# DIY Alloy wheel repair



## Pauly_G

Well out and about yesterday I managed to do this to the nearside passenger wheel...I was less than impressed!










Did a bit of research, including reading up on the two great guides posted by FurioAL and richie.guy on here and as I've got the week off this week I decided to crack on and have a go at the repair myself...

So popped off to Halfords this morning and picked up some:

- Metalik
- White Spirit
- Assortment of grades of wet & dry sand paper
- Grey primer
- Masking tape

So got home and cracked on following the various guides I discover on the internet.

1. Step one, I gave the wheel a good clean with some dish wash detergent to remove all waxes / oils etc.
2. Next I sanded the damage with some 400 grade wet & dry and then cleaned the damage with some white spirit, to make sure it was clean.
3. Following the sanding I masked the tyre and rim and then mixed up some Metalik and applied to the damage. It went on reasonably well and was pretty tactile and straight forward to work, this was the result:










Looks a bit ugly but I thought I'd put a little bit too much on in order to give me something to work with.

4. Lunch....after a busy morning!
5. After leaving the Metalik to dry over lunch I then dug out the 400 grade wet and dry sand paper and using a small eraser as the sanding block proceeded to sand and reshape the rim. Once I was happy that I'd just about blended the rim I used some 800 grade paper to provide a nice smooth finish. This was the result:










6. After I'd finished the sanding I cleaned the repair and masked for painting with a primer:










7. I then gave the repaired area two coats of primer, leaving this:










And this:










Well that's as far as I've got, now awaiting the arrival of the Wurth Silver Paint and Lacquer in the post. Overall I'm pretty impressed, especially since it's my first attempt. I'll update once I completed the wheel.

Cheers

Paul


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## lee.

That's quite impresive.

Still annoying you know it's there but you have made a great job so far.

Look forward to seeing the finished result.


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## alanjo99

I think you need a bit more practice 





I will send you two wheels down to practice on  

Seriously though - Looks pretty damn good to me :thumb:


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## glenboy

What a great job so far,like Lee said, can't wait to see the finished result


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## Orca

Good work - this summer I am going to set about re-finishing a set of wheels for my wife's convertible. One of the wheels has some kerb rash, so I will need to have a go at filling - I take it Metalik is a kind of liquid metal filler?

Once done, they'll go on the car and the existing wheels which are full of rash, chunks missing, etc will undergo the same treatment. That set are "proper ****ed" but not worth a professional refurbish.

Great to see such a good result.


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## Pauly_G

The Metalik is essentially a liquid metal - resin based with aluminium shards in it.

It was pretty easy to sand and with 800 grade wet and dry produced a lovely. I probably used a little bit too much, however I wanted to err on the side of caution rather than put just enough on and then find that I'd sanded it all off again!


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## NKS

that's a great start, post up the finished pics when complete - thread subscribed too :thumb:


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## Kriminal

Flippin eck :doublesho .....that's a damn good job there mate :thumb:


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## softt

looks great but never mentioned the paint used ?


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## NKS

softt said:


> looks great but never mentioned the paint used ?


He's no used any paint yet mate, it says he's waiting for it to come through the post


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## bannan

looking good, make sure you get pics up when its done, interested in how well the Wurth paint matches up.


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## Neil_M

Links to the two guides mentioned:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=41033

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=36167

Oh and regarding the paint, have you any idea how close a match it will be? I know the wheels on my fiesta are very "metallicy" and may be hard to match.


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## Pauly_G

So update time....

Well the second part of this repair hasn't proceeded to plan and to be quite honest I've made some beginner's mistakes.... This is what the wheel now looks like after one coat of lacquer.....which I really got wrong!



















The three key mistakes that I've made have been as follows......

- Masking too much of the wheel thereby creating very obvious paint lines, which I then proceeded to sand out and repaint.
- Not having a strong enough paint thinner to remove the silver paint overspray (Doh!)
- Holding the spray can in one position for too long, creating a build up of paint and run lines.

I'm not beaten yet though! I'm going to go back to the primer stage and therefore sand the repair back down, primer, paint and lacquer. Equipped with a better practical (rather than theoretical) understanding I should hopefully be able to make a better stab at it second time round!

We all make mistakes....it just really annoying and have make sure we learn from them.

On the positive side the Wurth paint seems to match quite well!

(Should have just posted a pic of another wheel and said "look at the amazing result!":lol


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## swordjo

Still looks better than a big scuff though mate, i'm sure you'll get it spot on the second time round :thumb:


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## N8KOW

That is excellent. What part of bristol you from buddy?


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## Orca

That's a great help, posting your "beginners mistakes". To be honest, yes, you can see the line but when you've undertaken the job it stands out to you a lot more ... from back here, it looks pretty good.

I'll be doing the whole wheel (well, set of four ... two sets), so there'll be no issue blending in. Nice long sweeps, rather than holding in one place ... great tip :thumb:


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## Kriminal

No shame in making a few little mistakes - at least you're not stuck up yer own ar$e far enough not to admit these things, that I'm sure we ALL make from time to time.

You're still doing a damn better job than I would be able to - keep it up, I'm sure it'll be perfect in the end :thumb:


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## Trune

dunno if you already know, but when i did some spraying from cans, i found it helped alot to place them in warm water for an hour before use, i got a much more even spray coming out of the nozzle after that.

looks like a great filling job though!!


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## Dave^

Neil_M said:


> Links to the two guides mentioned:
> 
> http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=41033
> 
> http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=36167
> 
> Oh and regarding the paint, have you any idea how close a match it will be? I know the wheels on my fiesta are very "metallicy" and may be hard to match.


