Has anyone attempted to do D.I.Y Alloy wheel referb? I noticed after cleaning the wheels, what looked like light brown scabby marks on the dish, on closer inspection it looks like cracks in the Lacquer and in some places the Lacquer has come off. Also has gougies from kerbing on the edge of the rim. Is it worth my while attempting to rub the Lacquer off and re Lacquering the wheels my self? I know you can get these Alloy Wheel referb kits which are supposed to repair the gouges etc. Has anyone used one of these kits or is it best to take to a proper wheel referbing centre?

 

Cheerz

There is a How to do in the FAQ section :)

Carl... Funky-Si has done an FAQ on how 2 refurb wheels ... however, this is just for repaint, yours have a polished rim right? If this is the case, to get the best finish they need to be diamond cut on a lathe, which unless you have access to such hardware, could be a problem :p

 

I have the same problem with my 18's from my old zed... the laquer got stonechips on it, which in turn allowed moisture onto the polished lip which began to tarnish/corrode then spread and lift more laquer...

 

I paid a visit to a company called KO alloy wheels just north of the m25 up the a10, they had some rather exotic cars outside so i think they are a reputable company... they are prolly a little more expensive than your average refurb place but they do the polished lip thing properly.

 

Furthermore... lol (made myself giggle with the formal paragraph opener!) they do NOT laquer the polished lips on their refurbs... the laquer lifts too easily unless you key the polished lip which ruins the polish... and people neglect to protect the bare alloy surface once moisture is in. He recommended to me that i have them done and polished, then spray the lip with hairspray creating an invisible barrier to protect the rim, if done regularly they should stay fine. Im sure there are plenty of other methods to protect them though.

 

I think at the end of the day though, polished wheels on a daily drive is prolly not the best idea and a high power silver colour would be the way forward :)

Do you mean digs and curbing marks?

 

I managed to sucessfully de-curb one of my wheels a few weeks ago. I clipped a rather right curb trying to avoid a lorry that wasn't making life easy. I ran nasty scratches and digs all the way around one of my passenger side rear wheels.

 

I got home and looked at it and felt sick. So thought to myself, I'll give myself a go at repairing that before taking it to my local metal refinishers for the last stage mirror polish.

 

Was so disgusted by it, I took the rim off imediately, got the tyre demounted and went to our local motor factors to purchase lots of various grades of WD papers.

 

I think the lowest I got was about a 400 grit which was very very abrasive, but used that to feather back the dead metal and eventually feather out the damage. After sucessfully doing that, I then went on to use 800 grit to remove the marks that the 400 grit left and so on. I fished up with about 2,000 grit WD, each time I changed the grade, I flushed out the bucky of soapy water. Best to use soapy water as it's a good lubricant.

 

I got the lip back to looking even and spot on, it was at an even dullness all round with no low spots.

 

Took me about 2 hours , just to get that lot right.

 

Then took the repaired wheel to a metal finishers to have the lip put on the buffing wheel (which I don't have), did a good job of it, I got the wheel back, attached the whole thing with with autosol and then Brilliant, it looked as good as the day I first picked them up from Marc at 'Juswheels'. Results were totally perfect and I was very happy! So, I can now repair polished alloy wheels too...well, to a certain degree! LOL

 

I should have taken photos actually.

 

If yours are polished, then lacquering the bare metal is just going to cause the same problem again. The thing with polishing/diamond cutting is that the surface isn't keyed and the paint will not bond to the metal. It simply lays there on top. All it takes is a small scratch or stone chip for the laquer to come off, once that's done, due to the nature of it all, water will get in between the lacquer and metal. That's when they go all cloudy and corrosion sets in. This is a process that seems more apparent on the cheaper cast rims.

 

Furthermore, I'd not recommend trying to polish cast wheels, due to the nature of the manufacturing process, you're going to get small cracks, pockets and other imperfections etc. This will have an effect on how it will polish up. Will never really be able to get an amazing finish from cast. Forged split rims, now that's a different kettle of fish. Materials are usually very good with these; aircraft grade alluminium which responds very very well to mirror polishing. Mine are aircraft crade and do respond very well to it.

i have.

