"M.B." <mailinglists@moparhowto.com> wrote:
> No, it's not the sticky oil stuff they put on them to keep from rusting
> in the box. If I get those I always put 'em in the sink and scrub them
> with dish soap, which makes the wife upset. ;)
Brake cleaner should work well for cleaning that stuff off also.
> These are EBC rotors, which I don't think they make anymore, I bought
> them as an early Christmas gift to myself in late-October when I had
> some spare cash. They're slotted and dimpled (not cross drilled) and
> have a "black zinc" coating on some surfaces of the rotor, said to
> "prevent corrosion". It wears off the friction surface of the rotor,
> but stays in the dimples and slots to keep them from rusting, and
> supposedly prevents corrosion on the other surfaces of the rotor.
Zinc is probably the most common corrosion barrier; almost all of
the nuts and bolts you'll find in the hardware store are zinc coated.
Its available in several colors including silver, blue, gold and
black, amoung others. Zinc protects the metal in two ways; the first
is by providing an oxygen and moisture barrier between the steel and
the atmosphere - this is the same way almost any protective coating
works, such as paint. However, zinc has an added level of protection
- it acts as a sacrificial cathode, so even if the zinc layer is
damaged and the steel is exposed (such as a scratch), the zinc in that
area will corrode before the steel, and the steel will not begin to
rust until the zinc is gone.
It sounds to me like the rotors you got were simply black zinc
electroplated. Probably this will make the rotors look nice for a
while longer, but won't impart any functional benefit to the rotor,
IMHO. It shouldn't impart any deterimental effecs either though, so I
wouldn't worry about that. If I were buying rotors, I'd probably go
for the zinc plated version as long as they weren't more than a few
dollars extra over plain rotors. Someone with a show truck might put
a higher premium on their rotor appearance though.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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