I know I do...and I wanted to go with the "ready to race" open hub look with my new wheels, but my hubs have quite a bit of rust on them. Am I the only one? Does anyone have any rust solutions?

 

I believe they are cast iron. They only have to get wet once and they will rust.

 

Powerslot holds a possible solution

Alex

 

OK...as you may be aware, I know next to nothing about how all this stuff works, but the parts that are rusty are the nuts and stuff (in the front) and the "cups" in the back--all of the stuff dead center of the hubs as viewed from the opening in the center of the wheels. Would there be hardware from Powerslot that would replace these rusty parts?

I was hoping more for a cleaning method and/or a product that would get rid of the rust and keep it gone...

Help a MINI out!

 

Several options.
OEM parts are not finished and with time will corrode and rust out.
If you wish to keep your OEM hubs/rotors and just clean them then:
You can use jellied Rust remover painted onto the rust lightly coated and wait 5-10 minutes for the rust to dissolve then wash off with water. For heavy rust scrubbing and longer time to set is OK. Then you need something to coat the metal to prevent further rust. Something simple is Wheelwax (wax that repells brake dust) but it won't last that long. You can paint the rusted area but not the rotor surface with engine (heat resistant) paint. Just tape up the rotor disc, mask off the area to paint, prime the metal and paint it. Wait to dry then use.

If you choose to replace the hub/rotor then the Powerslot rotors are an excellent choice for durability and stopping power with a reasonable price(and they have a nice rust resistant finish). The other option are the cross drilled rotors at a lower cost but they are more prone to stress cracks that run between the holes. They won't hold up as nicely as powerslot rotors.

 

You could always use naval jelly (rust removing jelly) and get the hubs cleaned of rust then paint them with caliper heat resistant paint like this:
http://www.roadfly.org/mini/gallery/...10745,1;-31,8;


You can paint the calipers after you clean them of brake dust.
You can paint as much as this example or less. The paint is heat resistant and durable. It is a two part paint that is mixed together and available from different sources like Mini Mania and Moss Motors and Outmotoring. etc

 

Wow! That's absolutely electric!

See, my problem isn't so bad, except for the VERY center of the hub. I'm only referring to having a particularly annoying rust problem on what would be the little "cup" dead at the center of the hub. The rear wheels just have little "cups" (see the picture above) which would be easy enough to clean of rust (I guess) and then perhaps paint silver (or black, or whatever). But on the front hubs, it's a little bit different of a setup. Dead center of the hub, you've got a brass-looking nut threaded on in the center. The brass nut part looks fine to me, but the area around that is all rusty. To paint, I would have to remove the nut (or paint it on!?) before I could effective remove the rust. It's a much tighter little area, and it's the part that's bugging me the most.

So could I take that nut off while the car is up on stands without doing any harm?

Also, how scared should I be of this naval jelly rust removing stuff? Will it be necessary for me to totally spazz out if it touches things that I don't want it to touch (namely my SKIN or anything PAINTED!)?
_________________

 

>>Wow! That's absolutely electric!
>>
>>See, my problem isn't so bad, except for the VERY center of the hub. I'm only referring to having a particularly annoying rust problem on what would be the little "cup" dead at the center of the hub. The rear wheels just have little "cups" (see the picture above) which would be easy enough to clean of rust (I guess) and then perhaps paint silver (or black, or whatever). But on the front hubs, it's a little bit different of a setup. Dead center of the hub, you've got a brass-looking nut threaded on in the center. The brass nut part looks fine to me, but the area around that is all rusty. To paint, I would have to remove the nut (or paint it on!?) before I could effective remove the rust. It's a much tighter little area, and it's the part that's bugging me the most.
>>
>>So could I take that nut off while the car is up on stands without doing any harm?
>>
>>Also, how scared should I be of this naval jelly rust removing stuff? Will it be necessary for me to totally spazz out if it touches things that I don't want it to touch (namely my SKIN or anything PAINTED!)?

I just used naval jelly last night. I crawled under my jacked up car on stands and blocks. I was looking for all those rusty bolts in the undercarriage of the car. I found about 14- they were rusty even in my second month- I had the car teched for a driving school and the mechanics showed me all the rust and scoffed at it as a poor example of what is bad is going to be disaster once the rust really set in and later you have to remove all those bolts. If you crawl under or lift up your MINI you will see what I mean. It's pretty obvious.

Anyway I painted the jelly on and left it for 5 minutes. then like a miracle the brown rust was dissolved leaving a pretty clear looking slick substance and I washed off with water and towel. Once dried off I painted all those cleaned up areas with black rustoleum spray( I could have used undercoating spray -I have some and still might apply it). The black color matched the rest of the black metal. I'll go back and check out all these areas in about 2 to 4 months to check for rust. I washed off the brush with the naval jelly on it. I washed hands and it was fine. It's not like it is some super strong acid. You should take precautions.

So for you, just paint those rust areas with the jelly- you don't have to take it all apart. Leave on for 5 to 10 minutes and then wash off. Repeat or scrub as needed. Wear gloves if you like- this is safer, and don't spill it if you can. It didn't harm my regular paint but I was very neat. It will be clean and then you dry it off and then paint as needed. But it should be paint that can take the heat as in RED hot. You don't have to take off the nut on the hub. Paint as much or as little as you want.