Alloy wheel refurb

catflea

The alloys on my car have been very badly curbed by a previous owner, so I'm thinking of having a stab at refurbishing them myself. Any pointers for a good how to website? :beer:

Not done it before, and it'd be good practice for another set I want to do (for the other car)

shuaibf

last time i asked they said to me its not worth gettin it done may aswell buy new wheels that was at national tyres

shuaibf

ooo soz i thout u meant garages that do it ... if you wanna do it ureself put a step by step guide on i wanna no aswell

ijrussell

When I kerbed one of my alloys on my fairly new car, I used a company called Mint Alloys.

They did a really good job - couldn't spot where the damage had been.

Came out and did the job at work.

Costs about 60quid for a wheel - maybe cheaper if you have all 4 done.

http://www.mintalloys.co.uk/

catflea

Definatly not worth paying someone to do it. I can pick the wheels up on ebay for 15 each off ebay if I want to! Its as much of a learning exercise as anything else....

goldspanners

ive just bought a kit from ebay. ive got a few scuffs on one alloy wheel face i intend repairing myself. the kit was £11 it comes with full instructions apparently.

Yogibear

catflea wrote: »

The alloys on my car have been very badly curbed by a previous owner, so I'm thinking of having a stab at refurbishing them myself. Any pointers for a good how to website? :beer:

Not done it before, and it'd be good practice for another set I want to do (for the other car)

found this out going to try it myself........lol





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How To DIY Alloy Wheel Repair Refurbishment! (pics)
I needed to refurb one of my alloy wheels (I need to refurb them all actually) and have 1 spare one so started with that... I got instructions from a friend and this is the first refurb of an alloy wheel I've ever done...

Before:

Although the pics a bit naff, the wheel has: Lots of kerbing, scratches, dents, bubbles in the paint etc.

First step: Sand all down with 80, fill dents, scratches, kerbing etc (with david's isopon filler from motorworld), sand 80, then 240:


** clean wheel like mad! ** (sugar soap spray is good at removing dirt and grime, or clean in the bath, but be careful not to mark / knacker your bath!)

Second step: Spray with hi-build primer: (1 light, 10min wait, 1 heavy coat, 10 min wait, 1 heavy coat - same process for all spraying: primer, paint, lacquer)


Allow to dry over night

Third step: Sand wet (with some washing up liquid) 1000 wet n dry, then you can spray with silver spray paint:


Allow to dry (30+ minutes)
Forth step: spray with lacquer.


Optional step (but a good idea) - "finish" the lacquer - with very fine wet and dry (eg 1500 / 2000) to remove any roughness, then using something like Scratch X to remove any marks left by the sandpaper.

Then polish and admire your handy work

Lessons learnt:

- Always test sprays on something else prior to wheel - I had a bad can of lacquer that didn't spray - it just dripped on the paint and melted it away, meaning I had to re-sand / re-spray that area again leaving some small wobbly bits as can be seen in the last pic (I could have resanded down and re-filled but was impatient and didn't want to take it back down to the primer stage).

- If you get small hairs in - don't try removing it when wet! This will bodge surrounding area and you'll need to respray / resand / refill area potentially taking it back to primer stage. Apparently it's easier to remove when dry (obviously I learnt the hard way)

ses6jwg

Been there, tried it.

You can get them looking "acceptable" but never anywhere near factory finish.

I just had 4 wheels done, £180 in any colour.

Inactive

Dump them and get some steel wheels, they are far easier to maintain.:)

anewman

I tried it but wasn't satisfied with the finish. Also I found the lacquer the most difficult stuff to work with. I found wet and dry paper on it was a complete no no, and not long after the stuff just flaked off. Suppose it could have been because I used cheap lacquer or made some error applying it.

If you shop around you might find somewhere that does them for about £30-40 a wheel (including removing and refitting tyre, and most alloy refurbishment places actually do the correct thing and put the weights on the inside of the wheel).

I would recommend waxing wheels every so often after cleaning. This helps stop brake dust adhering and eating into the lacquer and makes them easier to wash next time.

mikey72

I did one of mine with silver smoothrite, providing I brushed the paint in the right direction it gave a finish very similar to the original, and it lasted well.