I've got the drums and backing plates off my Plymouth, and got the rust cleaned off and the outsides painted, but I'm not sure what to do on the insides. No, not the braking surface you wise-asses, the rest of it. Seems like you wouldn't want any chance of paint getting too hot and coming off in there, so do you paint it at all? Just treat it with rust encapsulator? Just leave it raw??
I have used POR-15 on both insides and outsides of the drums & backing plates...on several cars. I don't know how long it REALLY lasts, but I have checked several after 2-4 years, and it still shines like new paint in there! I even put it on the rotors on the front of my Chevy, and it still looks new after using it as a daily driver for over 3 years! That's even with all the heat that disc brakes generate, and includes the time one of the calipers locked up on me!
"They" say that painting drums screws up the cooling. I think it's probably "bull" but just in case I only paint the drums with flat black engine paint using just enough to cover. The engine paint should stay on with the heat generated and the flat black gives the thinest coating to get coverage.
The Jalopy Journal
