Refurbing Alloy Wheels
Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:24 am
My alloys are Cromodora Arakna 17x7.5 and from what I can see on the interweb these are pretty uncommon. The only English site I can find that has them is Primaracing.
The issues:
A new set of rims is about Ԛ£450 w/o tyres
I have 3 that need a bit of work
I am swapping to 5 stud soon
2 have good tyres on them
I hate steelies
I want to refurb these myself rather than pay someone to do them, they will only be on the car until I get the 5stud parts sorted then I will be going to Fox Evo3 16" probably, so I don't want to get replacements at the moment. I also don't want to spend a fortune on them.
All the alloys have been refurbed at least twice but the last refurb was crap and they didn't key the surface at all so the new coating hasn't got a hold of it in some places. I kerbed one last year and it blew off a fairly large section of the coating, then when I went to tidy it up with filler lots more fell off.
1 alloy has a 1/2" crack on the inside rim and 1 alloy has a hole from a previous crack causing it to not hold air, but I have a mate who is a specialist welder and can repair these no problem (I can do steel but don't fancy Mag/Alu alloys:))
They are a non point as the finish on them is still ok, but the one with the coating damaged is the main issue for me. What is the best stuff to recoat these with (by hand btw, not a spray application) I repaired a smallish section about 3" square with Isopon Bumper repair and it seems pretty good and with keying it has a serious hold of the rim. Would ordinary filler be ok to use or would it crack off? The bumper filler is flexible so shouldn't crack. Would I be better using it for the rest of the repair or is there a better product out there.
The matt silver is the existing finish, the polished silver is the previous reburb finish and the black bit is my repair which was perfect until the rest fell off.
The issues:
A new set of rims is about Ԛ£450 w/o tyres
I have 3 that need a bit of work
I am swapping to 5 stud soon
2 have good tyres on them
I hate steelies
I want to refurb these myself rather than pay someone to do them, they will only be on the car until I get the 5stud parts sorted then I will be going to Fox Evo3 16" probably, so I don't want to get replacements at the moment. I also don't want to spend a fortune on them.
All the alloys have been refurbed at least twice but the last refurb was crap and they didn't key the surface at all so the new coating hasn't got a hold of it in some places. I kerbed one last year and it blew off a fairly large section of the coating, then when I went to tidy it up with filler lots more fell off.
1 alloy has a 1/2" crack on the inside rim and 1 alloy has a hole from a previous crack causing it to not hold air, but I have a mate who is a specialist welder and can repair these no problem (I can do steel but don't fancy Mag/Alu alloys:))
They are a non point as the finish on them is still ok, but the one with the coating damaged is the main issue for me. What is the best stuff to recoat these with (by hand btw, not a spray application) I repaired a smallish section about 3" square with Isopon Bumper repair and it seems pretty good and with keying it has a serious hold of the rim. Would ordinary filler be ok to use or would it crack off? The bumper filler is flexible so shouldn't crack. Would I be better using it for the rest of the repair or is there a better product out there.
The matt silver is the existing finish, the polished silver is the previous reburb finish and the black bit is my repair which was perfect until the rest fell off.
