# alloy wheel refurb tutorial



## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

hi everyone

after much demand for the tutorial of how i refurbed my 17" mini alloys....here it is , i'm not suggesting everyone goes out there and gets a sander on there alloys but the results for mine were pretty mind blowing to the extent that you can't tell they were ever kerbed :thumb:

i started off by jacking up the car to remove the desired wheel. once removed this was a good oppurtunity to give the arch a good clean.










i then used a good wheel cleaner and lots of elbow grease to remove all the dirt, brake dust and grease from my alloys, i'm sure you've got good alloy cleaning solutions mine is a diluted product from autosmart that works a treat. i then hosed off the alloy and dried it thoroughly.










the next stage is not for the faint hearted it involves taking a delta sander to the kerbed parts of your alloys. Just make sure you use a fine sanding head to do this part. Pass over the kerbed part of the alloy untill the scratches have come out, make sure to try and maintain the curved profile of the wheel. once you have gone over with the sander use a piece of wet and dry sandpaper to remove any further imperfections from the alloy or any sanding scratches that the sander will have left. below is a before and after shot of what the alloy will look like.

before










sanding










after










you should be abled to notice from the image above that after the sanding has been done the surface should be smooth and will still match the curved profile of the alloy. If the kerbing scars are too deep to be removed by sanding you could use a filler. some of my kerbs went right into the metal of the rim though and were able to be removed with just sanding.

the next stage is to mask off the tyre ready for painting. you can use any sort of masking tape, the thicker the better though. I went for a black masking tape as it stuck to the tyre easiest and it enabled me to see clearly how much paint i had applied to the wheel.










THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! don't try and refurb your alloys unless your paint is matched exactly to the colour of the rim. i matched mine with a colour swatch and found an exact match. i think it was a bmw colour. silver 525.










before spraying the wheel make sure you have removed any dust from sanding the rim by rubbing the alloy over with some white spirit or meths

make sure theres plenty of room around the wheel for your own menouverability and make sure you've put a sheet on the floor. i made a mistake of not doing this to start with and covered my patio in siver paint!!! DOH

if you can ****, you can paint....but make sure with each pass of the spray you apply evenly and dont apply to much. make sure you have started spraying before you pass over the rim to ensure a constant amount of paint is applied. i tended to move around the alloy as i was spraying. And after each coat i used a hairdryer to harden the paint before the next pass this proved essential to ensure the paint didn't run.



















apply a good few coats of paint. it should be evident when you have applied enough.










a good indicator of how much paint you have applied is to look at the black masking tape. remember the spraying is the most important part to get right, if you spray badly it will show. TAKE YOUR TIME!


below is an image of one of the worst kerbed parts of the alloy










the next stage is to apply clear laquer over the top of the paint, make sure the paint is dry before you move onto this stage. this is another advantage of using a hairdryer on each pass to ensure that the paint has hardened.

you will need to apply a few coats of laquer, it will make the paint colour look alot deeper and will match the existing alloy much better after this stage.

below is a picture of the clear laquer i used. i just got mine from halfords










once you have finished laquering the alloy your pretty much done just give some time for the laquer to harden before putting the wheel back on the car. the image below is an example of one of my alloys after i had refurbed it.










after a day or too when the paint would have hardened completely i gave my alloys another thorough clean and used some 3ms perfect 3 to remove any overspray from the alloy and to bring them back up to an amazing shine.

the last image was before i gave my wheels a final polish and coat of protection and i really can't believe how good the results are 100% improvement. i really can't tell that my alloys have been refurbished and i am abit of a perfectionist.

I'm not suggesting anyone goes out there and takes a sander to there wheels but when your saving £50-£60 a wheel for refurb work and the results are as good if not BETTER i don't see why you shouldn't have a go at it yourself. I did and i'm happy

anyway guys keep up the good work and if you have any question just reply to this thread and i'll reply asap...

chealy :car:


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## daveb (Aug 9, 2006)

Very nice, a fine job. I must admit im tempted now


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## Glossmax (May 9, 2007)

I do mine the samw way.
Nice write up and great results. 
A bit hard to read with such massive photos. I can only see a 1/4 of the photo at a time.


