# My first attempt at repairing an alloy wheel



## Neil_S

OK, so my interest in repairing alloy wheels has lead me to have an attempt myself in an effort to learn some repair techniques and document the sort of results an amateur can obtain.

I should say I have never painted anything on a car up until now, so a complete novice here.

I will also add that this thread is going to be very honest. I shall not mask any mistake I made in the process as this is an attempt to learn from mistakes and I never expected to get perfect results first time. This thread is an attempt to help others interested in alloy repair, so they can also learn from my mistakes.

So the target wheel is one of my old Audi RS6 replicas. I want to fix the kerb damage on the alloy.

The damage is a mixture of one deeper gouge and about 10 inches of kerb rash.




























I first started with some 400 grit wet and dry paper and lightly sanded the 10 inch section of rash.










As you can see this took the edge off the rash and left only deeper marks to be filled.

Before I continued, I used some paint thinners to clean the area and surrounding area on the wheels. I did this about 8 times until the cloth was clean.

Now I was ready to fill the gouge and the deeper marks.

I used this filler...










I mixed up the filler and applied to the wheel. It seemed to dry pretty quickly and it looked like a pigs ear when I'd applied the filler in all honesty.

The lesson I took from this was to use less hardener and also masking would have probably been useful to prevent getting the filler onto more area than strictly necessary and to save sanding later on.



















I did manage to rescue this with the 400 grit and careful sanding of the area until everything was flush.

I spent quite a bit of time here to make sure it was very smooth and flush.

You can see in the picture below, a very slight uneven area, this required a tiny bit more filler, but I decided to proceed to see how a slight imperfection would look when painted.



















Now I taped up the area, ready for primer. I used standard Halfords grey primer here, perhaps a high build primer would have been a better choice.



















I sprayed a coat of primer, waited 15 minutes and then sprayed another coat.

I then left this 24 hours to fully dry.

After priming I could see a distinct line in the paint where I had masked off. I just used standard masking tape here and next time I attempt a repair I shall either use an edge tape or another technique to avoid such distinct lines and hopefully achieve a much more blended finish.

I sort of rescued the primer layer with 1200 grit, and wet sanded the area to remove the ridge and flat the primer.

I then IPA'd the primer several times to ensure it was perfectly clean for the colour coat.










On removing the masking, you can quite clearly see the paint transition. This was due to the masking technique used. My next attempt will hopefully eradicate this problem due to different technique.










I left the paint about 6 hours to dry and followed with 2 coats of clearcoat, 15 minutes apart.

For the clearcoat, I removed most of the masking to try and achieve a more blended finish..










You can see this reduced the colour transition lines, but they are still clearly present.

For a first attempt I was pleased. Clearly room for improvement, but much better than the original kerbed finish!

The good



















The bad - some paint lines, some more evident than others





































I should finally say that I used the Wurth Alloy wheel colour and clear coat paints for german alloy wheels.

I am not totally sure that this is a 100% paint match for the replicas. It is believed to be for genuine Audi/Porsche wheels, but I think further investigation is required before doing any repair on my genuine RS6 wheels.


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## mart.h.

brilliant thread you've tempted me to try redoing mine now


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## ahaydock

Looks good Neil - what will you do about the paint lines - fine sand?


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## HC1001

Nice work, glad to see it can be done...........:thumb:


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## Orca

Bloomin' good work, pal ... one of the things I have learned is that a good IPA wipe-down after a light sanding before spraying ... and have faith that the paint will cover those slight defects that you can't quite get rid of and look huge because you are obsessing over them!

Again, excellent! Well done :thumb:


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## alanjo99

Look much better now Neil ,

As for colour matching have a look at http://www.wheelpaints.co.uk/ they do spray gun & rattle can paints - solely for wheels (thus the name) in a multitude of shades for a really good match.

HTH


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## CupraRcleanR

Looks good. Inspired me to tackle a similar job.

Any links to products used? please!


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## Neil_S

ahaydock said:


> Looks good Neil - what will you do about the pain lines - fine sand?


Not fussed mate, I suppose if I wanted too, I'd sand back the whole lot and prime and paint and clear, but these wheels are just for testing and will be scrapped when I've finished with them.

Unfortunately they seemed to have developed an inbalance and when I move the wheels I can actually hear what sounds like gravel in the tyre, I think the quality is probably poor, so rather than risk anything I will scrap them.

The quality of the OEM wheels is much better.


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## Brazo

Pretty damn good mate!

Deflating the tyre will help you get better access to the rim and will make masking up etc easier


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## Neil_S

Thanks everybody. I think it isn't bad for a first go and you can only get better through trial and error.

Due to time and weather turning colder I may not get to continue this until spring, but I've certainly learnt from this and expect my next attempt to improve and hopefully totally eradicate the paint lines.


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## Buzzsaw

mart.h. said:


> brilliant thread you've tempted me to try redoing mine now


Yeah me too - thanks for posting! I guess it's all trial an error refining the perfect end result.

One thing that struck me though is the difference in the thickness of the rim in the final shot below:










I wonder if using something as simple as modeling clay could help resolve this issue by making a bespoke sanding block purely for your wheel!

