# Repainting a damaged area of my wheel



## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

Hi all,

Recently buckled a rim due to a pothole - I've had it straightened out but the process has cracked the paint, resulting in a fairly sizeable chunk of the paint coming off. About the size of a disposable lighter.

It has now occurred to me that I should have possibly rejected the wheel as it wasn't cracked when it went in...but I didn't, so I'm here now.

Anyway, I need to repair this damaged area (it's towards the inside edge, but not near the lip) and I've been reading up on the process. I think I've sussed it out and would like to review it with you fine people if you don't mind?

Here's what I've got (questions are asked inline):


Remove all loose paint
Key up the exposes metal and edges of the solid paint with coarse sand paper (maybe about 60grit?)
Fill with standard body filler
Sand back to a smooth finish
Prime with an etching primer (can someone tell me if that's required?)
Paint with 2-4 light coats - Wurth silver alloy paint
Allow paint to completely dry over night (is any additional curing I need to do here?)
Do I need to lightly sand between this and the clear? What would you consider as "lightly sand"?
Finish with 2-4 light coats of Wurth wheel lacquer


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## Barbel330 (May 3, 2016)

Sounds about right mate. You only need etch primer when you have bare metal, which you will have on this job after sanding.

Don't flat the basecoat down with anything or you'll mess up the metallic in the silver and will need to re-coat it. If you apply nice light coats of base and dry it with a hairdryer or heat gun between each coat there's no need to wait hours before applying clear. Just base it lightly, dry with hairdryer, more base, hairdryer........until it's fully covered your primer. When it's touch dry you can apply your clear.


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

Interesting with regards to the etch primer - does that mean I should do it before I do the filling?

And thank you for explaining the process with regards to putting the clear over the colour - I thought it sounded a bit odd! I will go over it with a tac cloth first of course. Or a cloth at the very least, not sure I'll bother getting a specific tac cloth for such a small job - MF will do the job I'm sure.

I do actually have an IR heat lamp for treating muscle injuries, could be perfect to help with the curing as I can leave it setup for period without having to stand there holding it?


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## Barbel330 (May 3, 2016)

Filler onto bare metal, then etch primer, then a high build primer over that because etch primer isn't very thick.

A heat lamp will help for sure.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

2. 180 grit 

4. 180 then 240

5. yes etch then high build unless its a very small and neat repair....then sand primer with 800 , key good paint in surrounding area with grey scotch pad

do not sand silver paint...clear coat as soon as its dried over , say 20 mins or so


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## SamD (Oct 24, 2015)

I did do a basic tutorial, I probably need to update and clarify some explanations.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=402570


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

Thank you chaps for the help and recommendations - brilliant stuff and I now feel confident to tackle this at some point over the next two bank holidays!

I do have one further question - with this being about the size of a bic lighter...how big an area around it would you mask off? I'm assuming you don't want to be too tight up to it so it blends?



steveo3002 said:


> 2. 180 grit
> 
> 4. 180 then 240
> 
> ...


One final question on this - I don't have a Scotch pad and tbh it's such a small thing I probably won't bother buying one (but I do understand it's importance in doing paint repairs). From what I can tell it is basically a scouring pad?


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

yeah its like a scouring pad 

basicly you need to gently rough up the surface for a key , never paint onto unprepped paint 

theyre cheap enough to buy


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## enc (Jan 25, 2006)

Not sure if my guide is of any use without the images ? Photobucket images no longer work 

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=348112&page=27

Perpetration is paramount.

Here is what I started with ...


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## brooklandsracer (Mar 3, 2017)

Why not simply pay out £50 to have it properly refurbished rather than doing a cowboy job your self as when finished you will probably wished you'd done so as you are no expert that works on wheels every day. :tumbleweed:


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## SuperchargedLlama (Apr 25, 2008)

I've not found anywhere near me that's reputable that charges as low as £50 - they are all far around £70.

Plus it's a bit of fun learning a new skill on a bit of wheel that's barely visible on a car that is 9 years old. If this was our Merc I'd definitely get it done professionally.


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## enc (Jan 25, 2006)

Mother-Goose said:


> I've not found anywhere near me that's reputable that charges as low as £50 - they are all far around £70.
> 
> Plus it's a bit of fun learning a new skill on a bit of wheel that's barely visible on a car that is 9 years old. If this was our Merc I'd definitely get it done professionally.


Agreed. 
At the end of the day if it all goes **** up ... you just get it into a pro and have it fixed. No real loss


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