For those who are waiting till there stock rotors wear out before replacing them with something all shiny and zinc coated(Brembo,Stillen etc.). Here is a easy and long lasting way to get rid of that ugly rust and keep those rotors and calipers looking good. The paint I use is a High heat(1200F)100% stainless steal pigmented paint(no color choices). This stuff will last almost forever. I have used it on my last Maxima for over 130,000 miles with only minor touch ups over 7 years or so and it still looked great. The only place I know where to buy it is McMaster-Carr catalog but perhaps you can go straight to manufacture(see pics). You can just paint the rotor with out masking brake pad area as that will just clean itself when using them the first time. A little masking of brake pads and some around caliper area is all that's needed.


Before.. Rusty nastiness..



After, understated satin finish

 

Nice, so you don't have to do any baking to get the paint to seal? Just clean and spray, that's it?

 

That's awesome, post up a link to where that stuff can be purchased, I'll do it tomorrow ;-)

 

Basically bakes itself on with use of the brakes. On the first drive you might want to keep driving for like 20 minites while keeping a decent amount of heat in the brakes. No need to drive the **** out of it. Here's a quote from web site I bought mine from..
"After the coating has completely dried, the surface requires heating at 400° F for 30 minutes to fully protect."
I wouldn't recommend heating your brakes to 400° F but just some spirited driving for like 20 minites should do it. That's all I did with my last Maxima and it held up great. This one is a week old and looks to be holding up fine.. No bubbles or cracking.. I wouldn't recommend getting the brakes wet until it's fully cured as well. Might get some permanent spots or something. So yes just use some brake cleaner and maybe a wipe with a lint free cloth and spray away.

And as far as where to get it I only know McMaster Carr has it.. Never seen it anywhere else.

Here's a link.. 3 from the bottom.. Part # 7721T37
http://www.mcmaster.com/#stainless-steel-paint/=clz740

Update.. Here's a link to the manufacture
http://www.steel-it.com/

 

^ very nice find indeed, i painted with duplicolor on my last car and they held up nicely for a year before starting to flake probably cause of the pressure wash... so i take it its the 7721T37 from the website you listed, the $15 aerosal can, right? thanks

 

^ FWIW, i used VHT on my Maxima and that thing has outlasted the zinc coating on the Powerslots i used to have on there. It's been on since 2007. Did sand it first, however.

 

^ tnx! i was wondering if it was worth spending another $15 since i already have dupli one in my garage, but if it lasts at least 3 years then its worth it, im getting it today! but then it'll take me a month to get this one

 

That's a good idea. Nice results.

 

props, will do this eventually

 

btw what is the best way to heat up brakes? coming to slow stops from fast speeds like at stoplight? how long do you recommend driving around the city? or can this be achieved on a long highway drive with frequent light braking?

 

Hmm . . . 400* seems like nothing. Why not just pop them in the oven?

 

^ that would require extra work of taking the rotor off, you can easily do this while the rotor is still on the car with some painters tape and newspaper covering.

 

Correct on the part number and 7oz can.. It is expensive and for such a small can none the less. But it does perform better than any other high heat paints I tried. Even stands up to brake cleaner after fully cured. As far as how to heat them up while driving, yes 2-3 quick stops from 60mph. No need to stand he car on it's nose.. Plus once they are warm I would avoid stopping if you can. If you do stop pop the car in neutral and get of the brakes completely. That will help stop pad to rotor heat transfer and avoid glazing the pads or rotor. If you have to stop maybe pop her back in gear for a moment to roll a little bit forward too just so the pads don't stay in one spot on the rotor. If you can keep driving around 25-45 mph just enough to promote some cooling but slow enough so they stay warm. After maybe 5 minites of cooling do a couple more hard stops and repeat the process. You wont need to stop as hard after the first time because you will already have a decent amount of heat in them. Don't overheat them.. Not worth ruining your rotors or pads.. I suppose to see if you are getting some temp in them you could quickly jump out of the car and feel the wheels after a stop or 2 and then get back driving right away. They should be warm but not hot. Plus you will smell the stuff baking away.

Also, I just noticed that the can says 15 minites for curing. Not the 30 the catalog says. So that should speed things up. I think the secret to it's longevity is the stain steal as the pigment.. Once baked on it's very stable compared to any paint like pigment. Just too bad no color choices for other things. But in this application I would choose this color anyways.

 

nice gonna do this for sure.

 

There is a catch! I don't live in a snowy state, so the rotors i had were only subject to our short snow episodes and sandy overpasses. I don't think we even use salts here.

If your rotors are new, warm it up with several slow-downs from 20mph a few times and work your way up to 60 at 10mph increments. Drive around a few minutes without touching it and then start with the high-speed stops. It's similar to break pad bedding procedures. The warm up is to protect the rotors from thermal shock. As much as possible, and as already mentioned, don't stay on the brakes (complete stop, pad to rotor) for any extended period of time -- mainly to prevent uneven pad transfer, or too much heat going on in any one area of the rotor.

Here's a tip i got from my HPDE instructors regarding uneven pad transfer. Overnight, spritz some water on your rotors. You should have a nice rust build-up by morning, this helps scrape the rotors clean the next two or three stops you make.