Hi guys,

Went to the track the other day and left my race pads at home. So used the normal street pads. They got WAY too hot and the rotors are horribly glazed. Lots of brown pants moments when the pedal is down but nothing happens.
It was suggested by a friend that i take the rotors off and use a cup brush(wire brush on an angle grinder) to remove it then use fine grades of sand paper to smooth it out and of course rub the pads on concrete.

Wanting to know if anyone can comment on this method and/or propose a different one?

Thanks, Reece

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i imagine a really fine sand paper and a block would do the trick

not sure what it like there but here the BAp/geaon (kinda like an autozone) will resurface your rotor for 9 bucks

I'd like to say otherwise but you'll probably need to resurface them.

You should have a set of rotors for the track pads... the material isn't the same as a normal pad and pads "bed in" into the rotors (transfer friction material onto them) and most of the time track pads and street pads don't have compatible materials.

O'Reilly's used to do free resurfacing, not sure if they do anymore.

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Yeah but its $15 a pop here to have them turn them, might as well. Also to answer the OP, O'Reilly's always uses a wire brush exactly like the one you described to clean my rotors.

Thanks guys.
We have auto stores here sorta like autozone from what i can gather and my local one charges 30/rotor to resurface and havent found much cheaper.
So i guess ill give it a go and if all else fails ill prob just buy new rotors

use 80grit sand paper and sand the rotors perpendicular to the rotation. And sand the brake pads. Basically you want your rotors to have a Matte finish. Go easy on the rotors once installed for the next couple of miles to allow the pads to reseat.

If your still have glazing issues on the rotors, it means your not have sufficient cooling of the rotors. You may need to upgrade your rotors and pads to be more compatible with each other.

Thanks, keep the ideas coming if possible

I wouldnt keep switching out pads and rotors just for the track. Like mentioned before, pads have to set into the rotor, every time you take them off they are going to need to be seated once again. Normally 45mph med. pedal pressure to a stop a couple times will seat them. Id look and see if you cant find some high end rotors, get whatever pads you wanna run and leave them on.

Take some sandpaper to the pads, the rotors should be resurfaced, which, depending on what kind of rotors you're using, it may be be cheaper/same price to just buy new rotors.

Currently still has the original rotors, want to try use them till they are in dire need of replacing. Every time I swap pads I do reseat them however painful it is. Starting to think it might be a good idea to just use the race pads all the time and screw the daily ones.

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I think thatll be best. Measure the rotor thickness aswell. Make sure your within spec. If you need the spec i can find it for you. If you dont have enough material your rotor will become too hot.

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you could get a set of "race rotors" and change them out when you swap out the pads so that way you don't have to reseat them everytime

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anytime pads are removed they have to be reseated.

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How so? I thought you were referring to breaking in pads by getting a thin film of pad on the surface of the rotor which, if you only use pads "A" with rotors "A" and pads "B" with rotors "B" you won't need to do this everytime because the pads will already be broken in for the rotors you're using.

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How so? I thought you were referring to breaking in pads by getting a thin film of pad on the surface of the rotor which, if you only use pads "A" with rotors "A" and pads "B" with rotors "B" you won't need to do this everytime because the pads will already be broken in for the rotors you're using.
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I thought this also.

@celica74 if you have the rotor specs lying around that would be awesome!

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Yup, Ive swapped rotors and pads from another car before, just make sure they are installed EXACTLY the same. If you think about it, when you remove the caliper or rotor to do any repair work(struts, axles, clutch) you are "unseating" the pads but they will realign themselves the first time you hit the brakes applying thousands of pounds of torque and compression.

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I've got them:

1994-97 Celica 1.8L Front: Runout limit .0019; Nominal Thickness .984; Discard .906
1994-99 Celica 2.2L Front: Runout limit .0019; Nominal Thickness 1.102; Discard 1.024
1994-95 Celica All Rear: Runout limit .0059; Nominal Thickness .394; Discard .354
1996-99 Celica All Rear: Runout limit .0059; Nominal Thickness .354; Discard .315

Thanks, I'll have to measure mine now. Also still haven't gotten the time to try deglaze them but will report back when I have done so

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The pad will never sit in the same place everytime. Even if you just lift the caliper up and put the pads right back. Still have to seat them.

Checked the thickness and all are within spec!
Did the de-glazing about 2 weeks ago so here are the results:

Glazed and greasy state(from my fingers):



Attacked with a cup brush on the angle grinder to remove glaze:



After doing that I tried two different methods to give them a nice finish
1. Sanding with coarse sand paper then getting finer



2. Sand with emery cloth in circular motion then go over them quickly again with the cup brush. Realised I don't have a picture of this but here the pic of the one above that i repaired by using the emery cloth and another quick go with the angle grinder.



Option 2 came out with a much better finish so I did the rest of them using that. Sorry for the crappy pics I only had my mobile phone handy.
From the advice given I decided to just use the race pads all the time to save the hassle of changing them over all the time.
Lastly the feel of the non-glazed rotors is amazing. I can't say ive driven on a brand new set of rotors or resurfaced rotors but these must come pretty close. So I am very happy with how they turned out and would recommend this method to anyone. It ended up taking about an hour/wheel.
Thanks again guys for the advice, much appreciated!