If you masked off the a section of undamaged rim/tyre and made a mould that matched both the shape and contour of the lip as well as a section of the arch/radius of the rim you could in effect produce a bespoke sanding block.

You could then fix the sandpaper to the block with something like spray mount and run the block/mould around the damaged area dropping down in sandpaper grades until you have perfectly matched the undamaged area.

Jesus hope this make sense......

Pic of block:










It's amazing what a bottle of red wine can produce, I think i'll go for a ly down, good night 

Slight OT - this is patent pending


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## Neil_S

Good idea mate, what happened to that bit was that I was a bit over enthusiastic with the initial sanding, so that it had a slight angle on it.

A shaped block would help avoid this and is surely worth looking into, so thanks for the suggestion!


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## david330conv

Great thread showing some goods results - i'm in the process of refurbing some MV1 alloys and have used Metalik filler. This was very easy to sand and gives good contouring.

I'll try to post some pics (first time posting pics - i hope it's easy!)


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## Neil_S

Yes I hear Metallik is a good filler to use. Will be interesting to see the results.

I think it would be easier to do a full wheel as you don't have to worry about a paint transition, not sure how difficult it will be to paint in corners and so forth.

Maybe one I shall have to try, a complete wheel refurb.


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## Bigpikle

nice one Neil - commended for experimenting :thumb:

contact Marc (Krystal Kleen) as he does wheel repairs so may pass some tips on paints, masking etc


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## Mirror Finish Details

Using that Isopon stuff reminds me of filling the wings of a MK3 Cortina to get it through the MOT in the 80's.

Detailing in those days was giving it another coat of Hammerite.


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## Neil_S

Bigpikle said:


> nice one Neil - commended for experimenting :thumb:
> 
> contact Marc (Krystal Kleen) as he does wheel repairs so may pass some tips on paints, masking etc


Thanks Damon, I shall no doubt ask Marc for some advice after I've considered my next steps.

I think I'll spend the next few days on the 3M website!


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## ahaydock

Neil_S said:


> Not fussed mate, I suppose if I wanted too, I'd sand back the whole lot and prime and paint and clear, but these wheels are just for testing and will be scrapped when I've finished with them.


Fair enough - top job though.


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## Dave Richardson

Nice one Neil, you should be proud of the results

Dave


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## CK888

Finish looks very good, thanks for sharing Neil:thumb:


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## freon warrior

Thanks Neil, a top post:thumb:


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## wyliss

I too am thinking of repairing my RS6's. One thing I am unsure about is what sort of papers to use to rub down. Can anybody expand on these different types of papers used?
Thanks


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## Neil_S

I used 400 grit for sanding the filler.

1200 grit wet to sand the primer.

I didn't sand the colour coat as it was metallic, but you will probably need to sand it if it is just straight silver.

In future I intend to sand the clearcoat and polish, will probably use 1500, 2000 and 3000 wet.


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## ads2k

Great post Neil 

Very good finish for a first attempt. Make sure we see your improvements on wheel 2.


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## Tiggs

Good job on your wheels mate, feels a great achievement when done.

When I refurbed my MV alloys, I used a broken in half lolly stick to wrap the grit paper around it. 
I had the same problem with the primer lines and done just the same and feathered them out with an 1000 grit paper. 
The only differance I done was when it came to the silver base coat i masked up 2/3 of the wheel, then used news paper shaped/taped into a falf moon shape(bare with me) and held it 10-15 cm above the wheel while I sprayed with the other hand. I had no tape marks and very little over spray, left that a day then sprayed the clear in the same method. I then used some fine cutting paste for the over spray, polished and waxed. 
Looked as good as new.:thumb:


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## PTAV

great work neil! ***** for your first attempt - it does get easier and you do get better at doing them!


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## Neil_S

Thanks chaps, good idea with the half moon, I need to do something like that


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## robertdon777

Neil, Silver is very very hard to blend and colour match to an existing silver. Personally i've always sprayed larger parts of a wheel (no need to hard mask the area).

If you still go ahead with a spot repair try folding the edge of the masking tape back over on itself to give you a soft edge, this is much easier to flat down at the primer stage. Then spray silver with the tape removed, this will allow you to blend the paint colours much better. Finally clear coat (again with no masking tape) and when alls dry flat down with 2000 grit and blend into the rest of the wheel with rubbing compound.

Looking forward to your next go!

Rob


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## wrx man

Great first job mate.

I need to do my scooby wheels but i will have to do the lot because they're in a right state !

And gold :doublesho


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## ianFRST

great effort.

i bought 2 jacks yesterday so i can get my rims off to do the same 

if you curve the edge of the tape instead of sticking it flat to the surface, that should eliminate the lines, well, that what ive been told :lol:


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## Stino

Going great 

Last ones i fixed was for a friend:










































Everything was welded and sanded/polished.
On the last picture, the part between the 2 black stripes, was completely gone.

Results:

























Final polishing he is gonna do himself, so i don't have pics of that.


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## Orca

OMG Spino - These alloys are sooo similar to my five spokes. I have no idea who manufactured mine, but I like them:

... anyone know the manufacturer?










... mine are drilled 4x108 PCD.


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## Stino

These are Keskin rims.


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