davemel3nzc

Here is a before and after of my wheel refinishing project. Took a few days of stripping, scrubbing, and polishing, but well worth the effort. Now I am going to have them covered in powder coat clear coat. Went with black instead of the original gray inserts.

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

I think that the black looks better as the gray blends in with the rest of it to much. Very nice job.

luvmy64

Looks good, makes me want to do mine. Why are you going to re-clear them? Seems like they would look better just left natural aluminum and polished.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

How about a little detail regarding the process!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

That really came out nice. I like the fact that you didn't overpolish.

davemel3nzc

Don't want to keep polishing them to keep them lookin good. I will probably end up doing another set some day, so i'll see how this works out.

davemel3nzc

Wheel process

I stripped the clear coat with paint remover. Don’t remember the brand, it was just some that was left over from a furniture project.
Then I sanded the painted part of the wheel with 80 grit paper, then 120.

For the polished aluminum surfaces I used some abrasive fiber disc’s from Lowes. They come in coarse, medium and fine. I started with the medium and finished with the fine.

Next I hand sanded starting with 400 then 600, 800, and finished with 1000. To polish and blend all of the aluminum I used a wool pad that was from the same company as the fiber discs (I think it was Gator brand) and some Meguiars 105 compound.

Then I masked off the polished aluminum and painted the rest of the wheel.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

this kind of disk?

davemel3nzc

Ya, they were similar to these. I mounted them to a Makita disc sander that spins at 4,500 rpm.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

What kinds of paint did you use? Rattle can?

davemel3nzc

It was gloss black from Tractor supply in a quart can. Thought about rattle can though because of the powder coat clear coat that is going to be applied next.

luvmy64

Im actually going to paint my whole car with that paint. I did the engine bay with it and it looks killer.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but did you spray of brush on that paint?

cliff1970

looks good

davemel3nzc

I sprayed them.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

something like this?

davemel3nzc

Exactly

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

Did you use a primer? Hardener? Or straight onto metal?

davemel3nzc

Straight on the metal, then had a clear coat powder coat put on them. Here is a crappy cell phone pic. I will post another one as soon as I get some more done on the car.

davemel3nzc

Here is a pic of the car and the wheels. I know the IROC decal is in the wrong place. The guy I had do it got it on before I caught it. Oh well.

calamitascamaro

iTrader: (5)

They powder coated over the black you did? Or did they tape off the black.

davemel3nzc

They powder coated the whole wheel including the black.

Just for reference they charged me $10.00 per wheel to sand blast the backs and centers, and $10.00 per wheel to put on the powder clear coat.

I thought that was a good deal.

Red-Devil

I think so.
Mine is powder coated and costs was 258€ ( 360$ ).