Help - Painting my wheels

[Foogles]

Right, I'm looking to repaint my silver T Sport alloys white and basically would like some help in doing so. Has anyone done a step by step guide on here? If not, if someone could give me a plan of action it would be much appreciated!

I'm guessing i would need to sand down the wheels first. What type of paper would I need?

Then some sort of primer next? Anything special needed that's suited to alloy wheels?

Then the white paint itself. What type of paint do I need? How many coats? I would prefer a shiny finish to a matt one but I don't know if that's possible? Any links to paint would be appreciated.

As with most of my 'help me' threads on here please treat me as an idiot as my knowledge is slowly growing but still very small

[shaungt4]

From this

To this

To rub them down i used a medium grit wet and dry then a 1500 grit. Sprayed them with high build primer from halfords 3 coats. Rub the last coat down with plenty of water with a 2000 grit wet and dry. White paint is toyota 040 from halfords again. Again 3-4 coats last one rub smooth with 2000 grit. Then the clear gloss coats again 3 coats then polished up when hardened off after a few days.

Edited March 20, 2014 by shaungtr

[daytona]

^^^ this.

Then stop kerb crawling!

[shaungt4]

^^^ this.

Then stop kerb crawling!

I didn't curb crawl lol, that's how they were when i got them.

[Foogles]

From this

To this

To rub them down i used a medium grit wet and dry then a 1500 grit. Sprayed them with high build primer from halfords 3 coats. Rub the last coat down with plenty of water with a 2000 grit wet and dry. White paint is toyota 040 from halfords again. Again 3-4 coats last one rub smooth with 2000 grit. Then the clear gloss coats again 3 coats then polished up when hardened off after a few days.

Thanks I remember seeing these wheels when you did them last year and thinking that's how I want mine so I'm glad it was you who replied

[shaungt4]

No worries mate.

They were a lot of work. Well the one in the pic with the chunks missing was the other 3 were just rubbing down and painting.

[Foogles]

How long did it take would you say from starting to being able to put the wheels back on? I use my car for work so if its a time consuming job i might have to wait until my week off in April...

Also, what did you use to fill the missing chunks and what's the process for doing so? My wheels are mostly fine but there is one that is a bit damaged.

[shaungt4]

I did them over 2 weeks. Mainly because of the one that had chunks missing. A mate done the missing chunks for me because it was to much to fill and wouldn't have lasted. He drilled some small holes and built it back up with liquid alloy run into it, I then ground it to shape. Minor scratches and scuffs can be done with chemical metal., Use it just like filler.

Edited March 20, 2014 by shaungtr

[Dan HX]

Been thinking about the DIY route on my winter set, but I think by the time I've paid to have the tyres and valves removed to do a good job (£20), sanded them down and maybe nitromorse'd them a few times (paint has flaked off in places), filled, sanded, primed, sanded, painted, sanded, lacquered (50-60? for all the paints, nitro and sand paper), got the tyres/valves back on and everything balanced (£20-30 if I can do a deal with the same place that took them off) I may as well get them powder coated by a proper place... (£160 all in 'mates rates' from on of our clients), the finish is going to be much better after a chemical bath + blast and proper coating.

Already had one set done and they look like new.

If the paint wasn't flaking off maybe a different story.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Dan HX

[Alan Mac]

Don't use Nitromors on alloy wheels. It gets under the surface of the alloy and comes back up to stain your paint finish. May take a week, may take a year but it always comes back.

I always strip back wheels with P80 grade dry paper. Then etch prime (UPOL stuff is best but use a paint factors, not Halfords, it's half the price). UPOL filler primer next, 2 coats then wet 'n' dry with P400 wet. Use lots of water and dry off regularly so you can see how flat the paint is. Top coat in colour of your choice (3 to 4 coats). When painting wheels white, again I use UPOL wheel paint from the factors as it doesn't require a lacquer finish and dries hard as nails. If you have runs or a lot of orange peel, P1500 wet 'n' dry used wet with a bit of car wash solution in the water, then polish.

Did my four wheels over two nights, including small rim repairs with Chemical Metal. About 8 hours total. Tyres only have to come off if the rims are really chewed and require TIG welding.

[Dan HX]

How long will it take to get 2 rims completely down to the metal though with P80?

[Alan Mac]

I should add, it's never cost me more than £40 to refurbish four wheels and that was a metallic finish with four coats of lacquer. White shouldn't cost more than £30 including sand paper, paints and a tube of Chemical Metal. Just avoid Halfords as their paint is thin and very expensive.

Takes me about 90 minutes to strip two gen 7 16" alloys back to bare metal using P80 by hand. It's boring but quite satisfying.

