Alloy wheel refurb

[Bren]

Anybody done their own alloys? Curious as to what kits people used and how they did it.

[Tamworthbay]

I have polished ones before just using autosomal and a home made rig to spin them. City powder coaters in Brum will do them for £20 a wheel so I have never messed about trying painting.

[sofarsogood]

I have polished ones before just using autosomal and a home made rig to spin them. City powder coaters in Brum will do them for £20 a wheel so I have never messed about trying painting.

Can you give a bit more info on this home made rig please? I"wanna polish ma rimz bro" but I have only seen the car lathe method of jacking up the drive wheels of the car and putting it in gear. Which seems a bit dicey.

[Tamworthbay]

Can you give a bit more info on this home made rig please? I"wanna polish ma rimz bro" but I have only seen the car lathe method of jacking up the drive wheels of the car and putting it in gear. Which seems a bit dicey.

I turned up a mandrel out of ally and used it with a piece of all thread to clamp the wheel. The bit of all thread went into the chuck of an old cordless drill clamped in a vice. I used a 2-12v power pack so I could vary the speed. I started off with thousand grit wet and dry and when the kerb marks were gone I started with autosol and rag. They were really properly manky and ended up mirror finish but it took about six hours a wheel. I just did an hour a night for about a month as I wasn't in any rush. I still have the mandrel gathering dust in a draw, chances are your centre hole will be a different size but if you want it you are welcome to it, measure your hole (o er missus) and pm me if you want it.

[sofarsogood]

Nice one. I have a vice and an old drill.....

[Tamworthbay]

Nice one. I have a vice and an old drill.....

Just run it nice and slow and don't rush it and it works a treat.

[richardmorris]

Alloys no, but steels yes. Wire brush on a drill . Undercoat and top coats- -all in about £30 for four plus several hours each.

I did the 2cv and both cxs like this ( in the same colour in fact, which was some sort of Vauxhall shade).

 

I've touched up the merc's alloys with aldi wheel paint which is not bad, but they really need doing professionally. Originally they were diamond cut and polished but they've since been redone silver. For which I have been quoted about £200. I may drum up the enthusiasm to get them done next year is nothing else goes wrong with it.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Yes! Do it yourself. I've had a couple of sets refurbished by gentlemen who were supposed to be good at it and been disappointed. I've been able to achieve far better results. As always surface prep is the key!

[3VOM]

How far do you want or need to go? http://autoshite.com/topic/22479-1994-daihatsu-applause-first-shiny-new-part-has-arrived/?p=1086114

[Tamworthbay]

Be really careful with a wire brush on a drill on alloys, personally I wouldn't do it at all. Hard steel wire and soft alloy - only going to be one winner.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Need to use paint stripper on alloys if they're bad, otherwise sand with wet and dry and use P38 where needed.

[overrun]

I found a lad who does 4 alloys for 100 quid.

He leaves the tyres on, just breaks the beads and paints both wheel faces, files/grinds out the kerbing and wet paints.

 

You get a 90-95% job, so ideal for most cars.

[fordperv]

I have polished ones before just using autosomal and a home made rig to spin them. City powder coaters in Brum will do them for £20 a wheel so I have never messed about trying painting.

are they any good? a mate was telling me about them

[Tamworthbay]

are they any good? a mate was telling me about them

They are great as long as you accept it's a £100 job, mine were 99.5% perfect I would say and I was more than happy with that. If I was doing a set for a Ferrari 250GTO I may look elsewhere. They were a hell of a lot better than some my mate had done in Lichfield for £200.

[dollywobbler]

I've got diamond cut alloys on the S-MX. They look bloody awful. So bad I'm actually wondering about doing something about it. I feel an urge to paint them bright orange. I'm wondering what's happened to me, but it is painting diamond cut alloys a hiding to nothing anyway? Surely they can't look worse than they do now?

[vulgalour]

Diamond cut alloys look great right up until the lacquer chips, letting water in to corrode the alloy.  These days you can get diamond cut surfaces clear powdercoated which does help, dulls the nice flash of the diamond cut down a bit though.

 

In your situation, DW, I'd be going the orange paint route.  It's easy to look after and cheap to get a decent finish providing you can spend enough time on prep.  Don't be lazy though, if you shortcut any of the paint process you'll have chipped-rim Council-chav spec alloys in no time.

