C3 brake rotors

[Michael L.]

Guys,

I need to replace the rotors (front and rear) for my 69 restoration. I believe they are both original. The fronts have the TR stud markings. Is there a way to have these restored or should I just get new ones? Are the new ones a reasonable replacement? What is the quality like?

Any info or guidance you can provide would be most appreciated.

Mike

[Edward J.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Mike If Your Just Replacing The Brake Rotors, Drill The Rivits That Retain Rotors To Hubs.- Hence The Studs Can Be Left Alone. If All Possiable Have The Rotors Thickness Gaged, If They Are Orignal You Might Have Them Machined If Possiable.

[Michael L.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Ed,

Is there someone who can drill them for me? I'm doing most of the resto work myself and the thought of drilling out these rotors is making me ill.
I'm interested in replacing them because I'm doing a total frame off resto and putting these yucky, old rotors back on, even if I can have them turned down so that they will function perfectly fine, is offending my sensibilities as an artist.

Is there anyone who can do a rotor restoration for me?

Mike

[Michael W.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Best read the archives on the subject of 'rotor runout', hopefully you'll see the light and NOT change your rotors.

Unless they are structurally unsound or the friction surfaces too badly damaged for reuse, you are much better off refurbishing your existing ones. Do not separate them from the hubs for restoration purposes!

[Edward J.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Mike If You Think There Are Salvagable The Front Ones Can Be Bead Blasted And Panited -the Rear Rotors However Will Need To Be Drilled Unless You Find Someone With And On Car Brake Lath. I Prev. Did All My Brakes All Orig. Rotors ,I Cleaned And Painted The Hubs Black . I Dont Beleive That Ncrs Looks At The Rotors

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Guys,

I need to replace the rotors (front and rear) for my 69 restoration. I believe they are both original. The fronts have the TR stud markings. Is there a way to have these restored or should I just get new ones? Are the new ones a reasonable replacement? What is the quality like?

Any info or guidance you can provide would be most appreciated.

Mike

Mike----


First, you need to determine if the rotors are ok for further use. In that regard, check them for thickness and runout. If these parameters check out ok, then all you need to do is clean the rust from the non-pad contact areas with a wire wheel. Then, clean and condition the rotors with a 3M brake rotor surfacing kit. If there are circumferential scores in the pad contact surface, these are ok to leave as-is as long as the thickness and runout check out ok. The rotors DO NOT need to be machines just to remove this type of scoring.

I do recommend removing the rotors from the car as follows:

front----remove rotor and hub assembly from front spindle. This is very easy to do. Re-condition the rotor after it's off the car.

rear----remove rotor and spindle as a riveted-together unit. If you are restoring the car, you'll want to rebuild the rear trailing arm assemblies, anyway. So, just have the rotors and spindles removed, re-conditioned, and re-installed in the trailing arms as part of the trailing arm rebuild.

Many rotors are needlessly replaced. The rotors on my 1969 are original, have 200,000 miles on them and have never been machined, at all.

[Jim T.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

The original rotors on my 68 have a lot more miles left, only about 98K on them now. My 70's original front rotors have 160K.

[Michael L.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Joe,

The car is totally disassembled. I can check the thickness, but not the runout, at least not for now. All four of these rotors seem to have either been painted or sand blasted by the knucklhead who started this resto. They have a dull grey finish all over them , even on the pad contact surface. I'm going to use some thinner this week and try and see if it is paint. If it is and the thickness checks out, can I just hit them with some black semi-gloss? Were the rotors painted from the factory? If they were sand blasted then I don't think I can just dress them with the 3M stuff you mentioned. Also, the rears have already been removed from the spindles, but I'm planning on sending the trailing arms out to be restored. Should I ask them to rivet the old rotors back on? Since the rears were removed from the spindles is the damage already done, meaning should I just go ahead and replace them (the rears)? Can the resto shop who is doing the trailing arm rivet on new rotors and make the whole setup good as knew?

Mike

[Jim T.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Yes the rear rotors can be rivetted to the spindles when they are serviced/restored/reconditioned. www.bairs.com advertises in the NCRS Driveline and is the only place I know of that rivets the rotors to the spindles and then trues the assembly. You can truly enjoy some trouble free driving if Bair's does the work on both of your control arms. A lot of new parts are used if Bair's does the work and they even will send you shipping boxes.

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Joe,

The car is totally disassembled. I can check the thickness, but not the runout, at least not for now. All four of these rotors seem to have either been painted or sand blasted by the knucklhead who started this resto. They have a dull grey finish all over them , even on the pad contact surface. I'm going to use some thinner this week and try and see if it is paint. If it is and the thickness checks out, can I just hit them with some black semi-gloss? Were the rotors painted from the factory? If they were sand blasted then I don't think I can just dress them with the 3M stuff you mentioned. Also, the rears have already been removed from the spindles, but I'm planning on sending the trailing arms out to be restored. Should I ask them to rivet the old rotors back on? Since the rears were removed from the spindles is the damage already done, meaning should I just go ahead and replace them (the rears)? Can the resto shop who is doing the trailing arm rivet on new rotors and make the whole setup good as knew?

Mike

Mike-----


The rotors were not originally painted. However, I like to remove all rust from the non-machined areas and paint with HIGH TEMP cast blast. Otherwise, these areas are going to rust very quickly. The HI TEMP cast blast, especially after it heat cures from in-service frictional heating of the rotors, looks very natural. Not absolutely perfect, but better than rust.

You can probably remove the existing paint with a paint remover like Jasco.

If the rotor machined surfaces have been sand blasted, they may need to be re-machined. However, it's also very possible that the 3M kit will make them usable depending upon how much "micro-pitting" the sand blasting has caused.

If the rotors are to be machined, I recommend as follows:

1) Fronts---machine with riveted-on hub; do NOT separate hub from rotor. Have a MINIMUM cut taken----just enough to clean them up.

2) Rears----DO NOT have rotors machined if you're going to have the rotors re-riveted to the spindles. You want to leave as much "meat" as possible on the rotors. Let Bairs machine them AFTER they have re-riveted the rotors to the spindle.

[Jamie F.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

Drilling out the rear rivets is fairly easy. The metal is soft and should go fast. Take a punch and center punch them, and drill.
I still had the origianl rivets in my rear rotors until last month when I had to drill them out to fix the parking brake. I took pictures first to document, and they drilled out in less than 10 minutes.

[Steve L.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

As Jamie says,it's easy to drill them out.
I just used a hand drill, center punch, and 2 or 3 new drill bits starting with the smallest. Some posted the largest bit to use.

If you can remove a spark plug, you can do this.

[Michael W.]

Re: C3 brake rotors

If you can remove a spark plug, you can do this.

But not everybody has the equipment or experience to deal with runout/no brake issues after they've taken the plunge with replacement or resurfaced rotors.