General Refurbing Wheels

[typecastboy]

My latest 500 had one wheel that was really badly curbed. Was going to cost about £60 a wheel to have refurbished. A mate of mine suggested I have a go myself, so I did.

I bought a can of alloy wheel spray paint from eBay £5.99. A sheet of 600 grade wet and dry and I already had a can of clear lacquer.

Jacked up the car, took off the wheel, deflated the tyre. Used a cork block and rubbed down all the high points where it had been curbed, then lightly rubbed down the rest to provide a key.

Took it into the garden, sprayed it with alloy wheel cleaner and left it five minutes. Agitated it with a brush then jet washed it off. Dried it off with paper towels and then left it in the sun for an hour.

Masked it all off with newspaper and masking tape which was a job and a half as although the tyre was dry it was difficult to get the tape to stick. Got there in the end and hoped it wasn't too windy.

Gave it a good dusting of paint, let it dry for an hour and then went over it with lacquer. That dried really quickly. Now the wheel is back on the car and it looks absolutely amazing.

I won't hesitate to do all four if the next one I buy has all four curbed.

 

[frupi]

I admire you for having a go, but not something I would personally do.

I've had two full sets of alloy wheels professionally refurbished by a national franchise called The Wheel Specialist. My local franchise did an absolutely superb job on both sets of wheels, the original wheels supplied from the factory which I had a complete colour change done on, and the other set which I purchased from a local scrap yard which were in a terrible cosmetic state. Those came back looking as new, indeed both sets of wheels are better than they came out of the factory. Brake dust just doesn't stick to the finish, I can just literally wash it off with a soft brush the powder coating is that slick.

Not cheap, but as usual in life, you really do get what you pay for. In my case, a cool £700 for both sets of wheels done. This included the tyres fully mounted and balanced on the original factory set.

 

[typecastboy]

Wow, £700 that's a horrendous amount of money to spend on a refurb. I'll stick to my can of paint.

 

[frupi]

Wow, £700 that's a horrendous amount of money to spend on a refurb. I'll stick to my can of paint.

Lol! That's two sets of wheels professionally refurbished. Until you've had a proper professional refurb done, then you can't really compare. I certainly didn't mind spending the money on excellent work.

 

[Sweetsixteen]

I've done what the OP has done, several times now, and sorted out a 'system' that suits me.

Rub down the wheels with 240 grade wet&dry, then fill in any imperfections with either cellulose putty if tiny, or fibreglass filler if nicked badly. Rub down again with finer grades, finishing with 400 grade (any finer snd you lose the 'key' for the paint).

Then I spray several coats of something like 'Five Wheel Silver', rubbing down lightly with 1200 grade between coats, then two coats of clear, leaving plenty of time between these coats.

For masking off I make a template out of an opened up cornflakes packet, pressing it on the rim to get the shape and cutting along the curve ( I actually cut the curve slightly shallower than the mark to allow for the card to tuck between the rim and the tyre). This avoids the hassle of using masking tape, which never sticks well to the tyre. I also clean the tyre and coat it with neat washing-up liquid, letting that dry, which allows me to easily wash off any overspray that gets past my mask.

As has been said, it costs very little and gives great satisfaction when you see the finished result on the car.
Hope that description helps someone.

 

[typecastboy]

That's a great system, I didn't need to fill in this one but that description will assist me when I do it again. Just drove down to the fish n chip shop, and had a cheeky look back at the wheel when I parked. Links great. Possibly should have had more coats to make it harder wearing.

So pleased with it though. I'm sure a pro job would be better, but I'm pleased with my results.

 

[frupi]

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not against doing your own titivating, I've previously done it myself on a set of OZ alloys I had a few years ago, but I will admit now, I did a crap job looking back at it.

For me, I've got a nice looking car and I don't want to spoil it by trying to do something I know I'd make a hash of, hence why I put my hand in my pocket.

