Anyway to clean up the brakes with out buying new ones?

[trevorjk]

ok so i bought a new car (new to me - 60k miles)

anyways everything on the car is immaculate but the brakes which you can easily see through the rims have the typical 'rust and old' look of cars that are frequently used.

and thats annoying me...

SO. is there anyway that i can clean these up with out potentially ruining the brakes? or would i have to get new brakes?

*back tires have drums and front tires have disk

[Muzikman]

Are you talking the rortors, calipers, or pads?

For the drums, take them off, clean them up and coat the outside with caliper paint.

For the calipers do the same.

For the rotors and pads, not much you can do about them.

[Lohman446]

ok so i bought a new car (new to me - 60k miles)

anyways everything on the car is immaculate but the brakes which you can easily see through the rims have the typical 'rust and old' look of cars that are frequently used.

and thats annoying me...

SO. is there anyway that i can clean these up with out potentially ruining the brakes? or would i have to get new brakes?

*back tires have drums and front tires have disk

The rust that you can see on the front rotors (I assume this is what you are seeing) is typical of cars that have been sitting on a sales lot for some time or not driven on a regular basis. A couple hard stops should alleviate this, otherwise, depending on what type of car you can have them turned. Or, you can use Roloc type discs and clean them off if done carefully. Personally I would try several hard stops (about two minutes apart to give the brakes time to cool off and thus not warp) to see if that takes care of it - it should.

[trevorjk]

ok to clear up my mistakes

the disc them self are fine. clear and new actually. but the caliper rotar and drums all show signs of age.

muzikman, when you say clean them up, how so? can i just take a wire brush and take the rust flakes off? or should i use a spefic method?

i can get pics tomorrow to help understand if needed

[PyRo]

ok to clear up my mistakes

the disc them self are fine. clear and new actually. but the caliper rotar and drums all show signs of age.

muzikman, when you say clean them up, how so? can i just take a wire brush and take the rust flakes off? or should i use a spefic method?

i can get pics tomorrow to help understand if needed

If the drum has big rust flakes use a chipping hammer (if you have one) to knock the big rust flakes off. Otherwise scrape it with a screwdriver or something similar. With the big chunks gone use a wire brush to clean the rust off.
For the rotor follow Lohman's advice.
For the caliper clean all the crud off, scuff them up a little and paint.

Or. You could get rid of the rice rocket rims and not worry about it

[maxama10]

id find someone that has a wirewheel or go down to home depot etc... and buy one that you can put on your electric drill