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## timwuk (Nov 20, 2006)

Looks like you have that technique mastered!


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## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

sorry about the image sizes guys didnt think about it. will have ago at resizing in photobucket.


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## GP Punto (May 29, 2007)

Good write up Chris, thanks


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2007)

Excellent job :thumb:

Where did you get the colour matched paint from - I remember asking this question before on another thread and Halfords was mentioned?

One thing I still can't get into my thick head is because you are spraying only a wheel lips, there will be overspray of both the colour coat and laquer onto unpainted areas. Does the final polishing stage remove this with ease? I'd imagine you did this by hand rather than machine?

Cheers,
Phil


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## cj romeo (Jul 12, 2007)

2 further tips:

1) Let the tyre down and push it back to let you right in.
2) Buy the lacquer from the same source as the paint if you can to ensure compatability.

Good Job Sir!


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## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

Phisp said:


> Excellent job :thumb:
> 
> Where did you get the colour matched paint from - I remember asking this question before on another thread and Halfords was mentioned?
> 
> ...


i had the colour match done at a bodyshop a guy called alan ward from cannock. i didnt machine the alloys as i believe it would probably be too aggressive. the only purpose of using the 3m compound was to remove excess overspray and there is no blend line evident between unpainted areas. i suppose the next alternative is to spray the whole visible alloy area although for a simple repair this is probably abit overkill. i hope this answers yuor questions phil. i suppose the best idea is to spray teh colour matched paint on some card to see if its a good match or not before attacking the alloys but it look different again when the laquer layer is added

chris


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## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

cj romeo said:


> 2 further tips:
> 
> 1) Let the tyre down and push it back to let you right in.
> 2) Buy the lacquer from the same source as the paint if you can to ensure compatability.
> ...


what a great idea i wish i had though of that. getting the masking tape under the lip of the alloy is certainly time consuming!


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## Paulm31 (Jul 27, 2006)

or use old business cards


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2007)

Thanks Chris :thumb:

Cheers,
Phil


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## Liverpool-Lad (Jun 27, 2006)

Nice, but will they last?


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## crm (Jul 26, 2007)

Nice write up, mine really need doing - but I'm thinking of buying new alloys completely, and then maybe selling the current ones on (the current ones aren't standard for my car)..

What sort of filler would you need - is there a special alloy filler?

Thanks!


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## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

crm said:


> Nice write up, mine really need doing - but I'm thinking of buying new alloys completely, and then maybe selling the current ones on (the current ones aren't standard for my car)..
> 
> What sort of filler would you need - is there a special alloy filler?
> 
> Thanks!


i don't know to be honest but if i was using a filler i would use halfords p38 resin filler


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## ianc61 (Aug 5, 2006)

That is a real good write up with some good advice


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## wassap (Feb 23, 2007)

Just use a flexible filler, implanning to do mine at the weekend, did you just blow over the 'repaired' bit or did you do the complete wheel?

Moondust silver is a good match for ford alloys, i used a touch-up pen on mine and that matched well.


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## Andyuk911 (Sep 10, 2006)

nice write up, also here

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/realwhda.html


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## stomper250 (May 8, 2006)

Nice write-up chealy,

I've just bought some G60 alloys which have some kerbing so i'll be following yours and others advice to get them looking good again!

Oli


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## nicko_12345 (Apr 3, 2007)

Would i need to do anything different to change the colour of the wheel?


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## hmi1750 (Apr 23, 2006)

i need to do this to my one of my front wheels. seems easy enough with some patience.


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

A great write up and guide:thumb:

What have you done to your thumbnail though? It looks like you either have purple nail varnish on it of have hit it with a club hammer


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## chrischeal69 (Jun 21, 2007)

GlynRS2 said:


> A great write up and guide:thumb:
> 
> What have you done to your thumbnail though? It looks like you either have purple nail varnish on it of have hit it with a club hammer


it looks painful i know but i assure you its just black spray from painting my crappy mini wheel nuts that seem to rust and corrode on every mini i see.

cheers for the replys guys


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## M4D YN (Nov 24, 2007)

turned out good eh,just shows u :thumb:


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