When you consider, that for only £50 (wheel size dependent and finish specification), you can have a single alloy wheel professionaly refurbed, that is dipped in stripping solution, properly filled/prepped, powder coated and baked etc, it actually really isn't that expensive.

 

[Melanabb]

I agree with both I've been down the professional refurb route and it looked great - for the whole of 3 days (when I kerbed the wheel again) - so I've learned to live with the scuffed wheels - there are more important things in life...

 

[frupi]

I agree with both I've been down the professional refurb route and it looked great - for the whole of 3 days (when I kerbed the wheel again) - so I've learned to live with the scuffed wheels - there are more important things in life...

Lol! I've just shown your post to my wife and she wants to know how it's possible to curb wheels that easily? She had her MX5 (with alloys) for 7 years and her TA Lounge now for 18 months and has not once curbed any alloy wheel, which is a better record than me because I did it myself once, but only because some numpty forced me into the kerbside whilst being chased by a police car! :bang:

As for more important things in life, well I couldn't agree more....trouble is, I suspect we have differing opinions on what's more important!

 

[Melanabb]

I guess your wife is much more careful when parking It probably shows that I'm not that bothered about it, otherwise I'd be more careful too!

 

[Noxide]

A common tip I've seen for stopping paint getting on your typres is using playing cards, and just slipping them inbetween the alloy and the tyre. Seems to work!

'grats on doing it on your own.

 

[UFI]

This is why I love black alloys. I can easily fix small marks with just a bit of filler and some black spray paint (only have to match the sheen level). With silver, gold, bronze, gunmetal etc there's always issue with colour matching. No need to do the whole wheel, let alone the whole set.

I park close to kerbs deliberately so as to stay further away from door dings and buses trying to knock my mirrors off.

 

[Sweetsixteen]

I park close to kerbs deliberately so as to stay further away from door dings and buses trying to knock my mirrors off.

Guess we all view our vehicles in a different way.
I've grown fond of my little Panda, but I view it as a sacrificial goat. If it gets dinged, it gets dinged. With that mindset I am not too fussy where I park. The fact that I can park it where others can't, squeezing into slots others are scared of, is a bonus. If the trade-off is the odd scratch or ding I'm prepared to live with that.
I've noticed that when I slot into a tight spot, the car owners each side of me usually open their doors with great care because they don't want marks on their door edges - so I don't get too many dings anyway.

 

[frupi]

Returning to the topic of kerbing wheels and not deliberately wishing to upset those that do it as a natural everyday part of their motoring , I just can't understand why people can be so lazy when it comes to parking carefully in the first instance.

I mean, why would anyone deliberately or without any thought whatsoever, just ram your car up on the kerb? or get so close in the first instance that you kerb rash your alloys every time you park? Doesn't make an iota of sense to me. More over, the amount of damage done to the rest of the suspension components, wishbone arms, coil springs, wheel bearings, doesn't bear thinking about, and the cost getting that stuff fixed too.

It really isn't that difficult to park close enough to the kerb but far enough away not to cause anyone any issues at all and in the end, to save all the completely unnecessary damage that goes with it.

 

[alexGS]

I'm kinda glad this topic has come up, as I was about to start my own thread Hope I don't kill this thread instead

Paying someone else to do things like this is just frustrating in my experience - the work they do is never as good as I would do myself...

Sweetsixteen - good advice there
Typecastboy - let's see some photos! Sounds great from your description and good on you for getting on with it

The wheels on my 500 had a machined face, but it was hardly noticeable because of the yellowish silver paint in the holes. The clear coat was flaking badly and the two left wheels had a few gouges.

I decided to "have them done professionally" and took them to a place that CLAIMED to have the capability for machining the faces. We agreed that they would "remove all the flaking clear coat" and machine the face (they declined to paint inside the holes as they said that would need lots of masking that they wouldn't do). I suggested painting the wheels and then machining the face, but they said they couldn't do that. :roll eyes:

When they had finished, I realised they had simply sanded the face of the wheel with approx. 240 grit sandpaper - rounding off one side of each spoke in the process - see the first picture. And, they had left all the flaking clear coat in the holes untouched This cost about £300 (equivalent). Basically, £300 to ruin the shape of the wheels!

