phoenix

After a couple of hours on the first front wheel (one the car) I was able to drill out the rivits and get the rotor off. The second wheel took about 20 minutes, since I knew what I was doing then :D.

My brake shields and hubs are horribly rusted and the shields are bent.

Should I buy new brake shields or bend out my old ones and then paint them with POR15? Can I paint the hub too, or will that change my runout on the rotors?

I'm shooting a ton of photos of everything that I am doing so that I can pass on this information to the next novice working on the front end. Thanks for all the help :cheers:

Jughead

Well, first off, your gargage is WAAAAYYYY too clean! :lol: :lol: You gotta mess it up a little to do serious wrenching! :lol:

If I coulda got my dust sheilds off I woulda replaced them. I don't think they're costly. I couldn't get that last bolt to the spindle loose so rather than risking rounding it and the subsequent misery and cursing that comes with rounding bolts, I opted to paint the spindle and shield with POR-15. I painted the spindle black and the dust shields silver.

phoenix

Luckily, mine came off (a lot of elbow grease though :D)

I think that new ones are around $35 each... versus cleaning them and POR15.

Do you think that painting the spindle will alter the runout on the rotors?

Jughead

Do you mean the hub? I didn't paint mine, I just cleaned them us a bit. I didn't think it was needed since they're hidden. I think Woodwrkr painted his though. Let me know if you need his e-mail address.

woodworkr

I painted my front hubs when I did the complete brake overhaul. Remember to stuff a small rag into the center of the hub before painting. I don't think that it is a good idea to get any paint into the bearing race. IMPORTANT.....clean clean clean. While you have the hub out clean the bearing race completely. Also it would be a good idea to replace the inner and outer wheel bearings as well as the bearing seal. I also knocked out the lug studs and replaced then as well as the lug nuts while I was in there. If you do that, usually the new studs have to be pressed into the rotor. Here is a way to do that yourself. Take an old lug, put it on the new stud backwards (so that the flat side of the nut will ride against the rotor. Using a 1/2" drive ratchet and a vice, just keep tightening the lug until it is pressed all the way in and the new stud is flush agains the back of the rotor. Worked for me :)
If you want to paint the calipers, make sure that you get no paint on any of the bleeders. If you look in my signature there is a link to a Yahoo photo album where you can see pictures of what the calipers and rotors look like after painting. If you go to the yahoo link, open the album titled My Photo Album, there are lots of pictures there. You are right in saying that you can not see much of the painting, except a bit of the caliper showing through the slots in the wheels. But the painting will prevent the rotors and calipers from rusting up. Also, when the car is moving and the slots in the wheels blend into one you can really see the nicely painted calipers :D
email me if you need any help.
JoeB


[Modified by woodworkr, 7:45 AM 12/17/2001]