How to make brake drum shine again...

Everybody hates rust on brake drums. So I decided to follow the procedure that I have already tried on my fathers Fabia also on my wife-s A2. Procedure is not complex, but it takes whole afternoon since you have to wait for the rust remover and paint to dry.

Brake drums at start...
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... and at finish. Just a small difference :)
Konec.jpg
 
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Tools that you need:
- something to support the car since the wheels have to be up (you can do it also one by one, but I do not recommend this, because it will take too much time). Anyway, I improvised on this one :).
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- wire brush for drilling machine, cost cca. 6 EUR
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- drilling machine
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- plastic protective glasses: a must have, because you do not want to play with your eyes and risk geting a part of wire brush in your eyes
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- rust remover (I recommend Wurth Rust converter; not cheap, but well worth the money); cost cca. 40 EUR for 1 liter and you will have it for a lifetime; attention: it is toxic, so be very carefull not to get it on skin and especially in your eyes
1Rostremover.jpg

- heat-resistant spray colour (available were black and silver, so I went for silver since it is neutral; I though of red, but I couldn't find it and if I used it I would have to paint also front disc calipera or it would not look ok); cost 5 EUR and it is enough for at least 4 sets of brake drums
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Anyway, first you have to brush all the rust from the brake drum. Be very thorough, because if you will leave some rust on, the paint will not be very durable on that part. You can see the difference between brushed and unbrushed part of the brake drum on this picture:
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A picture of brushed brake drum:
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Then you use rust remover and apply it over the drum. Before that you have to clean all the dust of the drum (I used air compressor for this). Now, you can do something else, because rust remover has to be really dry (at least 3 hours). So it is best to do it on a sunny day or leave it even longer to dry.
Rust remover applied:
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Rust remover dried (you can see that the brake drum has already completely new look):
5.jpg
 
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Because I wouldn't like also the rest of the suspension and brake drum is painted I applied protective tape on the parts that should not be painted. I taped newspaper also all around the openings for the wheel, so that no paint would go on the car paint (one way of using all junk mail that gets in your mailbox :)).
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I also didn't want the paint to go in the drum, so I applied cord (yea, improvised again :)) in the space between drum and .... (do not know how to say in English; but picture shows everything):
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I also applied protective tape on the center of the drum to prevent that paint would cause wheel not to be centered. Here is the picture of painted drum with centrally applied protective tape. After few hours that let rust remover to dry, you can use colour spray to paint the drum.
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Usually spray paint is quickly dried, so 20 minutes should be enough. But you should remove protective tape from the drum after only a few minutes and so prevent that paint is torn when removing protective tape.
Konec.jpg


And a final result:
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On my fathers Fabia drums that were treated with the procedure described above are still as new after more than half a year. Real test will be winter with salt on the road, but since I used Wurth rust converter I do not expect any problems and it should be good for a few years.

Hope this will be usefull for you.
 
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Hi

An excellent photo/text guide. Keep meaning to do mine - no excuse now ;)

Anyone like to suggest equivalent for the paint?

I see Wurth Rust converter is available on fleebay and Amazon (cheaper at Amazon at £14.49 with free p&p but it is a spray). Hammerite Kurust is what I normally use.
 
Anyone attempting this, please do not use house bricks as axle stands, as in pic 3.
 
My initial impression from the picture was that they were bits of wood. Bricks would certainly be a bad idea.
 
Not to dilute this excelent how to------the placement of the blocks on the rear beam is not a good idea as that part of the beam is not intended to hold the cars weight. Place stands on the rear jacking points. Good results and thanks for taking the time to share it with us all.
 
To save on all that masking, would it not be just as easy to remove the drums? Also you could check the linings at the same time. Just a thought. Colin
 
I agree with R5GT - the scraped alloys are much more of an issue than rusty brake drums!
 
As for the drum's don't get me wrong they look ok buuttt after all the time prep+ couple of diffrent tins would it not be just as easy to buy new drums then heat proof lacquer (As for your axle stands you a brickie ?)All jokes aside they look ok 0_-
 
New rear brakes cost only 80 quid... If the drums are very rusty outside, they're not probably fine inside either. I cleaned the new drums with acetone and painted with rustproofing base paint prior installation.
 
I just replaced mine and powder coated them, they were so flakey on the outside and worked so poorly i couldn't see the harm in replacing them, and it made me realised how heavy the things are!!

Chris
 
;)
My initial impression from the picture was that they were bits of wood. Bricks would certainly be a bad idea.
I agree, proper jacks should be used, but I had to improvise. Anyway those bricks if put vertically (as on picture) are no problem, will not break, since they manage to hold the whole house ;). If put horizontally then you have the problem and can easily break. But as already written proper jacks should be used.

As for the drum's don't get me wrong they look ok buuttt after all the time prep+ couple of diffrent tins would it not be just as easy to buy new drums then heat proof lacquer
This was an option, but I didn't go for this one from few reasons:
1.) Brakes work perfect (checked with MOT).
2.) I already had all the tools, paint and rust remover at home from other ''projects'', so the cost for this was actually 0 EUR.
3.) I like to do as much as possible myself and above procedure is very simple.

(As for your axle stands you a brickie ?
:D:D Nope...

If the drums are very rusty outside, they're not probably fine inside either.
Not necessary. My fathers Fabia had similar drums when it was only 2 years old. Brakes also worked perfect.
I agree with R5GT - the scraped alloys are much more of an issue than rusty brake drums!
The car is with us only for a month, everything will get its turn ;). Can you advise something that I could try myself? Or will it have to be done by professional? Probably the second one, so the option is to get unscrached ones and sell these, since repair in Slovenia is cca. 40 EUR per wheel. Anyway, wheels getting done is at the end, there are some other things first to be solved ;).
 
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