I was wondering if anyone could run me through the procedure of D.I.Y spraying (refurbishment) of standard alloys. The reason being i have standard 5 spokes of a MY00 and they have coroded quite bad from wheel balancing weights being fitted on the outside and also are quite tatty in general, i don't want to have it done proffesionally as i am looking to change them fairly soon (when i get a bit more cash together) and would rather spend that money on the alloys themselves. But, i really need to tidy them up as they are bugging me in the poor condition they are in. I had heard that a few people spray there own so thought i would ask here.

Thanks for any help if any one can help.

Cheers James.

Take it no one has done this before then.:(

Yes - I did mine about 4 months ago. First I removed the valves and tyres (with the aid of my friendly local tyre fitter)

I lightly wire brushed them to get the flaking paint off - sometimes I used a stanly knife scraper tool, then I rubbed them down with varying grades of wet & dry paper until they were smooth.

Then they were washed down with water then dried and then washed with solvent then sprayed with an appropriate primer. (2 coats IIRC) I left this to dry over night, as I had had enough of being gassed for one day...

Next morning I applied 3 coats of paint. I used Halfords spray cans for this, as I hadn't found a better source then. (I have now) This was followed that evening by several coats of clear laquer.

I don't have any "before and after" pics now, as I lost a load of things when my computer died last month :( However the wheels still look good, and the brake dust hasn't eaten into the paint yet. - Just give the laquer a good while to harden before you get tyres fitted, or the paint will get wrecked!