[Damaga]

Hi All, thinking of painting my hubs firstly would you recommend is and secondly can you recommend some paint?

[chris330D]

They do rust easily and there have been a few threads on this I you do a search. It is worth doing and I used Hammerite Smoothrite in silver to match the alloys.

[Brian mc21]

+1.

[acerboo]

mine werent rusty even though the car was 3 years old so were easy to paint, i bought some paint in a spray can from a car paint shop and covered it in laquer from the same place 1 year on and they still look like new. make a cardboard cutout to fit over the hub to stop the spray going on the disc, you can also do the calipers. buy some thinners so if you do get overspray on the discs you can remove it. make sure the weather is warm and dry.

[mistryn]

As above but I got the hammerite over rust smooth paint - black. i got this because it was on offer and plus you can paint directly over rust.

But I used a wire brush attachment on a drill and took most of the rust off and painted on

[Jules59]

Smooth Hammerite silver worked fine for me after a bit of work with a drill powered wire brush to de-rust. The centre where the nut is was terribly rusty on all four wheels at 18 months from new.

[parapaul]

Is it just the BMW discs that rust? I've never had rusty hubs on any other car.

Would changing to aftermarket (even OEM spec) discs solve the problem?

[chris330D]

Seems to be the BMW ones. Never had this with any other car. As supplied they have the thinnest of layers of paint on them and that is tr problem a it is not enough to stop tr rust . Looks like cost saving exercise.

[Mr Plum]

I did mine when replacing the discs. Used a grey zinc primer, two coats of BMW Titan/titanium silver spray paint and then 2 coats of clear lacquer. All paints and sprays from Halfrauds.

Good long lasting finish...

[Dr Dave]

Has been discussed to death here!

[JDLM]

same process

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by Mr Plum

I did mine when replacing the discs. .

That's the best time to do it IMO, when you're fitting new discs and you can do it properly on a bench (spraying).

Smoothrite is good when they're on the car, but hard to stop brush marks. I found that constantly turning the hub with a 32mm socket and t-bar with one hand as you drag the brush with the other hand to gave a continuous brush pattern.

So that means handbrake off - make sure you've chocked the other wheels properly.

But if you're painting them on the car, don't worry about getting any on the friction face, a dab of the brakes just fetches it all off no problems, with a nice clean edge too.

[Hotcoupe]

Swopped my wheels over this week,so took the opportunity to do mine.

Good going over with some wire wool and wire brush,mask up disc and bag the caliper.
I masked up a spacer to save getting paint on the hub.



3 coats of straight on rust Hammerite,followed by 2 coats of ali paint and finished off with a coat of clear lacquer.

Job jobbed!





Cleaned the front hubs with some wire wool, buffed up with some Autoglymn metal polish, and cleaned and polished the calipers.



Just got to spruce up the lockers and finito.

[NickP]

Looking good

[m1bjr]

Originally Posted by Mr Plum

I did mine when replacing the discs. Used a grey zinc primer, two coats of BMW Titan/titanium silver spray paint and then 2 coats of clear lacquer. All paints and sprays from Halfrauds.

Good long lasting finish...

Until you get it hot.
A mountain pass or a trackday and just watch the smoke POUR off them

[Mr Plum]

Can't say I've noticed smoke pouring off them at any point in the last 10k plus miles, but then i'm not a late breaker and try to drive as smoothly as possible without causing undue stress to components (not to say I don't use it as it should be). Each to their own..

My OBC says my front discs need replacing in 70,000 miles...

[jimmylad]

I did mine the same way ( primer, paint & Laquer) & no smoke at all & still look mint. the finish looked fantastic to be honest in sapphire black.

I didnt bother masking the discs though as the pads soon cleaned any overspay off.

[NormanHomes]

When i bought my car one of the previous owners had done the rotors calipers red.

Quickly sorted that with some halfords matt black. Just canned the disc and caliper without masking anythign either, wiped off any excess. 1000 times better

[Thackers]

Originally Posted by chris330D

They do rust easily and there have been a few threads on this I you do a search. It is worth doing and I used Hammerite Smoothrite in silver to match the alloys.

Hi...I've just bought exactly the same paint from Halfords..
Did it work ok?

Any issues with the paint melting etc?

[gaza01]

Front hubs are zinc coated so u need and acid etch primer. Rear hubs are not zinc coated so u need a zinc primer to help prevent rust...this is if you are going down the spray can route

[Thackers]

It's a brush applied paint which can be painted directly on to rust if needed but I would remove rust before using..

[gaza01]

A dremel works wonders to get the rust off