This is the scabs that have appeared over all of the wheels, obviously the Lacquer is breaking up, for reasons unknown the car has never been driven hard over stony ground so doubt its stone chips, so wondered if i could rub the Lacquer off and re Lacquer? THe scuffs are self explainery

 

Im halfway through a re furb on my 3 piece Jap split rims.

Front two were kerbed to death and all 4 had bad laquer/corrosion.

Front two are done, back 2 are on the way. I have also changed the centre colour as the gold wouldnt fit in with my colour scheme.

I just hand filed out the worst of the gouges then moved on to flap wheels and then fibral satinising mops.

then moved on to stitched cotton mop with fast cut bar, followed by a stitched cotton mop with med polish and finished with fine bar polish on a non stitched cotton mop.

then the rims were THOROUGHLY degreased with Max Meyer degreaser. Washed and dried before finishing with 2 Pack Acrylic High Solids laquer.

You are looking at around £40 for mops and polish and another £20 minimum for laquer. Obviously you already need a good quality power drill that will run continous for hours with the mops and a compressor and spray gun(touch up size) to apply the laquer. Plus a twin filter charcoal mask as 2K is toxic.

Then add time and cost of tyre strip and refit and balance etc on top.

I got lucky on this job and was able to keep the rims together and only remove the centres for repainting.

they went through their own process.... like this.....

soak in the parts washer overnight and remove worst of crap. flat down to remove scrapes and any paint blisters. First in 400 then 800 grit. Back in parts washer. Then into hot soapy water and finally with Max Meyer degreaser.

Prime in (toxic) 2K primer. allow to go off overnight.

flat with 800 and apply basecoat. Leave a couple of hours to flash off and settle. check for nice even matt finish with no runs and go straight on with a double header coat of 2K laquer.

You can then add more laquer according to taste!!!

Oh I just forgot to mention the 160 little bolts to be undone and redone. They just got dipped in acid rust etch for an hour to clean them up.

Phew !! Nearly done.

Leave a few days and then apply some high quality wax polish. Not that silly stuff in bottles but something like Blitz one grand wheel wax.

Just one job left. take final photo.

Enjoy

Phew thanks for that pete, dont think i have the patients for all that if thats whats involved, they can be someone elses problem to do i think lol. I must admit though your wheels look spot on bud, all the hard work has payed off

Phew thanks for that pete, dont think i have the patients for all that if thats whats involved, they can be someone elses problem to do i think lol. I must admit though your wheels look spot on bud, all the hard work has payed off

 

Well thank you Carl for the kind words.

I have of course been messing about for around a decade on jobs like this so for me its no big deal. I have a compressor, spray guns and materials always.

Likewise mops. polishes etc are all to hand. Once you have mastered the techniques its fairly simple but still tedious and ally polishing is a filthy job.

Here is a pic of one of the old school slotmags I have just finished on the 240Z Im currently rebuilding.

Well thank you Carl for the kind words.

I have of course been messing about for around a decade on jobs like this so for me its no big deal. I have a compressor, spray guns and materials always.

Likewise mops. polishes etc are all to hand. Once you have mastered the techniques its fairly simple but still tedious and ally polishing is a filthy job.

Here is a pic of one of the old school slotmags I have just finished on the 240Z Im currently rebuilding.

 

Bloody hell there a blast from the past. I used to love slot mags i remember when you used to see mag wheels on neally everything, Escorts, cortinas, capris etc and all the yanks had em too. Good work there too, they will set the car off a treat

I've got a blast cab for serious wheel blasting and refurbs, but TBH it's rarely needed.

 

Most of the time it's surface damage, which looks worse than it is, 1-2mm of alloy scuffed can mould together, and look like a shit load more damage to the rim.

