DIY - Alloy wheel refurb

Anyone seen or heard of this :

Ebay wheel refurbishment DIY kit

My alloys are a bit scuffed (and by the look of them they've been refurbed before) - so I was wondering whether something like this would be fo any use till I can afford to get hem done properly !

Looks interesting, but a little worried about it saying "Can also be used for plastic hub covers". At the end of the day it's a plastic filler and silver paint. It'll only be a temp thing.

I refurbed my own stock alloys with nothing more than some hard work, various grades of wet and dry, plastic metal, some white primer, halfords silver wheel paint and some clear laquer.

Luckily I was able to not to use the car for a while so I just took 1 wheel off at a time and let it sit with the space saver on.

They still look fine after 3 months but if you are worried and want something more robust get them chear powder coated if you can find somewhere to do it.

Total cost to me was about £60.

I have pics somewhere but I think they are on the other pc which I need to get some ram for, let me know if you want to see them ill try to get them off.

If they are non-polished alloys and you can get matching paint for them or are going to respray the entirity of all of the wheels then yes you could do the job yourself. i am suspecting that there isnt enough paint in that kit to do all the wheels so the best you could hope for is patchy repair look.

Best kit is like john says is plastic metal or double bond as i know it. Clean up the area if its badly dinked with a smooth file first and then smooth it out with course paper. Smooth down any area that doesn't need rebuilding to maintain a decent profile so its fairly smooth with finer paper leaving any area that needs building on (ie with the plastic metal) rough so that the plastic metal will bond better. Manually shape the building material to the original profile of the rim. If you go massively over the top with the rebuild material you can file it down to get it close to matching the original profile when its dry. Get the profile of the rebuilt material as close as possible to the original profile and nice and smooth taking care that there are no obvious connection lines where the new rebuilt material meets the old original wheel as it will stand out like a dogs knackers when you paint it.

Then prime the whole wheel and then paint it to desired coloured if you can't get a colour match with your original wheel, or spray in the damaged area if you can.

Not exactly a quick fix but a mate of mine did his alloys like this over 2 years ago and there hasn't been any corrosion breakthrough yet.

Originally posted by JohnK

...plastic metal, some white primer, halfords silver wheel paint and some clear laquer.

Plastic metal - I've not heard of this - can I get it in Halfords? And is it just standard clear laquer out a tin you used?

This sounds interesting as my alloys are a mess, but I can't afford new ones at the mo - so a DIY tidy up would be ideal

I used an industrial plastic metal compound but there are products available from halfords or any good motor factor. Look for something that says it can be milled, drilled and tapped.

As for paint I used halford wheel silver, its not a bad match but not perfect but that didnt matter to me as I was doing all 4 wheels complete. Having said that you would get away with doing just 1 wheel and it looking ok.

Laquer, I used halfords own normal laquer.

Did mine a year ago, sanded them down with wet n dry, filled in the uneven areas with alloy filler. Then sprayed them with white primer, then spayed them with a Chrome finish spray. Then spray a lacker over them for protection.

Total cost about £35-40 from Halfords.

In this picture I ran out of Chrome spray on the last rear wheel, it would have been more like the front in this picture if I'd bought an extra can, but they'd sold out.

Put some pics up now.

Wheel refurb stages

Just done mine using a very similar method to that described above (didn't remove tyres so most laborious part was masking up). Really pleased with the results for a total cost of under £50. A few pointers that may be useful to others:

• I used an aluminium primer (2 coats; gentle rub-down after each coat and prep. wipes).
  
• Toyota Lucerne Silver (199) is a good match for the stock wheel colour when lacquered (I purchased one new wheel centre from Nic and didn't need to paint it because the colour match is that close).
  
• When spraying the final coat of lacquer, be brave and use it close enough so that the surface looks wet (otherwise it won't be glossy when dry) but try not to overdo it (see next point).
  
• Don't attempt to try to fix any problems with the paint/lacquer when still wet! You'll be amazed how many problems can be easily fixed or disappear completely by the times things are properly dry.
  
• Don't rush! I did my wheels one at a time over a period of a few weeks (mainly due to bad weather) ...
  

Too avoid having to do all it again soon, I highly recommend finishing with Poorboys Wheel Sealant.

Holy crap batman, thread revival...

Interesting how someone could be bothered to search unlike another member recently.

Post up pics of how it came out

I was conscious of the grave-digging but the original thread is a good one.

As for pictures, it's p'ing it down here so try to imagine a brand new stock wheel with tired looking calipers/decals (next job)

Wowee. I bought my current Supe from the original poster, that many years ago.

Got any before/during/after pics then spartan?

The weather was as its best here just after 7 this morning. The light's still a bit flat though.

good thread - very informative

Nice work spartan, I might have a bash with some old wheels I've got kicking about in the garage.

An oldie, but goodie

Fantastic result Spartan

Thanks everyone.

If you're lucky enough to have two (or more!) sets of wheels then, if those old wheels of yours don't already have the tyres taken off, I would think it would be well worth investing a fiver (?) in getting them removed first. Masking the tyres is, in my opinion, more tedious than any filling and sanding ...

Thanks everyone.

 

If you're lucky enough to have two (or more!) sets of wheels then, if those old wheels of yours don't already have the tyres taken off, I would think it would be well worth investing a fiver (?) in getting them removed first. Masking the tyres is, in my opinion, more tedious than any filling and sanding ...

Fairplay for revival!!

Nice results, too:thumbs:

How long did U leave the wheels to ''cure'/dry''

I followed the directions on the various cans of paint and - much to my wife's annoyance - I brought the wheels into the kitchen (she has one of those range ovens so the room is always warm) and left them over-night, before applying two coats of wheel sealant, removing the masking (most enjoyable part for me!) and putting them back on the car (outside - couldn't get the car through the kitchen door ).

It's worth being a bit more careful with the plastic wheel centres - allow extra drying time or 'bake' (as above or airing cupboard?). I also used a special plastic primer on these (all the stuff I got, bar the Poorboys wheel sealant, came from Halfrauds) which helped I think.

To achieve a 'perfect' finish, however, there's no substitute for meticulous preparation at every stage ...