[dollywobbler]

Diamond cut alloys look great right up until the lacquer chips, letting water in to corrode the alloy.  These days you can get diamond cut surfaces clear powdercoated which does help, dulls the nice flash of the diamond cut down a bit though.

 

In your situation, DW, I'd be going the orange paint route.  It's easy to look after and cheap to get a decent finish providing you can spend enough time on prep.  Don't be lazy though, if you shortcut any of the paint process you'll have chipped-rim Council-chav spec alloys in no time.

 

Yeah, I'm a little worried about my patience when it comes to prep.

[vulgalour]

You can also get them hydrodipped, that seems a remarkably resilient finish, little more pricey than paint, not as pricey as powdercoating, from what I'm told.  The benefit of hydrodipping is you can get patterns on so you could have some Modtop-tastic 60s flower print in orange wheels.

 

[AlsoMike]

Yeah, I'm a little worried about my patience when it comes to prep.

 

I'd give them a good going over with Nitromors and then a good sanding. That should get rid of all the laquer and the diamond cut surface. I did this with a set of Alfa alloys a few years back but I polished them in the end, came out nice.

[overrun]

Remember that Nitromors is dog shit, now!

[AlsoMike]

Remember that Nitromors is dog shit, now!

 

Is it?

[Jifflemon]

Yup! As is brake fluid, Zinc plating, and numerous other stuff. 

[mrcitroen]

Is it?

Starchem Synstrip is way better.

 

I have done my own alloys before. Full tyres off, acid etch primer, base & laquer. Real bugger of a job. So time consuming, but a really really good result.

[AlsoMike]

Fair enough, I'll give that stuff a try next time

[fordperv]

They are great as long as you accept it's a £100 job, mine were 99.5% perfect I would say and I was more than happy with that. If I was doing a set for a Ferrari 250GTO I may look elsewhere. They were a hell of a lot better than some my mate had done in Lichfield for £200.

you got any pictures? i suppose the finish is only as good as the base wheel as it will only amplify amy inperfections, i had mrs fps done local for a lot more than £100 but i will say they look bloody fantastic

[dieselnutjob]

I did the 607 ones with some rattle can silver paint (it was the 806 colour) and twin pack lacquer (the cans where you punch a button on the bottom to mix the two chemicals).

 

I used etch primer and some thick sandable primer first.

 

They looked great when they were done.

 

Wheels are easy to paint because you can lay them flat so runs are not such a problem.

 

Note that twin pack lacquer does give off some really nasty fumes and you do need a good face mask.

[Tamworthbay]

you got any pictures? i suppose the finish is only as good as the base wheel as it will only amplify amy inperfections, i had mrs fps done local for a lot more than £100 but i will say they look bloody fantastic

I don't think so as it was on my last mx5 but to be honest they would look perfect in a picture, there was one minuscule blemish behind one of the rims but they were great otherwise. I will have a look and see if I can find any pics.

[Dave_Q]

Here's some I done earlier with U-POL alloy wheel silver cans and laquer, its about £10 for 3 cans on da bay and that should do a set easy.

 

Gave them a half arsed rub down with 400 grit first.

 

 

 

Primered with finest £ shop primer.

 

 

Colour on.

 

 

And lacquer.

 

 

They look pretty good on the spokes but the rubbish prep shows through if you look close - I prepped and painted them in half a day.

 

 

The U-Pol paint is recommended, as is using £shop playing cards as an easy way to mask the tyre.

 

Ultimately it is possible to do a proper bo job at home with rattle cans, but you will probably need to spend several hours per wheel on prep.

[Dave_Q]

Here's another set I spent an equal amount of care and attention on.

 

As received.

 

 

They were properly covered in clag, I got some weapons grade paint stripper from my local trade only* paint shop.

 

Finished:

 

 

Again the poor prep shows through up close.

 

Ultimately though they look OK from 5 yards so the effort:result ratio is fine by me.

[RoadworkUK]

WheelWorx of Colchester did the AMG VAG Scene Whore rims on my Audi for mates rates. I think they normally charge fifty snots per wheel but do a shit-hot job.