I was told that to remove the clear coat from the holes would take "a lot of sanding" and that would "ruin the finish on the face". I asked whether they could use paint stripper, and they said that wouldn't work. It would discolour the alloy. :bang:

I tried sanding and polishing one of the spokes (600 grit, 1500 grit, cutting compound) and that cheered me up a bit, as when the 'scratches' were polished out, the rounding of the corners was more difficult to see.

Today I bought a tin of paint stripper which came with a spray bottle. It has methylene chloride in it. I did a Google search and determined that this does not react with aluminium in any way.

After spraying it on, the finish bubbled up in a matter of minutes. The challenge was to leave it long enough to work, but not long enough to dry out - as when dried, the mess is difficult to remove. The tin said 15 minutes, but I found that a second spray after five minutes and washing it off within ten minutes was the way to go.

The first attempt didn't quite get it all, but after drying the wheels with compressed air, a second application of stripper was effective and the wheels are very nearly ready for paint now. They have a grey powder coat that is not affected by the stripper, which is excellent and causes me to recommend paint stripper as the best approach - saves so much time compared to sanding, and the flaking clear coat is guaranteed to be removed.

I was washing off the stripped coating using my waterblaster - that's what we call a "pressure washer" in NZ

The grey powder coat seems not to be properly hardened in a few places (the water jet dug a few grooves in it) which was a surprise, I doubt that the paint stripper has softened it, because I tested another area by applying several more coats of stripper directly to the powder coat, and it didn't shift it at all.

But I'm sure a bit of sanding in those few areas won't be too arduous. Then I shall polish the faces, clean the wheels completely inside and out, and we'll be ready for paint. I will remove the paint from the polished faces, and apply a clearcoat over that. Have thought about this for a while and think I'll just use a regular two-pack clear, which never seems to set all that hard, so shouldn't chip or flake too easily. Maybe some flex additive would be a good idea? Any other hints for which clearcoat to use?

(I'm struggling to upload photos at the moment - tried a few times now, will keep trying)

(well, after half an hour of attempts on four different devices, I give up )

-Alex

 

[frupi]

Paying someone else to do things like this is just frustrating in my experience - the work they do is never as good as I would do myself...

On that point Alex, I'll have to respectfully disagree. You might feel in yourself that you would do a better job and I respect the fact you feel you could, but I know that I could never match a professional job over anything I could do in this particular context.

I'll use the genuine Saab wheels I bought from my local breakers yard as an example. The wheels were 12 years old from production, they had had multiple botched clamped weights attached the rims, the factory powder coating had flaked off over most of the alloys or was severely bubbling. There was kerb rash on all four rims, but not bad enough to reject the wheels.

After carefully inspecting all of the wheels for salvage viability, I decided the best course of action, was a professional refurb. When I took them to the alloy franchise I use, they told me that they were by no means the worst they get in and promised they'd be 'as new' once they'd been done.

The quality of the refurb was outstanding. The cost of the job was £241 for that set in the colour of my choice. This of course did not include any tyres being mounted to the wheels. I remounted my winter tyre set on them (from my steel wheels) and the correct stick on weights were used for balancing.

I neither have the time let alone the professional equipment to do the job. Yes, I accept that doing some jobs yourself is entirely rewarding and I also know, that for the vast majority of people, they definitely don't want to stick their hand in their pocket when it comes to any form of maintenance work on their cars, but for me I just wanted the best job I could get, done and in a time frame that suited me. The wheels by the way, look absolutely outstanding on my car.

 

[alexGS]

On that point Alex, I'll have to respectfully disagree. You might feel in yourself that you would do a better job and I respect the fact you feel you could, but I know that I could never match a professional job over anything I could do in this particular context.

