Can you bead blast brake rotors

[CalsXS2]

I let my friend talk me in to bead blasting my rotor. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to it to get it back to a shiny, chromey looking finish. You know. More natural looking instead of gray looking.

I thought about trying some paint thinner but wasn't sure if that had anything in it to contaminate my pads.

Or I even thought about buffing it with an unused pad.

Any ideas. Thanks

 

[hard_y_rd]

I got a good rotor if you want to buy it.

 

[CalsXS2]

I got good rotors too.

I just want to know if this one is ok from the bead blasting, and can I shine it up some how.

 

[650Skull]

Friends are the smartest people in the world

Maybe get some wet and dry paper, (400 or more), and use water or WD40 as a lubricant when polishing.

I quite like using WD40, i buy it in 4 liter containers.

Thinking about it...........has the bead blasting slightly pitted the disks, if so then the surface area wont be completely flat and you may have to re-surface them a bit more.

I remember RG using wet and dry on his orbital sander to resurface his discs but they were the later one piece 77 and on type

 

[mrkil]

Take it to someone and have it turned. It's the correct way of fixing it

 

[retiredgentleman]

Friends are the smartest people in the world

Maybe get some wet and dry paper, (400 or more), and use water or WD40 as a lubricant when polishing.

I quite like using WD40, i buy it in 4 liter containers.

Thinking about it...........has the bead blasting slightly pitted the disks, if so then the surface area wont be completely flat and you may have to re-surface them a bit more.

I remember RG using wet and dry on his orbital sander to resurface his discs but they were the later one piece 77 and on type

Skull.....................no orbital sander. I just used my drill press to spin my brake discs, with some emery paper to clean up the surface; works really well!
http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37&page=4

 

[Royboy]

What RG said. Or, I have had rotors turned on a lathe but chatter can be a problem. You need to find someone who knows what they are doing.

roy

 

[maynard911]

The original question was "Can you bead blast brake rotors". The answer is yes. I have bead blasted rotors, pads, drums, and brake shoes with excellent results.. If done with fresh, medium to fine beads you are left with a matt finish that has a bit of a sheen to it. In the first 100 miles or so of use the rotor will regain it's polished look. The matt finish helps new pads or shoes to seat quickly on rotors and drums that have not been re-cut.
The rotors in the picture appear to have been blasted with media too coarse or too aggressive. I believe another pass through the cabinet with the right media will fix things.

 

[fredintoon]

I let my friend talk me in to bead blasting my rotor. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to it to get it back to a shiny, chromey looking finish. - - -

Hi Cal,
as the disk is already off the bike, now is the time to improve it's performance by drilling it full of holes.
Then just put it back in the bike and run it.
It'll be a bit grabby until the surface smooths out but it'll polish up all on it's own.

 

[olddude13]

what was the medium Black oxide? or glass bead?
I clean up disks with very fine glass bead mostly to clean up carriers, but you can't help doing the disk surfaces and the painted edge.
In this case i would chuck it in a lathe and spin along with holding a die grinder with a 3m blue pad on it. after that let the pads do the rest.

 

[wannabridin]

Properly sized glass bead shouldn't do much to the finish of the part, at least not as aggressive as your pictures seem to show. I've done the entire exterior of my engine with very fine glass bead at around 40 psi, and it looks bright and fresh without being shiny. Brake rotors should not be as dull as you're showing, meaning you were too coarse. The shiny look comes from the polishing action of pads on the rotor.

Either hit it again with a finer sized bead or have it re-surfaced/parallel ground

 

[olddude13]

Yes i have had great success with light glass bead and walnut shells in terms of engine clean up.

 

[CalsXS2]

I used 80 grit glass beads that barely had any use on it.

I don't think it is as rough as it looks to you guys. I took it to 3 different machine shops today, well one was O Reillys, and they all said they would run it like it is. But they would also gladly take my $40 if I really wanted them to.

So what I did was look at the rotor on my TX750 to see what part of the rotor does not come into contact with the brake pads. I then took my Dico wheel chucked up in a drill and smoothed out the part that will not get scrubbed clean by the pads. Made quick work of it.

It turned out well I think. Kinda hard to see good in the pic. Good enough though for me to keep my $40 and give it a try. I might hit it again to even it out better.

Does this look acceptable to you guys.

 

[jd750ace]

Run it. I blasted mine with 80, drilled it, then surfaced it with 150 grit in an orbital before re-painting the center and the outer edge of the wheel with satin black dupli-color caliper paint. Looks fantastic. I did the pads with plastic bead to clean them up. There are public pics on my photobucket under jd750ace in my XS stuff file.

 

[CalsXS2]

Run it. I blasted mine with 80, drilled it, then surfaced it with 150 grit in an orbital before re-painting the center and the outer edge of the wheel with satin black dupli-color caliper paint. Looks fantastic. I did the pads with plastic bead to clean them up. There are public pics on my photobucket under jd750ace in my XS stuff file.

Guess I'm not smart enough to find you on photobucket. Can You post a link. Thanks