PastyBoy DIY Alloy Refurb and Recolour Project Thread

[PastyBoy]

Well today it has begun and here is the whats and whys.

My current 16" spiders have had intimate relations with some very nasty kerbs of late leading to them looking like this:

Not good!

While I could just replace them what do i then do with a set of alloys that are so damanged?

No one is going to want to buy them; and it's too expensive to get the repaired (I was quoted £90 a corner) so instead I'll fix themself!!

Yes it'a a big project. No I didn't realise quite how big. Yes i am still going to do it as it's now a matter of principal

To make it as easy as possible and keep the car as the other halfs daily commuter a second set of wheels were a necessity.

Luckily Gareth_1.8T had a set of 16" spiders for sale so a deal was done and they are now mine.

This means I can get a set of the wheels I want looking how I want to look with no interruption to the cars daily use and no need to pay someone to swap all the rubber over from set to set etc etc

A cunning plan worthy of Baldrick I think you'll agree!

While the second sets looks ok from a distance

when you get up close there is various damage to the faces of all 4 wheels

and they are also very clearly from 2 different sets of wheels (2 of the wheels are actually wheels I sold to Gareth back in May)

2 are smooth and in good nick

the other 2 are... um.... very much not

these are the 2 that i previously owned and you can see why I got rid originally!

I did forget to take any "before" pictures so those above are after the cleaning however I they were stained enough to use a lot of wonder wheels and reduce a brand new scourer to this

but the wheels were at least silver again so into the garage they went for the hard work to begin.

Now the bubbling on the inside of the rims is an absolute killer.

I did attempt to stop the corrosion when i owned the wheels previously with a coat of silver hammerite but that clearly didn't work. I think as my hammeriting didn't extend over the lip and onto the face the moisture continued to get in behind the paint and the corrsion continued.

So it was out with the wire brush and a big flat headed screw driver and started chipping away at the damage.

Half an hour later and one rim has the worst removed but will still need some vigorous sanding to get a smooth finish but has gone from this:

to this

Leaving behind this

I find that where the alloy beneath was actually smooth the Hammerite pretty much slid right off so i think most of what has come off is my previous handy work but hey ho.

Happy so far although when i did attempt to sand one of the smoother sections of the rim I found that the coarsest wet & dry paper in the assorted pack i bought (P600) wasn't up to the job. I think it'll be fine to key into the lacquer on the face ready for priming however removal of a layer of Hammerite and the original paint was a little beyond it; so i'll be heading back to B&Q to buy something a bit more heavy duty.

Cost so far

£100 for the wheels

£5 for a lovely Czech man to remove the tyres from the 2 rims that has rubber (and talk Skoda for 10 minutes - he also has Fabia sized part worn tyres are very reasonable rates)

18p for the scourer

78p for a cork sanding block

£4.95 for assorted pack of wet & dry paper

£24.65 for 1000ml of Primer, Gloss Black, and Lacquer (due to arrive Tuesday)

Running Total: £135.56

Approx time spent on project - 1 hour 15 minutes

Edited 27 January, 2011 by PastyBoy

[Tech1e]

Liking the pics. A lot of hard work to get them to look smart, done it once or twice and never again.

Ive got my S3 Avus wheels to go for refurb, inc buying the rims should set me back 220 and a trip to Leicester for a pro job.

[PastyBoy]

To be honest i may not put that much effort into the insides as long as I can get the faces sorted and the insides to 90% smooth I think i'd be happy

And besides black will (hopefully) hide any mistakes/poor workmanship on my part

I think if I had the spare cash i'd pay some else too, I think this is the most practical thing I have attempted in years.

However money is short but spare time is plentiful, and it's been a long time since i did anything that gave me a warm feeling of satisfaction and acheivement!

[marcrp]

I tried refurbing a dodgy alloy. I must say that although it was a good job the colour was not the same as the others even though I used the Wurth colour that everyone suggested. It's so difficult to get the exact colour right because using spray cans and when you spray from different distances it gives slightly different effect.

I used it for a little while and then found a brand new VRS alloy on ebay with brand new tyre for £90 pickup! The continental tyres are £90 alone so I was quite chuffed.

The old refurb alloy is sitting in the garage. I'm waiting until one of my tyres wear and then I'll nick the tyre off of it and probably sell it for someone to get refurb'ed properly.

[PastyBoy]

I tried refurbing a dodgy alloy. I must say that although it was a good job the colour was not the same as the others even though I used the Wurth colour that everyone suggested. It's so difficult to get the exact colour right because using spray cans and when you spray from different distances it gives slightly different effect.

Colour matching was a massive issue in my mind whihc is why am doing all 4 from scratch.

Hopefully they should all end up looking the same!

[Ad Lav]

A cheaper option and less hard work is to go to wheel refurber and ask for blast only - costs £10 a wheel and all you do is paint them

[Guest BigJase88]

who was driving?

steevie wonder?

[PastyBoy]

A cheaper option and less hard work is to go to wheel refurber and ask for blast only - costs £10 a wheel and all you do is paint them

SHHHHHHHH! :p

They'd still need filling and sanding anyways so i might as well do the whole lot myself, as i said I have an abundance of spare time

who was driving?

steevie wonder?

it was me. however i was looking out of the passenger side window at the time!

Edited 24 January, 2011 by PastyBoy

[PastyBoy]

well 2 things have become apparent this evening

1 - 60 grit course sand paper is the nuts

2 - you think Spiders are a pain to clean? try sanding a set down!!

called in to B&Q on the way home and bought the coarsest sandpaper i could get - a 60 grit for removing "stubborn paint and built up layers"

Given the lack of impact a wire brush had had on the rims I didn't have high hopes.

