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So if you see the pics the wheel hubs are very discoloured/unsightly so decided to address this.
The original colour is clearly silver/zinc so first option was to use that colour - but - I’m not keen on the brightness!
So I’m considering a matt black, anyone done this or thoughts
I generally pick a color that matches either the wheel or the car color. Generally lean towards wheel color but in your case there's only a small difference. A matte finish will gather brake dust and crud pretty quickly. Use your best judgement on this, since you'll be looking at the hats a lot with those open-spoke wheels.
Cleaning the brake crud off the rotor hat first is extremely important. Spend some time with your favorite wheel cleaner on that task before doing any painting. Since you are cleaning a steel rotor and hat, it's OK to use a more aggressive cleaner than you might use on the aluminum wheels.
I like to add some rust inhibiting treatment to the finned part of the rotors that you can see even when the wheel is installed. Gives a dark grey finish that's a lot more attractive the than the rusty look. Some "instant cold galvanize" spray takes care of that duty nicely. I clean and use the same stuff on the inside of the hat where it fits over the hub.
Mask the friction surfaces, but allow a little paint onto that surface where the hat transitions to friction face; the pads will clean that off for you, and it will avoid allowing a rust ring there that will detract from the appearance later.
Before and after pics from my 928 wheelhouse and brakes refurb project:
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The wheel contact area on the face of the hat is masked around the studs. You can see the instant cold galvanize treatment on the fins. The hat color is the same as the wheel color. The edge of the wheel is just visible bottom right in the second "after" picture. This project included new rotors, so there wasn't as much prep needed. Now, almost a dozen years and ~~40k later, the hats still look great.
