Cueball85

A few months back I had my 18inch prodrive alloys proffesionally refurbished and they look awesome, so awesome I don't want them on my car during winter....

I decided to get a cheap set and also put on winter tyres so ive got something to use over those winter months.

I bought a set off ebay, standard wrx hawkeye wheels for £100 and when they turned up they were as rough as hell. so rough I knew they would look terrible.

I thought about getting them refurbed but then that defies getting the cheap set for winter???

so I decided id give it a bash and refurb them myself.

now ive got a bit of painting experience, I did 3 years at a body shop about ten years ago but haven't really toughed anything since. and everything was painted with shaky cans, now I know how **** they are on body work but I was fairly certain I could get away with it on wheels since your not blending into other panels etc.

I thought I may as well put this up as a guide incase anyone wanted to give it a bash

so heres what I bought,

80 grit
200 grit
2000 grit
scotch pads
1 tube of knifing putty
1 small tin of metal replacement filler (only for deeper curbing)
paint prep wipes
1 can of filler primer
2 cans of grey primer
3 cans of chosen paint
2 cans of clear coat
around about £50 for all that

so heres the wheel that was heavily curbed, I actually had to use a dremel because the edges were sitting proud. buffed of the paint around the curbing then applied the filler





i only needed knifing putty on the other wheels which werent so bad



left it to dry for a few hours then rubbed it down. I used the 80 grit only on the metal filler and did my best not to rub any other parts of the paint work to save rubbing out the scratches later on (i also used the sand paper wrapped round a rubbing block to keep the edges straight). I only used the 200 grit or 2000 grit on the knifing putty




after this i keyed the whole wheel with a scotch pad and used the 200 to get the deep scratches out then the 2000 to get those scratches out, if you get me? and 2000 to get any imperfections i could see leaving no edges or scratches at all, then wiped it clean with paint prep wipes and applied 2 coats of filler primer and then 2 coats of grey primer





when the grey primer was wet its a good way of showing up any high spots or pin holes you've missed so once it was dry i rubbed those areas down and applied some more knife putty if it needed it then applied more primer over those areas



i then let the primer dry for 24 hours then used 2000 grit over the whole wheel taking of high spots and smoothing the wheel




i gave the whole wheel a good wipe with the paint prep wipes and applied a really light coat of my chosen colour



i applied 4 more light coats to make sure the paint didn't run, not a big deal but youd have to wait till it dries then rub out the runs and start the whole process again

i left the paint to dry for 24 hours and applied 2 coats of clear coat (waiting a few hours in between) and heres the finished result



the heavy curbed wheel up close



just noticed you can see some primer on the pic above, this is during one of its coats and not the final result on that wheel

ill be leaving them until wedesday until i put the tyres on and ill stick up a picture then. i might actually put another clear coat on top, once the clear coat is dry you can use 2000 to rub out any imperfections or dry spots but you run the risk of going through the clear coat altogether then youll have to rub it down again etc etc so to be honest im not going to bother with that process.

so over all im really pleased with this. ok so its never going to be as good as getting them dipped then powder coated but for around 50 bucks im happy and my car will look cool over winter

hope his helps people!

Rory

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

Good work.

May I ask what your 'chosen colour' is? In the second to last pic it looks the sort of colour I'd like.

Cueball85

its called Toyota decuma grey, reason i chose it was because it was roughly the colour i was going for and Halfords had 3 cans instock :-)

Scoobydoo Ste

iTrader: (3)

You've done a decent job there mate. Fortunately there is a company local to me that do budget refurbs for £60 a set of 4 - only the faces are done though but for the price I can't moan

Cueball85

Cheers. No one around my way doing such deals.... Im thinking of getting a compressor and starting doing things like this during my leave as a little business. I'm offshore only working about 4 months a year in total so been thinking of something I could do

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

For a cheap set of winter wheels that'll do the trick nicely, great job there

kevfawcett

iTrader: (7)

I did my track wheels a few months ago
From this


To this


Not the best job in the world but good enough to use on the track

Cueball85

They look sweet in white. Was going to put mine white actually but changed my mind