How To DIY Alloy Wheel Repair Refurbishment!

Found this on web search and thought it might be useful for some folks.

"I needed to refurb one of my alloy wheels (I need to refurb them all actually) and have 1 spare one so started with that... I got instructions from a friend and this is the first refurb of an alloy wheel I've ever done...

Before:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5913/alloywheelrefurb1iz3.jpg

Although the pics a bit naff, the wheel has: Lots of kerbing, scratches, dents, bubbles in the paint etc.

First step: Sand all down with 80, fill dents, scratches, kerbing etc (with david's isopon filler from motorworld), sand 80, then 240:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4579/alloywheelrefurb2sandedxs2.jpg

** clean wheel like mad! ** (sugar soap spray is good at removing dirt and grime, or clean in the bath, but be careful not to mark / knacker your bath!)

Second step: Spray with hi-build primer: (1 light, 10min wait, 1 heavy coat, 10 min wait, 1 heavy coat - same process for all spraying: primer, paint, lacquer)

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8132/alloywheelrefurb3primedgm6.jpg

Allow to dry over night

Third step: Sand wet (with some washing up liquid) 1000 wet n dry, then you can spray with silver spray paint:

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1949/alloywheelrefurb4sprayefl3.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1949/alloywheelrefurb4sprayefl3.1ce02fbd90.jpg

Allow to dry (30+ minutes)

Forth step: spray with lacquer.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9876/alloywheelrefurb5lacquefb3.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9876/alloywheelrefurb5lacquefb3.fb0ad503e5.jpg

Lessons learnt:

- Always test sprays on something else prior to wheel - I had a bad can of lacquer that didn't spray - it just dripped on the paint and melted it away, meaning I had to re-sand / re-spray that area again leaving some small wobbly bits as can be seen in the last pic (I could have resanded down and re-filled but was impatient and didn't want to take it back down to the primer stage).

- If you get small hairs in - don't try removing it when wet! This will bodge surrounding area and you'll need to respray / resand / refill area potentially taking it back to primer stage. Apparently it's easier to remove when dry (obviously I learnt the hard way)"

Makes it sound so easy

Nice write up though

Yeah nice write up mate

very useful. I can see it's for an enthusiast and not a car lazy man like moi.

Great post, thank you!

Nice write up mate and a really good job there.

Good post. Thanks

nice one. going to give this a go on the girlfriends wheels that she's destroyed

halfrauds do a kit for 20 odd quid, consists of some wetndry, a clear gel/filler compound, and some silver/alloy coloured spray, same principle as above.

Although not much help for polished/machined alloys.