wheel refurb advice

david burton · Post by **david burton** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:09 pm

here is what my g/f's wheels look like:

so I was having a play this evening with some sandpaper, and I noticed that there's a nice thick black undercoat, and then the shiny high silver top coat. and then the obvious kerbing. I want to sort this out.

I can't take the tyres off. I need the motor every day. It looks pretty nice if I sand the outer lip down evenly to leave two thin black lines either side of the raw alloy once sanded down. What should I do? This is the sanded down (very very rough) lip in the centre:

Should I sand it down, and then leave it once polished - is this going to corrode too often? Or should I sand it down, then respray the outer lip with some fancy masking? How would I do this without botching it up? I'm experienced at spraying whole parts, but not too experienced at spraying repairs to blend in. I don't want to do the whole wheel because the spokes of the wheel are good.

BLACK6N_POLO · Post by **BLACK6N_POLO** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:35 pm

the colour will never match 100% perfect i find so i refurbed all 4 of my wheels with a spray can and laquer--does the job!!!

before and after shots!

david burton · Post by **david burton** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:30 pm

yeah, but I want to do just the outer lip - it doesn't matter if the match isn't perfect because the lip is so small it will be ok just to mask off the rest of the wheel up to the L of the lip.

good job on your wheels tho

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:21 pm

If you're careful, smooth silver hammerite is a very good paint for touching up bits like that. Matched the finish on my 9 spokes almost perfectly, and if it's just on the rim you won't really notice any slight mismatch. Plus, being normal wet paint you don't have to worry about masking it up properly to spray it.

david burton · Post by **david burton** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:20 pm

well, I spent an hour or so on the wheels tonight and filed doen the lip and then polished it up (very very roughly - I have no 400 or 800 grit)

I think it's worth doing to the other wheels for now - makes them look a lot tidier (not perfect when you get close tho!)

BLACK6N_POLO · Post by **BLACK6N_POLO** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:13 pm

nice one matey!

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:17 pm

Certainly looking a lot neater

carmadaaron · Post by **carmadaaron** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:51 am

*thumbsup*

david burton · Post by **david burton** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:00 am

cheers chaps, it's not perfect but worth trying out I think. saves me having to take the wheels off, and at least now it doesn't look like I kerb the wheels

3 more to go.....

dino · Post by **dino** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:26 am

Looks good and no ones going to stick there face to your rims to check them. Good job that man!

inder · Post by **inder** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 12:10 pm

Nicely done, just to confirm, you have just sanded the edges down with various paper grades and polished it up and left it be? nothing else to do? would this work with all alloys, i.e. oem vw ones? (the exposed part will not corrode?)

david burton · Post by **david burton** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:20 pm

yep, just sanded the lip down

it will only look ok if there is a "lip" to sand down - otherwise where the primer coat shows through it will look odd.

there is nothing else to do once polished up. you can lacquer them if you like - and this will stop corrosion

leaving them exposed will cause them to corrode but the point is you can just polish the edges back up again, the corrosion won't be like in normal alloys where the undercoat or lacquer bubbles up - there is no undercoat or lacquer to bubble up

so it should be fairly low maintenance.

it was really a method to get the wheels looking good again without spending too much money or time on them