Early 30s Brake Drum Paint

[elyKekalB]

Hello, 

 

I have a 1932 Dodge Brothers DK8 and according to the paint charts the chassis is suppose to be body color. My quandary has to do with what product to use to paint the brake drums. First off, I live in the mountains of Maryland so warm/hot brakes can be an issue. My paint rep says that he doesn't have any paint that will withhold the heat brake drums might reach and my powder coating guy says the powder coat might burn off as well.

 

I know a lot of early 30s vehicles have color chassis and just wondering what everyone did to match their brake drum color. 

 

Thanks!

Kyle

[edinmass]

Paint them every few years. As ling as you're not in the Rocky Mountains, you will probably be ok. My 36 Pierce has 25K on it, and the paint is still fine, and it's been up and down Mount Washington Auto Road five times.

[ply33]

I used plain old acrylic enamel on my '33 Plymouth drums many, many years ago. Back when you could still get acrylic enamel in my area. Paint is still on the drums.

 

Don't drive it like a modern car with power disc brakes: Downshift for engine compression braking on the longer grades and you will keep your brakes from getting too hot.

[Rusty_OToole]

I use Tremclad or Rustoleum same as on chassis and suspension parts. Never had it burn off or blister. If your brakes really get smoking hot (extremely unlikely) you could use black barbecue paint or high temp paint made for brakes, headers etc.

 

This reminds me of an experiment I did years ago when I put a new exhaust system on a Dodge pickup truck. I painted the whole thing with some aluminum stove pipe paint I had laying around. 10 years later the system was completely rust free. The paint never burned or wore off. The first 2 feet or so next to the engine turned a darker shade but the muffler and pipes looked like new. This was not expensive paint, ordinary hardware store paint made for hot stove pipes.

[keiser31]

I don't believe the chassis on the 1932 DK8 was ever painted body color unless the body was black. I could be wrong. I would love to see any notes that claim the chassis was body color. I think 1928 was the last year for that. If going with black on the drums, John Deere Blitz Black is awesome stuff for that. They use it on tractors and tractors sit outside a LOT.

[TexRiv_63]

The original 34 Packard I used to own had a factory body colored undercarriage including the brake drums. The 86 year old paint which I assume was an enamel was still mostly intact. I cleaned and painted the drums with Krylon satin clear and had no issues but I did not drive the car extensively.

[elyKekalB]

1 hour ago, keiser31 said:

I don't believe the chassis on the 1932 DK8 was ever painted body color unless the body was black. I could be wrong. I would love to see any notes that claim the chassis was body color. I think 1928 was the last year for that. If going with black on the drums, John Deere Blitz Black is awesome stuff for that. They use it on tractors and tractors sit outside a LOT.

 

Keiser31,

 

I'm going from the body color paint I found on sandblasting off the old paint. The lowest level was the Limousine Blue #2 which is my body color. Plus the 1932 'New Dodge Eight' pamphlet shows a rendering of a body color chassis. I do believe that it was only a DK Straight 8 thing as my fenders should also be body color and they are black on the DL Straight 6. 

[PFitz]

Many years ago, I tried high-temp engine enamel for brake drums. Here in hilly CNY it blistered.

 

Back then I called and talked with techs at the PPG technical hotline.  They mentioned adding the DRX80 hardener catalyst to Delstar acrylic enamel will raise the operating temp from 400F up to 600F sustained and 800F intermittent. Since I switched to that none of the many brake drums I've painted over the years have blistered. I also use that same mix for air cooled engine cylinders and it holds up very well.   And that's over cleaned bare steel primed with one good coat of PPG DP-40 epoxy primer.

 

Paul

Edited June 12, 2020 by PFitz (see edit history)