[Foogles]

Don't use Nitromors on alloy wheels. It gets under the surface of the alloy and comes back up to stain your paint finish. May take a week, may take a year but it always comes back.

I always strip back wheels with P80 grade dry paper. Then etch prime (UPOL stuff is best but use a paint factors, not Halfords, it's half the price). UPOL filler primer next, 2 coats then wet 'n' dry with P400 wet. Use lots of water and dry off regularly so you can see how flat the paint is. Top coat in colour of your choice (3 to 4 coats). When painting wheels white, again I use UPOL wheel paint from the factors as it doesn't require a lacquer finish and dries hard as nails. If you have runs or a lot of orange peel, P1500 wet 'n' dry used wet with a bit of car wash solution in the water, then polish.

Did my four wheels over two nights, including small rim repairs with Chemical Metal. About 8 hours total. Tyres only have to come off if the rims are really chewed and require TIG welding.

Thanks for the info, that's a big help

On a side note, how much of this stuff would I need? How many mls of paint? How many sheets of wet & dry paper? Primer?

[Alan Mac]

Buy a 4 pack of Oakey Extreme P80. It's bright green sandpaper so easy to spot and B&Q sell it (though again far more expensive) if your factors doesn't. It lasts about four times as long as Halfords crap yellow stuff but costs roughly the same. 1 pack of four sheets P400 wet 'n' dry. About £5 all in.

1 can Upol etch primer. 1 can Upol high build primer (enough to put three good coats on 4 17" wheels. 2 cans of Upol white wheel paint. My local paint factors does cans of Upol for £5.65. Compare that to Halfords and you'll see my point about price. Halfords was £12 a can last time I looked. Paint comes in at £22.60 for four cans at a car paint supplier (I use the Spraystore in Motherwell).

Small tube of Chemical Metal is about £2.50 at the paint factors also. Just under a fiver at Halfords.

It's well worth going to the effort of locating a local paint factor as the savings soon mount up and the paint itself will be much thicker.

[Dan HX]

Hmm thanks Alan.

Soon I'll have my winters off so will try to do one first, if its too much like hard work I'll get them done

I've got at least 6 months to do them though

FYI screw fix do Oakey 8 packs for <£5.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Dan HX

[daytona]

^^^ This. Also your local paint factor will mix you up a unique paint at a third of the Halfrauds cost as I found out.

The hard way.

DOH! :rolleyes:

[Alan Mac]

B&Q are doing the 12 pack of Oakey for £6 just now. Never try to outsave a Scotsman Dan. Only needed 1 sheet but it was a bargain.

If you ever buy a metallic top coat at a factors it's worth asking them to put 5% extra thinners in the mix. I've always found their metallic paint a bit thick for blending. Solid colours on the other hand are a pleasure to use and I have resprayed entire cars with them before. Cost me £200 to do a Lancia Delta and £240 all in to do a 185. After many hours of flatting back with P1500 then P2000 w 'n' d before a good going over with Farecla G3 on the mop, followed by some lovely Poor Boys hard wax, I'd defy anyone to know the car hadn't been resprayed in a pro paint shop. I keep trying to justify buying a compressor and spray gun but other than speed and it being easier to apply a thick 'wet coat', I find rattle cans will give as good a finish used with care. Plus buying acrylic paint to go through a gun is a pain unless you have a pre 1973 registration document or have an arrangement involving single malt whisky with your factor.

I'll be 3M carbon wrapping and lacquering a set of 17 inch split rims in the next few weeks. I'll take some photos of the prep and application to show how it's done just as soon as I manage to get the socket to remove the rim splines.

[skatz114]

^^^ I wanna see that!!!^^^^

[Dan HX]

I want to know how you are sanding 2 wheels in 90mins. I'm on about 5h for 2! Maybe I'm being too picky, but they are lovely and smooth now (picked the two with the worst corrosion/pealing paint to start).

[Alan Mac]

Five hours? How smooth are you making them? It's actually better to leave light sanding marks on them for the primer to adhere to, unless you are polishing the rims. Even then, I doubt it would take me 2.5 hours a wheel as I've stripped back and mirror polished rims in under an hour before.

The only time it's taken me more than an hour on a wheel is when I cleaned up the Tom's alloys on my old 300ZX. They were very similar to BBS cross spokes as found on 80's/90's Beemers and took about 3 hours a wheel. The only way I can explain the difference in time between myself and you Dan is that I must sand faster than you. I strip wheels right back until there is no paint at all on them, so it must be down to the sandpaper used, technique and speed, nothing else.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Alan Mac