 

Your best bet if it's rim damage and not strutural is to metal file off the scuffage on the rims, it will take a very short time to get a rough shape together on the rim. Then you use 120 grit or a real abrasive to start to work the uneaven surface to blend, work your way down to 500 grit which is all that is needed to flatten it to the right shape. Go straight to 800+ and white spirit, then wash with soapy (fairy liquid) water, rinse well. Dry the rim like crazy, cause even when it looks and feels dry often there is still moisture there.

 

Once dry prime with a cellulose primer filler (cheap and sticks well uness the rims are coloured with twin pack, twin pack sits on cellulose but not the other way around). Dry with a heat lamp or hair dryer will do, then sand with 1200 grit to smooth. Wash again with soapy water, and white spirit. Dry totally then spray with alloy wheel paint. After 48 hour laquer with clear varnish (much better than normal laquer).

 

If your aiming for a polished lip like you have, use 1200 from 800 with no primer, polish it out with fine wet and dry, then varnish the lip and blend the varnish into the outter edge of the rim and inner paint to seal the alloy. It will stop it from corroding and make it shine like fook.

 

A couple of days after varnishing, use cutting paste all over to flatten and then polish it up with a polish compound.

 

Job done.

 

I removed and reshaped all four rims on the 306 daily driver by hand and flat down / finished in matt black and laquered in like 2 hours. It dosn't take long (unless they are split rims and you are working with caps, then it's a pain in the ass!!!!!!).

I've got a blast cab for serious wheel blasting and refurbs, but TBH it's rarely needed.

 

Most of the time it's surface damage, which looks worse than it is, 1-2mm of alloy scuffed can mould together, and look like a shit load more damage to the rim.

 

Your best bet if it's rim damage and not strutural is to metal file off the scuffage on the rims, it will take a very short time to get a rough shape together on the rim. Then you use 120 grit or a real abrasive to start to work the uneaven surface to blend, work your way down to 500 grit which is all that is needed to flatten it to the right shape. Go straight to 800+ and white spirit, then wash with soapy (fairy liquid) water, rinse well. Dry the rim like crazy, cause even when it looks and feels dry often there is still moisture there.

 

Once dry prime with a cellulose primer filler (cheap and sticks well uness the rims are coloured with twin pack, twin pack sits on cellulose but not the other way around). Dry with a heat lamp or hair dryer will do, then sand with 1200 grit to smooth. Wash again with soapy water, and white spirit. Dry totally then spray with alloy wheel paint. After 48 hour laquer with clear varnish (much better than normal laquer).

 

If your aiming for a polished lip like you have, use 1200 from 800 with no primer, polish it out with fine wet and dry, then varnish the lip and blend the varnish into the outter edge of the rim and inner paint to seal the alloy. It will stop it from corroding and make it shine like fook.

 

A couple of days after varnishing, use cutting paste all over to flatten and then polish it up with a polish compound.

 

Job done.

 

I removed and reshaped all four rims on the 306 daily driver by hand and flat down / finished in matt black and laquered in like 2 hours. It dosn't take long (unless they are split rims and you are working with caps, then it's a pain in the ass!!!!!!).

 

Cheers Steve, im not intending to touch the spokes of the wheel they are fine, just the gouges and the scabs on the rims and getting them pollished up again, maybe i will give it a go. Although am now thinking of doing the spokes in Black Anthrosite? :D

Cool, tbh you cant fail but make it look better.

 

I just noticed the pic, the rim doesn't look too bad and the outter edge doesn't look all mashed up so you may well not need to go as far as a metal file. I use a metal one to literally scrape off the deformed edge and then I sand it all smooth to bleng it.

 

If you do that, just be real careful not ro slip and gouge the centre of the rim, real easy as they are soft as shite.

 

I'f it's like it is in the piccy, I would start with a course paper on a couple of inch section, work that bit and see if your happy with the result, if you are then bobs your uncle do the rest. It's a borring old job mind, and prepare to have blisters on your fingers from the friction lol. You could use a sanding block or something, but I like using my fingers (oooh err) cause it's much better to feel what your doing and be a lot more accurate with it.

 

Cheers.