DIY Refurbishing stock 3.0RB Wheels (Pic Heavy)

[McDoof]

Finally I have 2 painted wheels on the same side of the car

[shav]

Looks as good as new

[McDoof]

The 3rd wheel has just about broken my spirit.
Sanding took ages due to the clearcoat being made of ROCK!!
Anyway, I got it done. Then I painted it as per the other wheels. Then applied the clearcoat as per the other wheels. At this point I managed to put my thumb on it. A nice big fat thumbprint right there in the paint.
So I figured I could just sand back the bit of clear that I had touched. But that just left a slightly lighter spot on the wheel even after a new coat of clear.
So I painted a bit of the main paint over the spot with not good results. It split and looked like an old lady's face, it sort of melted off.
OK I was getting a bit frustrated at this point and decided to sand the whole surface of the mostly immaculate wheel and spray over it again.
It looked OK during the spray but when I came back to put on another coat it had gone back to looking like saggy skin. So it looks like it needs a full strip again.
So long story short. I have dropped the wheel into the local acid dipping place and I am going to get it back as bare metal at some point so I can start again. I just couldn't face having to sand it all back again.

The lesson here is that there are no easy fixes with this stuff. If you make a little bit of a mess of it then you have to start again and do it right.

[shav]

The 3rd wheel has just about broken my spirit.
Sanding took ages due to the clearcoat being made of ROCK!!
Anyway, I got it done. Then I painted it as per the other wheels. Then applied the clearcoat as per the other wheels. At this point I managed to put my thumb on it. A nice big fat thumbprint right there in the paint.
So I figured I could just sand back the bit of clear that I had touched. But that just left a slightly lighter spot on the wheel even after a new coat of clear.
So I painted a bit of the main paint over the spot with not good results. It split and looked like an old lady's face, it sort of melted off.
OK I was getting a bit frustrated at this point and decided to sand the whole surface of the mostly immaculate wheel and spray over it again.
It looked OK during the spray but when I came back to put on another coat it had gone back to looking like saggy skin. So it looks like it needs a full strip again.
So long story short. I have dropped the wheel into the local acid dipping place and I am going to get it back as bare metal at some point so I can start again. I just couldn't face having to sand it all back again.

The lesson here is that there are no easy fixes with this stuff. If you make a little bit of a mess of it then you have to start again and do it right.

Dam, sorry to hear Nikolai. Hope it gets rectified soon.

[EVL20T]

First 2 attempts looked great

But i would have just taken them to get blasted then powdercoated, i had my old OZ RACING wheels done for less than $300 for all 4 and much stronger than paint

[McDoof]

That does look pretty good. If I ever decide to do this again I think I will have a look into that as an option. It will be interesting to see what the wheels look like when I have had them dipped. Should mean a nice easy spray job at least.

[McDoof]

Anyway, moving on, I got my wheel back from the acid dipping and it looks pretty good. It appears that these are sand cast wheels. I imagine the finish on this will be amazing due to not having any sanding to do on it.
Just have to decide if it is worth almost $60 a wheel to have them dipped.
I'll be painting this over the weekend.

[McDoof]

Been a little while since I updated this post.
Been a crazy few months. I am finally getting to the pointy end of getting this job done
I got a bit lazy on the pics of the 3rd wheel but it looks pretty decent after getting acid dipped. I had to use a truck load of primer to get them smooth. I think a bit more of a filler primer for the initial coats would help.

So on to the 4th wheel
While I liked the ease of having the wheel dipped, I am on a tight budget so I forged ahead at home. I have light duty compressor at home and a simple sandblasting gun and some garnet that I had left over from a bit of a previous de-rusting job I did on my old car. So in order to avoid the frustration of sanding all the little grooves I used the sandblaster to clean these out. I tried giving the whole wheel a go, but its still slow going and I was running out of blasting garnet.
This is what we get



I then carried on as usual with a 300ish grit wet paper to sand the rest down. (again a bit lazy on the pics but it looks the same as the wheel one and 2 after sanding it down)
After all of the previous work I have figured out the perfect way to apply the primer now.
One thin coat to start it all off. Making sure that all parts get a least some primer on them. Then do 3 coats of primer that are a bit thicker waiting at least 2 hours in between. Then let the primer dry overnight and sand it lightly with 1000 grit wet paper so that it is completely smooth

While I was at it. I primed the centre caps. I gave them a really good clean in really hot soapy water (dish soap) Then gave them the same treatment. One thin coat and then just 2 thicker coats of primer
The other thing I have learned is to find a suitable work surface when sanding and cleaning. I seems a bit odd, but I find the top of a 240l wheelie bin very good. Its at a great height for not hurting your back and it holds the wheel in place nicely

Then washed everything down with hot soapy water again. I will get the paint done on these tomorrow once I am 100% sure that they are dry.

[Brunsy3.0]

A long road with a big effort. Hope the end result is up to your own standard.

[McDoof]

Really happy with the look so far. Gives the whole car a bit of a shadowy look. Just need a JDM GT-B mesh grille and light tint on the rear lights to finish it off.

[Bugalugs]

Awesome work mate - inspirational! Good tip on the wheelie bin work station too! Two thumbs up, can't wait to see it all done

[McDoof]

Centre caps are painted and on the one side. The last wheel is busy curing a bit before I get the tyre back on it for the other side of the car. I really should move those wheelie bins when I take photos
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[McDoof]

Just a pic of the other side

[McDoof]

Added a summary to first post

[mrjafer]

Heyyy, love the colour of the rims,
what are they, i want to get mine done the same way.
thanks !!!

Looks as good as new