Rust on wheel hubs

[larsie]

I had some new wheels put on yesterday on my Mk5 GTI and I noticed that there's quite a bit of rust on my wheel hubs. The new wheels look great (GTC GT-CX 18" in matte anthracite) but really highlight the rust - not quite the look I was going for! Has anyone had any success in getting rid of the rust? I couldn't find anything on point in other posts.

[larsie]

Found the following thread from another forum with pics of the same rust issue I have. Not much information on what they used to paint after using a wire brush to clean the rust.
Rusting wheel hubs... - VW GTI Forum / VW Rabbit Forum / VW R32 Forum / VW Golf Forum - Golfmkv.com

[wai]

You can help reduce the amount of rust visible by painting the hubs with a rust stop product. Typically they are a phosphoric acid solution that converts the rust and iron to iron sulphate. When you apply it you have to let it soak into the rust otherwise all you are doing is converting the outer layer. It has to get right to the base metal.

[brad]

Wire brush the hubs then spray with some hi temp paint in the colour of your choice. Mask of the friction surface (the shiny bits) of the disc & plug up the wheel bolt holes with paper first.

When I did mine I just used normal Dulux spray enamel & it worked fine but I'm not harsh on my brakes either, so they don't get very hot (and melt the paint). YMMV

[Hillbilly]

Wire brush the hubs then spray with some hi temp paint in the colour of your choice. Mask of the friction surface (the shiny bits) of the disc & plug up the wheel bolt holes with paper first.

When I did mine I just used normal Dulux spray enamel & it worked fine but I'm not harsh on my brakes either, so they don't get very hot (and melt the paint). YMMV

When i was bus driving the manufacturer supplied us with 22 new rims to replace faulty ones. The first thing that was done was a mechanic spent a day REMOVING ALL THE PAINT on the inside of each MATING SURFACE of the rims.
Why because it can rub and wear away and the wheel will come loose.

I would NOT paint hubs for the same reason.

Another truck mechanic told me the same about paint on the outside where the wheel nuts went and always made sure it was removed if rims had been sprayed. Mags and steel hubs can cause corrosion due to dissimilar metals and cause wheels to be hard to remove off hub centers as well.

[brad]

We're mainly talking about the part you can see (the "horizontal" part), not the mating surfaces.

I understand what you are saying but IIRC, trucks rely on the wheel nuts for centering & not the hub spigot. Also, trucks have more wheel nuts over a larger PCD so you have to be much more even with clamping forces.

So yes, you are totally correct but for std car hubs you don't have to be as fussy. What's more likely to happen is the paint will "melt" & stick the rim to the hub.

[Diesel_vert]

I had some new wheels put on yesterday on my Mk5 GTI and I noticed that there's quite a bit of rust on my wheel hubs. The new wheels look great (GTC GT-CX 18" in matte anthracite) but really highlight the rust - not quite the look I was going for! Has anyone had any success in getting rid of the rust? I couldn't find anything on point in other posts.

Just replace them with brake discs that are coated from the factory, such as these: ATE coated brake discs

ATE is only one of many, many manufacturers that now offer coated brake discs for a wide range of models. Brembo, Textar, Zimmerman (and others I'm sure) also have a line-up of such products.

[larsie]

As Brad mentioned above, it is the horizontal part of the hub (someone called it the hat of the hub) that has the rust rather than the rotors. I'm going to go to one of the auto places such as Autobarn or maybe Bunnings tomorrow and grab some supplies - wire brush, rust stop product. I'm probably not too fussed about making the hub look great but it would be nice to get rid of the rust and not have the hub be so noticeable - I'd much rather people notice my shiny new wheels!

[larsie]

I finally got around to doing something about my rusty rotors. It only recently dawned on me that I had no idea was I was talking about. I thought the rust was on the hub when in fact the rust was on the rotors (as some of the people who replied to this thread clearly stated and me not being too bright only just realised!). My discs were pretty much due for replacement so I decided to replace my front pads and discs (dba T3 4000 slotted discs and Hawk HPS pads). It took me three hours to do (problems with trying to loosen the carrier bolts) but well worth it. Here are some pics:

New discs and pads - a set on Flickr