DIY Wheel Refurb

[ci_newman]

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:

A closer look:

Armed with my sanding paper and paint:

I went over the whole outside of the alloy with emery cloth to remove the very rough surface:

 

[ci_newman]

Close up again- staining to the alloy was still there, however it was now smooth:

Following the emery cloth, I went over the alloy again with various grades of wet and dry- Then I masked the alloy up:-

A few coats of primers later:

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:

 

[ci_newman]

A few layers of top coat:

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:

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:

Close up of the finished article:

All in, I'm very happy

 

[ci_newman]

Cracking job that well done what did it cost all in then to refurb? ive seen far worse "professional" refurbs!

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]

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.

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!

 

[ci_newman]

Ta!

Would you roughen the surface to improve ahesion of the filler?

I would roughen the surface anyway- purely to make sure that all the grime build up from a scratched alloy is cleared away...

 

[ci_newman]

Well, all of the paint / lacquer is still in place but it's only been a couple of months! I also sprayed my old set of alloys ~ a year ago, and they're still in top condition!

The key is preparation! Make sure the surfaces are 100% clean, dry and flat before applying the paint.