I finally had the chance to paint my rotor hats black. What a huge improvement from the rust color! I was initially going to just paint the rotors, but decided to do the calipers too.

The most time consuming part is taping everything up, especially the inside rotor edge. I even decided to paint the hubs black since they are visible when I pop out the center caps on my wheels when I do track days.


I was initially planning to remove the rotors entirely, but had a bolt give me an issue and decided to paint the calipers too. I think this way is faster, but you do have to peel up some of the tape, spin the rotors and re-tape the area that was previously hiding under the caliper. Be careful with the rear rotors as they are connected and will spin in different directions.


The finished product looks awesome. Very glad I went with black with white letters. It ties in with the car perfectly.


Huge improvement in the rear too. It looks like I have brand new brakes and rotors now. Not a bad mod for $1.99 in stickers.


They look even better hiding behind the wheels.


The high temp paint I used is flat black and I worried that gloss black would look better. Once on the car it looks perfect. Later in the day I walked my dog and came across this flat black monstrosity. So clearly there is a limit to how much flat black you can use.

 

wasn't expecting you to go in that direction, with the flat black, but they look great

 

Good on you taking on this project. I don't really like the flat black, but I hope it holds up to the heat, which I think is your point here.

You painted right over the retaining nuts on the floating rotors.

I wonder if those could be had in SS or Ti?

 

Help keep them from rusting? :shrug:

I think you need Grade 8 or better bolts for rotor hats. SS is generally not strong enough and TI is weak in shear. Maybe a high nickel alloy like inconel?

 

Wait, the Z1 two-piece rotors aren't a "floating rotor" design. They're just bolted together solid.

Hmmm. "Zinc-coated hardware"

 

I thought the flat black looked weird as well with the wheels off, but it really looks good with the wheels on. I painted over the nuts and bolts on the Z1 rotors because they got horribly discolored like the hats (why they are copper instead of black) when I put them in the oven the first time I painted the inside of the rotors to cure the paint. When I eventually replace the rotor rounds (not the hats), they will come with shiny new hardware to match the rear 2pc. rotors when I get those. This time I skipped the long process of putting them in the oven and cooling them down because the paint on the rotors flaked off anyway at the next track day.

 

I think my Autokits X hood should be here relatively soon since it is already about 2 weeks late. Hopefully, I can figure out how to paint this thing once I see it. Maybe it will look different once I get it on the car, but I think leaving it in full carbon will look out of place on my car, even if I were to wrap the roof in carbon to try to match.


I think the hood looks pretty good with just the center section left in carbon. But does it look better with the side vents left in carbon?



Of these two pictures below I think the left one looks better, but I just cannot decide if it would be too much carbon or not compared to the picture above. (Thanks again hexotic for your photoshop skills on short notice) Hmmm....



I think I am leaning a little bit toward the top pic because it looks cleaner. If the side vents are at a weird angle to the sides of the hood, them I am not so sure I want to emphasize them.

 

If you're taking a poll... I prefer the center-only approach.

However, between the two examples of slats-only vs. entire side-vent area, the slats-only is much more cool looking (no pun). Much more.

 

I obviously live by don't paint your beautiful carbon fiber at all.. but if you have to.... leave the vents unpainted.

 

lol let me add to this...IMO, paint the whole thing...the vents make enough of a statement on their own... not that it won't good with any combination when done right, but your car has a nice low key look that will all but disappear with that much unpainted carbon fiber in addition to the bits you already have

 

Burr has a point - your car's carbon accents are subtle. I wouldn't mess that up.

 

I second the painted look, it's unfortunate due to **** it's carbon but the Gcoupe is not appealing with carbon hood look. Maybe if it was silver/gray/black but not white.
I would paint every single thing on the hood.

 

I agree that full carbon would look cool and it would be easier to just wrap the roof to match, but I am afraid it will be too much oreo/panda look. I will consider it once the hood arrives and I test fit it, but I doubt I will go that way.





Painting the entire hood looks a bit strange to me with the U-shape design in the middle for the central vents.





I think the best option is to paint all but the center of the hood like in this picture to make the U-shape more subtle. I also think this looks decent as it almost makes your eye follow a widening U-shape up to the moonroof.





If I did leave the vents in carbon it would just be the slats (left) and not the surrounding area (right). I am still not sure if this would be too much exposed carbon for my car or if it would just look weird do to the shape of the vents being very different than the U-shape in the center of the hood.

 

A possible change of plans on the hood. I finally got through to Autokits X to get an update on the hood that should have arrived about 3 weeks ago. The storms in FL set them back and they have not even started making the hood yet. They said they would update me on Wed. and they could refund my money if I wanted. This got me thinking about maybe skipping the hood.

With my front tires in dire need of replacement I have been toying with the idea of giving up track days and just having fun with the G on the street and back roads. We already ordered the hood through work so I really just planned on hitting 2 tracks next year that I have not brought this car to yet just to establish a base line to eventually compare to whatever car I get next. The last things influencing my idea to just get a refund is that I think it looks strange compared to the factory hood and I am afraid it will not fit well.

I never thought I would say this, but I think I am leaning toward getting a refund on the hood and just using my $1k prize from work on tires in the spring.

 

i would ax the hood. not to be blunt but the design is just unappealing to me. jus my crap