brake & caliper maintenance in rust belt

Hey Tacos

I live in rust belt and I was wondering if theres something I can do for brake pads, drum brakes, calipers to keep the salt & corrosion away from them. Will just taking calipers off and simply cleaning them with cloth work? just dry cloth.

Or there are some products I could use? for amateur.

 

I have the whole underside sprayed yearly, the outside components get covered in that process. Don't spray the actual mating surfaces.

 

I pay the unlimited wash including undercarriage at the local car wash chain, got one near my house, one near my work. I often wash twice a week in the winter.

You can also pain the calipers and non-friction part of the rotors on both sides with hi-temp spay primer.

 

Does painting calipers help them? its like coating or? and I can't do underbody wash because I had truck oil-tar coated, it will wash it off. I am not concerned about the frame, I just want to take care of calipers and drum brakes, i don't want any rust on them.

 

It's not gonna hurt it. It's primer, not for the color but where it sticks, there won't be rust.

Water doesn't hurt them, salt and water mix do, wash the salt off can help, a lot. I spray cosmoline to the frame myself, the underbody wash barely bothers it.

 

The calipers I'd paint with Duplicolors Rebuilders cast. Disassembly, lubrication of lube points and touching up paint at salt season's end should work the front pretty well.

If you off road with mud, light water crossings, etc I'd inspect, lube and adjust the rear brakes 2x yr, one being at the end of salt season.

The drum is a slab of cast iron, so the outer surface rust hurts nothing. But if you want it to look better, wire wheel it and shoot it with something like black bbq grill paint, or the same paint suggested for the calipers if that color works with your wheels.