest of the car ?
 
I did the same to mine when I changed my front discs :)
But I get so much brake dust anyway its hard to see. But its not a problem, i 'dripped' loads of paint into the the channels between the disc plates, and made sure it coated as much as poss. without losing it through the holes.

Only time I'd say you could do it is when they're new. But make sure it heat paint for exhausts. As brakes do get hot !
 
Heat paint on the hubs only not on the edge and vents. It does make the look cleaner, but then you need wheels with spokes you can see through, otherwise you can't see anything apart from removing the wheel, but I doubt you are going to do that in the pub parking just to show off :D
 
The Zimmerman discs for my 968 coupe came with a full rust proof grey coating. As mentioned above, first application of the brakes took the coating off the contact area, the remainder stayed grey and did not rust.
 
I did the hub part on my SL disks 3 years ago when I changed to the AMG wheels as it was clearly visible and looked bad. I gave them a single coat of silver Hammerite smooth - agree the slightly reduced heat dissipation could be an issue on a track car with repeated heavy braking, but not for the way I use the SL. It's only a band maybe 1" wide, and the rest of hub portion is bolted to a huge AMG 18" heat sink ;)
 
I did the hub part on my SL disks 3 years ago when I changed to the AMG wheels as it was clearly visible and looked bad. I gave them a single coat of silver Hammerite smooth - agree the slightly reduced heat dissipation could be an issue on a track car with repeated heavy braking, but not for the way I use the SL. It's only a band maybe 1" wide, and the rest of hub portion is bolted to a huge AMG 18" heat sink ;)
Did mine with silver caliper paint that I had left over from an earlier project, good to know there are others out there that like the minor details.
 
It's fine to paint them. Plenty of discs start out fully coated, the pads wear off the coating on the disc surface within a few miles leaving the rest of the disc looking lovely. Painting the hub is fine too, the only bit I'd be careful with is the mating surface where the hub and wheel meet, I wouldn't paint that. I read somewhere that the paint can burn off/wear and can cause the wheel bolts to come loose since the thickness of the paint has effectively turned into fresh air.
 

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