New rotors: Hub prep?
 

Greetings! I've got a complete set of new Zimmerman Coat-Z rotors from our host waiting to go on and the install instructions say a) the hub should be "metallic bright" and also that b) no grease or anything should be used.

I'm using emory cloth to clean off the old gunk, which gets me (slowly!) to metallic bright.

Q1: Any faster-but-known-safe methods? I have air, die grinders, roloc wheels.....

Q2: Metallic bright isn't going to last long here in the rust belt. This interface seems to scream for anti-sieze. What's the downside? I will say that despite the age (who knows; >5 years, > 50k miles) of the previous rotors they came off ok and there wasn't a ton of corrosion in there, but I've no way of knowing what type prep was done last time.

Thanks!

The coating on the Zimmermans? A couple of good hard brakes and the area is clean. Leave the rest of the coating alone. Just did mine last week.

Consider changing your brake fluid as well.

Thanks for that, but no, not the rotors. I'm asking why I shouldn't put antisieze on the hub surface after I scrape all the scale off of it. Zimmerman say no, but I live and drive in the rust belt- that freshly descaled surface will rust like mad.

Did that a few years ago, did not do anything to the rotors and had no problem and they still look like new.

I just replaced my front rotors with the Zimmermans. Before bolting the rotor to the hub I sprayed some Fluid Film on the mating surface to (hopefully) prevent rust.

From their site:
Wheel hub
◾Contact surface must be bare (no rust or dirt it may be present).
◾Do not apply any grease or similar products

I wonder if this is mainly for heat transfer? In any event, you could probably tap out the lugs and to get at the surface more easily.

Recommending that grease not be used is probably due to the possibility of getting said grease on the friction surfaces and reducing the braking effect. High rotational speeds could allow grease to migrate into areas where it is detrimental.

That said, I do use some products on the hubs to reduce corrosion. I have seen some jr mechanics using a BFH on my wheels (Ford or Chevy) to remove them from the hubs. Having seen that, I no longer allow them to remove the wheels, and do the job myself.

Cleanliness of the surfaces is essential for balance and alignment. So doing a good prep job is essential. One speck of dirt can cause the wheel to wobble.

Nothing wrong with a thin (very thin) coat of antiseize on the hub contact surface. I've seen exactly what the concern is, where rotors or wheel bearing assemblies refuse to come free due to lots of corrosion. Anything you can do to prevent that is a good thing. The paste is not going to create any problems. The wheel studs clamp the rotor to the hub and the grease isn't going to somehow detract from that.

Awesome- thanks for the well reasoned feedback. Pretty much what I'd thought, but one can never be too careful. I miss obvious **** all the time.

The techs at the Chevy shop I visit use a lot of the antiseize paste on the hub assembly for the trucks. Apparently they see this problem a lot. Point being is that most techs aren't wasting time doing something like this if it doesn't somehow benefit them. I guess they figure it's time well spent now, cleaning it up and coating it with antiseize, vs. the next time the truck comes in for brakes and they have to fight the battle of getting the rusted rotor off the hub