Morning All

I have bought myself a set of 16" Spiders from the outside they look great but on they inside they all have various stages of this:

As the wheels are off the car until after Friday's track day I'd like to do some provention before they are fitted

I purchased this

to cover the problem and hopefully protect them a little longer from the brake dust they shall soon be covered in!

I was considering attacking them with a wire brush to get the bubbling off as much as possible but i'm v afraid of this removing more paint than expected and spreading to the outer rims/spokes and ruining the finish that you can see once they are fitting; making things worse rather than better.

Shall i just paint over the top of whats there or attempt to get them back to metal with the wire brush or shoudl i just leave them well alone!!?

Take it back and get a spray can instead!

ah.... the receipt may have vanished already!

I'm ok with brush marks as its the inside and'll be covered in brake dust in about a day anyways.

Query is more should i attempt stripping them a bit or just slap it over the top? :confused:

Edited 27 July, 200916 yr by PastyBoy

Yeah you'll be ok with that paint mate, I am doing some wheels atm.

I have stripped mine down and sanded and with a few coats it looks great, have also done the face of the wheels and if you put on quite thick it just flows into the brush marks and looks ok, just get a posh finishing brush for the places on show.

It will take a lot longer than you think but I say is well worth it for the price of paint and a couple brushes

Thanks VeeKar

As its the inside of the rim it's more about extra protection that a better finish as I've seen the results of a delacquered wheel and it wasn't pretty!!

Think i'll tentatively approach a small section with a wire brush this afternoon and if it looks a bit dodgy removing it that way i'll just give it a coat over the bubbles!

You could try running a very sharp blade around the inner lip of the spokes.. a couple of MM in front of the at the point you don't wish to strip past.. then flake it back a bit from the cut and be careful with the wire wool.. that way, the finish on the front is detached from the finish on the inner rim... then, just paint over the 2mm lip your gave yourself to seal it all back up!

I should add... I have no idea if that'll work!

nope sorry reflex - didn't work so you now owe me for new alloys :P

In all seriousness I scraped at all the bubbling with a penknife blade, tidied them up with a wire brush, wiped them down with a damp cloth, dried them with a dry one , and slapped 2 coats of hammerite over them.

The wheels have quite a prominent lip between the unfinished reverse and the shiny face so i managed to get away without any runs onto the spokes.

Hammerite smooth silver isn't the same as the standard finish but they look 100% better than they did when they were black and bubbled even if you can see bursh strokes and bubbling under the new coats

Think they'll look sweety once they are fitted, then covered in brake dust

Good way to spend day off work me thinks!

Pics please

Pics please

Make sure you get an even coat of paint all the way round the wheel. You don't want the weight of the paint to put your wheel out of balance. I suppose to help you to prevent this, paint it with the wheel laid down flat and not standing up.

Pics please

From the above to:

Although as you can see the colours are vastly different between the "standard" silver on the unfinished reverse of wheels and the paint but it may be dirt/age but as its the inside of the rim i'm not too worried It'll have a coating of brake dust soon enough!

Make sure you get an even coat of paint all the way round the wheel. You don't want the weight of the paint to put your wheel out of balance. I suppose to help you to prevent this, paint it with the wheel laid down flat and not standing up.

I did wonder about putting the balance out but given the amount of paint i chipped off i think the paint will equal it out! and a couple of coats can't make that much of difference can it??!

Edited 7 August, 200916 yr by PastyBoy

Looks better mate. Should hav used sand paper to try and get rid of more of the lines where its chipped. Depends how fussy you want to be, just go out and brake hard, you'l never see it I on the other hand clean the backs of my wheels every time i wash them.......:O lol

I kinda realised about half way round the first wheel that it was about as pikey a job as possible and had i spent hours more it could have been much much better but as you say a few hard stops and you won't see the fresh paint anyway

I think it's definitely an improvement and let's face it, the only people that see the insides of your alloys are maniacs like me that like to see them and people like Baker who clean them. And possibly your mechanic every now and again. So I think protection from corrosion is more important than looks, and in this case I guess that that paint will do a good job of protecting the alloy wheel from the elements.

I might even sand down the insides of my tattiest wheels and do something similar - but try to get the right colour in a spray can, maybe...

Thanks for the inspiration

Good job; reminds me I must do mine (says the man with one black wheel and three silver ones:lol:)

Not bad from a distance!

...but try to get the right colour in a spray can, maybe...

nothing that wrong with the wrong colour applied with a brush!

Not bad from a distance!

they'll look tip-top once put on and covered in brake dust and they are protected more which was the whole point

just to clear up i'd never EVER do a face of a wheel in the same way!

Top Marks! A*

got a pic from the front of the wheel looking between the spokes?