Sure ... Yes ... Not really necessary but certainly looks COOL and if completely planed then with NEW brake pads will certainly aid with increased stopping power .

 

WTF??? Rotors are supposed to have a non-directional finish and be as far from mirror as possible. This is what allows the pads to bed down with the rotors. The more of a glazed finish you have, the less stopping power you have. Shane280z - that was a sarcastic reply I hope!

 

"non-directional" Tell that to the mfg's, places that turn them and the brake pads themselves. Every rotor that I have seen, has a lined patten all the way around the rotor's surface.

 

Non Directional...

Bruce, take a look at a shop with MODERN equipment, and not an old Amco Brake Turning Lathe from the 40's.

Current repair technology employs a wheel to turn the rotor on the car, with two grinder wheels that surface the rotor in a Non-Directional way, perfectly true to bearing centerline and parallell on the faces in respect to each other.

Basically a portable two-sided blanchard grinder.

What you are seeing is technology in shops that last bought equipment some time ago, and work on primarily older cars.

Even the old Amco Lathe has been updated with jigs and fixtures to rework the faces in a non-directional manner.

Coolhand should be able to shed light on it.

You will note that NEW rotors DO NOT HAVE DIRECTIONAL TURNING MARKS ON THEM, they are, universally, ground! If you are buying OEM stuff, look closely.

 

I have used both the "on car" and "off car lathe" types of machines. If you use the lathe type machine, you should take a gasket buffer or surface grinder with a rough pad and make some 'cross hatch' patterns on the rotor. Go to a parts store and look at a new rotor.
The mirror finish is called glazing and is caused primarily by overheating (pads and rotor overheat and pads become extremely hard). Your rotors need turned or replaced.

 

not too slippery? the pads can grab them. should you take off the wheels and shine them once a month to keep them shining? how cool.

 

oh ha ha very funny, so I should have then resufaced or replaced then.ok

what a cool look they give too wow

 

Tony is right. In my shop we do have new equipment to machine rotors on cars. On our older Amco lathes,we still turn the usual way and then we take a grinder with a round flex ball hone and run across each side of the rotor to give it a cross hitch pattern. This gives the rotors a better surface for the pads to seat to. We always machine new rotors right out of the box for one important reason. Even though they are brand new,out of the box,you never know how the rotors were stored. we have tried to just put new rotors on without machining and it has come back to bite the tech. We machine a thousandths off each side to ensure they are flat and have no more comeback problems. You can install pads without turning but,the pads will not have a rough surface to seat to and after a week or two they will start to make noise. a proper brake job will always include turning rotors and or drums.