DIY Wheel Refurb

ci_newman

ci_newman

ci_newman

Don
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After deciding that my rear tyres need replacing, I went on the hunt for a new full set of Toyo T1Rs (My fronts were running on Champiro GT55s which were horrid). A day or so later, I was very lucky to spot that somebody on IMOC was selling a set of standard rev3 alloys with a nearly new set of T1Rs for £200. This was a bargain considering a new set was going to cost me £350! After picking them up, I was very impressed with the tyres- It changed the whole handling characteristics of the car.

The only downside was that the new alloys were heavily corroded and pitted and were in dire need of a re-spray. I have already re-furbished my previous alloys so I set about doing these too...

Very pitted- This may look like brake dirt, but even with a long soak of wheel cleaner and a hard scrub it was not coming off:
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A closer look:
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Armed with my sanding paper and paint:
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I went over the whole outside of the alloy with emery cloth to remove the very rough surface:
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Close up again- staining to the alloy was still there, however it was now smooth:
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Following the emery cloth, I went over the alloy again with various grades of wet and dry- Then I masked the alloy up:-
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A few coats of primers later:
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24 hours later to allow for drying - a light sanding with some fine grit wet and dry to remove the surface 'bur' from the primer:
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A few layers of top coat:
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Again, 24 hours later and I covered the alloy in fine wet / dry and coated them in several layers of laquer and removed the newspaper to apply tyre dressing:
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Fitting to the car- notice the slight difference in colour shade between the front and rears- fronts have been sprayed using 'Steel' coloured paint, the rears are still awaiting spraying to are in their original Silver:
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Close up of the finished article:
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All in, I'm very happy :D
 
Bradmax57 said:
Cracking job that well done :D what did it cost all in then to refurb? ive seen far worse "professional" refurbs!
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All of the materials came to around £40 which will give me enough to spray all four alloys :)

The only 'downside' with a self refurb is that the alloys are off of the car for 4 / 5 days meaning that potentially the car is off the road for the same time. I was fortunate that I have a second set now (after buying these ones) however the old rears are now below minimum which makes driving in the wet quite scary...
 
ci_newman said:
All of the materials came to around £40 which will give me enough to spray all four alloys :)

The only 'downside' with a self refurb is that the alloys are off of the car for 4 / 5 days meaning that potentially the car is off the road for the same time. I was fortunate that I have a second set now (after buying these ones) however the old rears are now below minimum which makes driving in the wet quite scary...
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haha :)

£40 is probably the best price you could get for one so thats great, especially considering the job youve done! could live with it being off the road i guess considering the saving, never mind the job satifaction :D
 
Must get round to doing mine now that the clear coat has decided to gain some slight yellow streaks.

Glad I waited though, when I first thought about doing them I though Gun Metal would look the bomb :o or maybe even black :eek: :o :o
 
That looks awesome.

I'm still undecided on what to do with my motorcycle wheels, whether to bit the bullet and get them powdercoated, or do them myself for £50 cheaper.
 
MrSix said:
That looks awesome.

I'm still undecided on what to do with my motorcycle wheels, whether to bit the bullet and get them powder coated, or do them myself for £50 cheaper.
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For the sake of £50, it's a lot of work to prepare and paint an alloy... Powder coating almost guarantees a good finish if done professionally, however your own work runs the risk of getting screwed up if you don't know what you're doing!
 
I'd be fine doing the work myself, plus it's a motorbike wheel, not an alloy, so it's different.

You say £50 isn't worth doing it yourself, but that's £50 more I could spend on uprating the suspension or putting towards some new headers to add 10 more cart horses :D
 
lordrobs said:
Must get round to doing mine now that the clear coat has decided to gain some slight yellow streaks.

Glad I waited though, when I first thought about doing them I though Gun Metal would look the bomb :o or maybe even black :eek: :o :o
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Get some Meguiars wheel brightner, my old dears merc a class's rims were a bloody mess, lots of yellow staining, which wouldnt budge,one dab of WB and they look bloody superb, obviously they are crap for corroded wheels tho.
 
wohoo said:
Get some Meguiars wheel brightner, my old dears merc a class's rims were a bloody mess, lots of yellow staining, which wouldnt budge,one dab of WB and they look bloody superb, obviously they are crap for corroded wheels tho.
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I'll give that a punt, cheers.
 
Baron_Samedi said:
Quick question - if you had needed to fill the wheel rim to build up the metal, what material would you use?

Thanks!

Nice article BTW!
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Flexible filler will do the trick mate, depends how big the 'dent' is.

I have big sodding gouges in my rims, when some sodding git forced me onto the kerb :mad:
 
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