I couldn't have been more wrong the stuff ripped through the coats of Hammerite like it wasn't there, then proceeded to strip of the lacquer and original Skoda paint too if you kept rubbing.

you can see a massive the difference between before and after (or after and before as they are here)

Once the insides were smooth i set about the faces and spokes with a combination of the sand paper and wet & dry paper.

Only issue is that the wheels are so intricate that you can't really get a normal sanding block in there so it was all done by hand.

I'm going to try and find something suitable to turn into a mini sanding block but for now i'm off out to commit some crime as my finger prints no longer exist

It's was still dusty as i'm yet to wipe them down but i think they have keyed in pretty well

I'm actually quite liking the "smokey" look the sanding has given them!

Just 3 more to go!

Hopefully 1 will be a similar job to this and i expect another couple of hours; while the other 2 shouldn't take more than an hour each as the insides don't need a quarter of the work of the others.

Cost so far

£100 for the wheels

£5 for a lovely Czech man to remove the tyres from the 2 rims that has rubber (and talk Skoda for 10 minutes - he also has Fabia sized part worn tyres are very reasonable rates)

18p for the scourer

78p for a cork sanding block

£4.95 for assorted pack of wet & dry paper

£24.65 for 1000ml of Primer, Gloss Black, and Lacquer (due to arrive Tuesday)

£4.95 for 3 sheets of 60 grit sand paper

Running Total: £140.51

Which is actually just over what i paid for my current set that are on the car and with no other expected expeditures this could work out to be a proper bargain!

Approx time spent on project - 2 hour 30 minutes

I'll think you can all live without pictures of my work on the other 3 rims as it'll just be an increasing amount of pictures identical to those above.

Next update - Primer time!

Edited 24 January, 2011 by PastyBoy

[yegnold]

Nice project Cliff, hope it turns out as planned!

[Tech1e]

Depending on how much paint and primer you have removed and how much bare metal you have now you may be better off using an etch primer to make sure it doesnt peel off.

[PastyBoy]

Wheel number 2 done!

Ok so this is the picture of the first wheel again but the second one looks exactly the same!

Was done last night and have today had a day off as my fingers are sanded to oblivion

No more money spent

so running total still £140.51

Approx time spent - 3 hours 30 mins

I was thinking that an etch primer might be a good idea given how deep some of the sanding has gone.

Might get a small can and do the first coat (or at least the worst patches) as etch, then normal for the other coats

[Sy.]

I'm doing mine too. 2 are painted and going on the car tomorrow with new rubber and one is half stripped.

Use a sander on the rim and tops of the spokes.

You dont seem to have got in the corners very well.

Trust me another few hours work is worth it

Edited 26 January, 2011 by Sy.

[PastyBoy]

Nice work Sy, That's what i hope mine will look like

No sander though so it's all by hand (hence the state of my finger tips)

but yes i am struggling to get right into the corners, although that said after finishing wheel 2 yesterday I realised i hadn't actually done that good a job on the wheel pictured above so went over it again.

The whole process is actually taking less time than i expected so i should have the time to dust them down and see what they actually look like and wet & dry any bits i missed with the 60 grit

Edited 26 January, 2011 by PastyBoy

[Sy.]

wet and dry wont do much. You need to use a higher grade paper like 240 then finer. Otherwise the marks will show through.

Had my rim in the sandblaster at work but it doesnt budged. Need a shot blaster really

[PastyBoy]

yeah the wet and dry seems to just take the sheen off the old lacquer rather than anything useful, however it is more flexible so can get in the corners easier

I was hoping to sand the marks out of the coats of primer! :S

I guess time will tell and we shall see

[Wardy]

Good job - keep going!

[fordfan]

I did a set on my car a couple of years ago:

From this:

To this:

Where the tyre seats on the internal bead, I brushed numerous coats of primer on which was wet flatted back smooth. The beads are notorious for leaking on alloy wheels.

So far after two years they still look as new, though I did have to redo one as when pressure washed the paint lifted.

[Wardy]

Good result. Sierra Sapphire wheels?

[MarkMac]

or granada scorpio cosworth?

[MarkMac]

looking good guys, hard work but well worth the effort, i get a buzz knowing ive actually managed to do something worthwhile

[PastyBoy]

I gave my fingers another night off from the punishment of hand sanding last night and made my first ever attempts at spray painting

As it's still so cold I warmed the can of paint in warm water and then gave it a couple of minutes shaking to reduce chanes of clogging/.

Actually found it much easier than i was expecting.

Was painting a light surface so was easy to see where it was a bit patchy.

Had to resist the temptaion to just stick one really quick really thick coat on but am happy with the results.

one standard old school white xbox 360 has now "blacked up"

It has brought home the need for good prep work though.

As it was a test of how spraying actually works and feel and the end result is going to be largely hidden on my TV stand I didn't bother with primer or that my preperation.

I gave the case a quick going over with the 60 grit sand paper and then smoothed with wet and dry

The 60 grit may, ok was, a bit harsh and if moving in the light you can really see the scratches i put in

However as it's un a dark corner of my TV unit i doesn't matter too really.

Definitely need to make sure that the alloys are smoothed properly though! :yes:

[thealienfromura]

Use 400 for the last sand to get all the grooves out. a thick primer should help fill any cracks to

custom xbox for the win

[MarkMac]

[PastyBoy]

custom xbox for the win

Having never spay painted before it was more a test of how spray can painting actually feels than an attempt to get an amazing finish on my xbox.

Hence the lack of real preperation, no primer or lacquer/clear coat

It's a dark plastic box in a dark place on a dark stand. I don't think the scratches will show :yes:

Wheels next