I am really curious how these methods comapre to each other.
mod - you can move the thread if u feel its more apt in the write ups section
Following has been taken from ht
Polishing -
Gloves - buy a 100 pack at the drug store, if you dont use gloves get ready to have black hands for a week.
Sandpaper 150*, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1500
2 cans of mothers polish
6" Buffer
Small palm sander
A few rolls of that blue paper towel stuff from canadian tire…
- Be carefull with 150 grit…use only to sand down curb scrapes or really bad areas… you’ll need to speed 3 x time with 220 grit to get rid of the sanding marks that the 150 will leave behined.
Step 1: strip rims with heavy duty paint stripper - follow the instructions exactly, do not do it on a humid or cold day or expect to do it agian!
SKIP TO STEP 4-8 if rims are smooth after stripping - use your own judgement. Sir rims and many other OEM rims have concentric machined rings that need to be sanded off so you need to start off with 220 grit
Step 2: Sand down with 220 BY HAND use a wood block for flat parts. take your time and make sure you dont see anything but the sanding marks that the 220 will leave behined. I sand dry with 220. this step will take the most time! do a good job.
Step 3:
Use 320 with the palm sander along with lots of water.
Palm sand as much as the rim as you can but be carefull not to let the sanders lip hit anything! let the sander to the sanding and use lots of water.
clean with clean rags and water.
hand sand areas you cant get at with the palm sander
sand again with the palm sander and fresh sand paper.
Step 4: (same as step 3 with 400 grit)
Step 5: (same as step 3 with 600 grit)
Step 6: Hand sand with 800 grit - take your time and get everything! I used this maroon colored paper from home hardware - it didn’t last long using lots of water but it worked so well. buy 4 sheets of this stuff! Thumb Up I did 2 good passes with this stuff.
Step 7: Do the same with 1500 grit. the rim will look very smooth and very DULL. if it looks even and dull than you did a good job.
Step 8: Smear a decent amount of mothers on the whole rim. WITH A NEW CLEAN bonnet buff until you start to see circles/haze - you’ll see the rim start to get very shiney but will leave a buffing patteren. keep doing this but dont let it get competely dry… hard to explain but you cant really screw anything up at this point, just might have to do it over. turn the bonnet inside out for the next ‘step 8’ that you do. Step 9: WITH A NEW CLEAN bonnet buff the rim. If you did the buffing part right the rim will look like a mirror in seconds. if it still looks hazy than keep experimenting with step 8. you will surprise yourself
Painting -
- Clean off wheels thoroughly, then lay wheel/tire flat on ground.
- Scuff wheel with sandpaper, then clean wheel again.
- Stick index cards around edge of wheel between tire and wheel to keep paint off of tires.
- Spray several light coats of paint onto wheel. I used DupliColor Wheel Paint, graphite color, available from AutoZone, $4/can.
- Spray several light coats of clearcoat if desired, depending on how shiny you want the final product to be. Clearcoat will also make the final finish feel smoother.
Now, after doing that, here is what I have observed needs to be done in addition to those steps above:
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Before painting, you should use an aircraft stripper to remove ALL original clearcoat and any paint that is on the wheel to begin with. Take it down to bare aluminum.
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Clean wheel, strip off clearcoat (use gloves, and try to keep the stuff off the tires), clean off residue, clean/wash wheel again, then paint as above. - As far as primer, I’m not sure if that should be used beforehand or not. I didn’t, but you might have better results if you use it.
Approximate estimate of above work according to my calculations would come to less than $80
Sandblasting & Powdercoating -
To my knowledge, I know that buying an decent oven to perform this is going to be an expensive approach, unless one is planning on selling it right after use, or using it for other purposes. However I called Buffalo Sandblasting (or whatever its called, which is located in buffalo), and their estimate to sandblast and powdercoat 4 rims (15") would be about $200 (could be more depending on how bad the rims are damaged)
If you have done either one of the above two to your rims please comment on your final product, and if you would have rather done it the other way. I was just curious if sandblastng and pwdercoating was worth the extra dollar.
discuss
