Hello everyone! I've been wanting to do this project since my Cobra front brake upgrade that I did last summer discolored on me and made me want to throw up every time I saw the front rotors. Hopefully this how to will help some fellow Stang people do the same project and freshen up their rotors. This could be done to the rear as well if you want, but my fronts were the ones that were the worst by a long shot. I was lazy and didn't do anything to the rotors when I installed the Cobra brake kit and paid for it. Here are some pics of the rotors with the wheels on the car (winter wheels) YIKES!!!!:
View attachment 269430
Here are most of the things I used to help me with the process (I forgot to take the pic before I used all the stuff):
First off, jack up the front end of the car and place it on jackstands. Remove the wheels to expose the horror:
View attachment 269432
Remove the two caliper bracket retaining bolts on the back side of the caliper bracket and pull the caliper and bracket off of the rotor. Place on something tall like a bucket or suspend with a coat hanger, etc. Watch out for the brake lines as they can be fragile (especially stock rubber ones). Remove rotor from the hub by pulling or slightly pounding from the back with a rubber mallot:
Take the rotors to an area you can work on them and sand down the problem areas. I used 120 grit automotive sandpaper because the staining seemed decently easy to get off. 120 worked like a charm. I sanded the inner section of the rotor including the hats and also sanded the edges of the rotors. I didn't get every bit of the discoloration off, but it was very much improved:
View attachment 269434
After this step, I put on rubber gloves (not shown) and cleaned the rotors off with brake cleaner to make sure there was no grease or hand oils on the surface that would interfere with the paint process. I ended up keeping the gloves on for the rest of the process through the painting steps:
Now the rotors are ready to be masked off for painting. Electrical tape works great because you can make it conform to a much better circular pattern than other paint tapes. I masked off the swept portion of the rotor as well as the hat area so the wheels would not contact any paint when the rotors were back on the car. I also masked the entire back of the rotor except for the very outside edge that I wanted to paint as well:
At this point, I began to paint the rotors. I used the directions on the VHT can and used three coats. First and second were done pretty lightly and the third was a more heavy coat. I let 10 minutes go by between coats. It was also cooler outside than I would have liked so I added time if I had to. When the painting was done, they looked like this:
View attachment 269437
AT THIS POINT OF THE PROCESS I DID SOMETHING THAT NOT EVERYONE WOULD PROBABLY REALLY NEED TO DO.
So me wanting to see what else I could do, decided to follow the baking instructions for the paint on the VHT can. Since the paint has ceramic in the paint, it will harden and be more durable if the paint is cured by heat. I know the rotors get hot on the car, but I wanted to do it the way the can said to see how it would work. I baked the rotors in the oven in 30 minute at temperature and 30 minutes cooling intervals. I baked them at 250, 400 and 475 degrees (it wanted 600 for the last time around, but my oven won't go that high!). It did smell somewhat, but not bad at all. Nothing says lovin like rotors from the oven!
View attachment 269438
After cooling in my garage, I reversed the process to put the rotors back on the car. Here they are back on the hub with the caliper and bracket reattached:
And finally, the finished results with the wheels back on in the light! I'm very happy with the results and it took about 8 hours, but that included 3 hours or so of baking/cooling time. I can't wait to see what the FR500's look like back on the car!:
Sorry for the long post with all the pics, but I wanted to try and help out others who wanted to spruce up their rotors as well. Thanks everybody! :SNSign:
-Nate
View attachment 269430
Here are most of the things I used to help me with the process (I forgot to take the pic before I used all the stuff):
First off, jack up the front end of the car and place it on jackstands. Remove the wheels to expose the horror:
View attachment 269432
Remove the two caliper bracket retaining bolts on the back side of the caliper bracket and pull the caliper and bracket off of the rotor. Place on something tall like a bucket or suspend with a coat hanger, etc. Watch out for the brake lines as they can be fragile (especially stock rubber ones). Remove rotor from the hub by pulling or slightly pounding from the back with a rubber mallot:
Take the rotors to an area you can work on them and sand down the problem areas. I used 120 grit automotive sandpaper because the staining seemed decently easy to get off. 120 worked like a charm. I sanded the inner section of the rotor including the hats and also sanded the edges of the rotors. I didn't get every bit of the discoloration off, but it was very much improved:
View attachment 269434
After this step, I put on rubber gloves (not shown) and cleaned the rotors off with brake cleaner to make sure there was no grease or hand oils on the surface that would interfere with the paint process. I ended up keeping the gloves on for the rest of the process through the painting steps:
Now the rotors are ready to be masked off for painting. Electrical tape works great because you can make it conform to a much better circular pattern than other paint tapes. I masked off the swept portion of the rotor as well as the hat area so the wheels would not contact any paint when the rotors were back on the car. I also masked the entire back of the rotor except for the very outside edge that I wanted to paint as well:
At this point, I began to paint the rotors. I used the directions on the VHT can and used three coats. First and second were done pretty lightly and the third was a more heavy coat. I let 10 minutes go by between coats. It was also cooler outside than I would have liked so I added time if I had to. When the painting was done, they looked like this:
View attachment 269437
AT THIS POINT OF THE PROCESS I DID SOMETHING THAT NOT EVERYONE WOULD PROBABLY REALLY NEED TO DO.
So me wanting to see what else I could do, decided to follow the baking instructions for the paint on the VHT can. Since the paint has ceramic in the paint, it will harden and be more durable if the paint is cured by heat. I know the rotors get hot on the car, but I wanted to do it the way the can said to see how it would work. I baked the rotors in the oven in 30 minute at temperature and 30 minutes cooling intervals. I baked them at 250, 400 and 475 degrees (it wanted 600 for the last time around, but my oven won't go that high!). It did smell somewhat, but not bad at all. Nothing says lovin like rotors from the oven!
View attachment 269438
After cooling in my garage, I reversed the process to put the rotors back on the car. Here they are back on the hub with the caliper and bracket reattached:
And finally, the finished results with the wheels back on in the light! I'm very happy with the results and it took about 8 hours, but that included 3 hours or so of baking/cooling time. I can't wait to see what the FR500's look like back on the car!:
Sorry for the long post with all the pics, but I wanted to try and help out others who wanted to spruce up their rotors as well. Thanks everybody! :SNSign:
-Nate