Neil, i bought some paint off this guy... http://stores.ebay.co.uk/id=63424865&ssPageName=STRK:MEFS:MESST

used it on my ST wheels and it's a cracking match..... :thumb:

i only used it as 'touch up', i didn't sand down or anything.... (bit of a bodge i know, but they'll be getting the full works at the end of the summer.....)


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## Neil_M

Paul good to see you are putting your mistakes up to guide others. Do keep at it, as you are making great progress!



Dave^ said:


> Neil, i bought some paint off this guy... http://stores.ebay.co.uk/id=63424865&ssPageName=STRK:MEFS:MESST
> 
> used it on my ST wheels and it's a cracking match..... :thumb:
> 
> i only used it as 'touch up', i didn't sand down or anything.... (bit of a bodge i know, but they'll be getting the full works at the end of the summer.....)


Dave thanks for the link, do you have any pics of the touchup job on your rims?


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## REFLECTS

As said mate - Mistakes are there to be corrected and i for one appreciate the pictures.

Good Work mate :thumb:


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## isherdholi

Could you not use an abrasive polish over the "paint line" you mentioned, to level it out and blend it a little?


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## p1tse

i saw a similar write up on autopia and fancied doing this when i get time, as want a cheap simple fix, so it doesn't look as bad. 

i see you're from bristol, if you fancy making a £'s or exchange in wine/cider ;-) PM if you have time at somepoint in the future. (on 4 audi rstt wheels)


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## Toscane

Damn, that's amazing so far! 

I didn't know that you can repair wheels like that. Thank you for sharing the mistakes by the way, it's way more helpful than seeing the "perfect" jobs all the time. :thumbsup:


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## Dave^

Neil_M said:


> Paul good to see you are putting your mistakes up to guide others. Do keep at it, as you are making great progress!
> 
> Dave thanks for the link, do you have any pics of the touchup job on your rims?


not at the moment, but if the weather clears up, i've still got a few more to do yet......


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## Neil_M

Dave^ said:


> not at the moment, but if the weather clears up, i've still got a few more to do yet......


Cool, please stick them up when you get time though!


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## Buck

Another good guide I read about on Audisport but is actually from a BMW forum....

http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/wheel-repair/wheel-scuff-repair.htm


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## singlespeed

Pauly_G said:


> The three key mistakes that I've made have been as follows......
> 
> - Masking too much of the wheel thereby creating very obvious paint lines, which I then proceeded to sand out and repaint.


Lifting the edge of the masking tape can lessen a paint line as the paint can feather under the raised edge, rather than being a definate masked line :thumb: Aim the can at 90 degrees to the masked edge, to prevent spraying too much under the lifted tape. ( why is it always hard to explain simple stuff without making it sound difficult  )

Looking realy good so far :thumb:


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## dubnut71

Thats great work buddy, beginners mistakes are what we all learn from! beat my wetsanding mistake!!!! (whats that white stuff.....)

Good work so far!!


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## pugoman

singlespeed said:


> Lifting the edge of the masking tape can lessen a paint line as the paint can feather under the raised edge, rather than being a definate masked line


It's worth getting some 'soft edge masking tape' if you're gonna be doing a fair bit of repair work.


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## Buzzsaw

pugoman said:


> It's worth getting some 'soft edge masking tape' if you're gonna be doing a fair bit of repair work.


Ditto that or if you have an air brush it's pretty easy to feather in to the original finish....

Gonna be doing mine at the weekend so i post up the results in this thread


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## Chris_R

Nicely done, I am just doing a set of my wheels at the moment. All 4 are scuffed right the way round.


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## pav-g

Great thread and very useful info. I scraped one of my alloys last week and think Ive got enough confidence to have a go myself now. Looking forward to pics of final stage once paint and laquer have gone on.


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## Pauly_G

Depending on the weather (temperature / moisture) going to have another crack at the painting this weekend.


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## Neil_M

Good stuff get the pics online.

Also note for people looking at other alternatives http://www.teamtorquesteer.co.uk/fiesta-colour-coding/alloy-wheel-touch-up-paint.html) may be of use.


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## Andyuk911

Also this one

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

same as above, LOL the BMW one ...


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## Guest

Thanks for taking the time to post this up including where you went wrong. That in itself is very valuable information and will be a big help to others :thumb:


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## Buzzsaw

Andyuk911 said:


> Also this one
> 
> http://www.autopia-carcare.com/realwhda.html


Have a chat to Robert at Performance Motor Care for the Wurth products:

http://www.performancemotorcare.com/acatalog/Wurth.html


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## Tiggs

After having to re-furb all four wheels on mine, its certainly about practise, the first was...not great...the last I was well pleased with. 
i think your well on ya way to a great job, keep it up mate :thumb:

When I re-furbed my MV alloys i used the Wurth silver paint, it is a perfik match. I called them up direct and paid over the phone etc. Delivery in two days.


.


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## isherdholi

A small tub of the Wurth german wheel paint would be really handy for small touch ups instead of the aerosol can. Is this available anywhere?


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## REFLECTS

Where are we with the wheels mate?

Did you finish them?


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## p1tse

any update?


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## Pauly_G

Still not finished, have been away a lot recently and the weather hasn't been great either. Am planning to take the wheel off to paint it this time. I will update the thread once done!


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## p1tse

cool, nice one. good luck.

if i post up some pics of some wheels, could you recommend on what can be done on a DIY touch?


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