Frupi, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all and I think you have made valid points I was just trying to relate my own experience with this particular set of wheels - the place I was trying to use was obviously not up to the standard of yours, and they simply wouldn't do what I wanted. And didn't do what they said they would either

On the bright side - this place DID machine the outer part of the rim and remove the gouges, which is something I could not do myself. Usually I just fill any gouges with ordinary filler, then paint. With a polished face, I needed the rim machined, and at least they have done that - keeping it nice and flat and true. So I did get something for my money, and I'm really looking forward to finishing them off myself.

Let's try and get some photos into this thread - then we will all be able to agree and share our advice and results

It's intensely frustrating that despite downloading another browser, trying my Mac, my PC, my iPhone, and my iPad, and even signing up to an image hosting website - after an hour of messing around, I cannot get anything to upload a photo this evening! Maybe my Internet is broken...

-Alex

 

[frupi]

I did use to post photo's onto an image hosting website, but unfortunately, the site I used got hacked and it completely put me off from trying to upload any photos again, despite the fact that I wasn't targetted.

I guess you'll just have to accept my word lol!

I appreciate you understand what I'm talking about here. As I said in a previous post, I did once try to do small damage repairs to a set of alloys I had, and I did a ludicrously bad job lol!

 

[alexGS]

I appreciate you understand what I'm talking about here. As I said in a previous post, I did once try to do small damage repairs to a set of alloys I had, and I did a ludicrously bad job lol!

Cheers glad there's no hard feelings, I can certainly see both sides of this one.

In particular, using aerosol can products will usually leave a finish that is not as glossy, not as durable (scratches), and not as smooth (therefore, not as easy to clean) as a two-part (paint and hardener) finish would provide. So I can understand why you wouldn't want to compromise on quality in that regard. It's well worth paying someone when you know they will do a good job.

Powder-coating is the most robust and would be easiest to clean BUT it is also the most likely to chip or flake off, because it is the hardest material and also the thickest.

Two-pack paints and hardeners - which might be of restricted availability in the UK and EU? - are probably closest to the original finish quality, but (as usual) the result is proportional to the time and effort put in - there is still the risk of chipping/flaking off if the surface is not prepared properly.

I guess what I wanted to do was to share my success of using paint stripper today - looking forward to sharing other success once I have completed the polishing and the painting

But it's not just about me - I was also keen to know if anyone else has had much luck with polishing alloy and clear-coating it, as it's new to me. I have refurbished lots of painted wheels but never a set with polished faces.

I'm also very interested to see any professional refurb results for the 500's polished-face wheels, because after being told that they couldn't be machine-finished as the original, I'd like to know what is possible in the UK and other places. Someone told me it would require a CNC mill. I think the problem is that wheels for most cars are relatively cheap to replace - but 4x98 has always been very difficult in NZ.

Hopefully, photos will upload tomorrow

-Alex

 

[jrkitching]

But I'm sure a bit of sanding in those few areas won't be too arduous. Then I shall polish the faces, clean the wheels completely inside and out, and we'll be ready for paint. I will remove the paint from the polished faces, and apply a clearcoat over that. Have thought about this for a while and think I'll just use a regular two-pack clear, which never seems to set all that hard, so shouldn't chip or flake too easily. Maybe some flex additive would be a good idea? Any other hints for which clearcoat to use?

Alex, I'd agree with those that are saying it's nigh on impossible to restore diamond cut wheels without specialist equipment.

I have a friend with an SLK who had three complete replacement sets over around 5 years, all of which ended up corroding within 18 months. Fortunately these were done under warranty, but the merc dealer said that the 3rd set would be the last, so my friend took meticulous care of them (the car was kept in a dehumidified garage) Needless to say, this third set also only survived unblemished for two years at most.

I don't know what the prevailing climate is in NZ, but in the UK I don't think DC alloys are a practical long term proposition.

Personally, once the finish goes, I'd just have them stripped & powder coated. At the time of my friend's experience, the local merc dealer routinely powder coated similar wheels on just about all of their used SLK's.

You might want to read this - the video is worth watching too.