DIY Alloy wheel refubishing. Any one know how?

[chinchilla]

Anyone refubished some wheels themselves before?

I picked up 4 wheels a while back, all 4 are curbed all the way around, just wanted to give it a try!

So any tips, whats the best stuff to use, and any useful guides on the net?

[munky30]

I did these a while back, kept photos and a 'walkthrough'... Click pics for full size images.

Excuse the poor quality pics, they were taken on my phone and most of the work was done in the early hours of the morning so not good light for taking pics.

As they were when I got them.


After a lot of work with the dremel's circular sanding bit on the edges.



Masked, rubbed down and primed. (using gradually finer grades of paper, up to 1000grit)


Black base coat to make the silver a tad darker and deeper. I liked them in black. (followed by more 100grit)


Silver (Vauxhall Mistral Grey) top coat. (two coats, with a 1000grit sanding between coats and before the next stage)


And lacquer.... (two coats, 1000grit inbetween)



The finished product.


Now before anyone starts, the rims are not perfect as I didnt want to use filler, nor did Matty. They are however smooth. I have no pretenses of being a paintshop, this was a living room job using spraycans. BUT, I do understand paint and the prep involved in doing a good job and getting an adequate finish as can be seen if you look at these wheels. If you want it absolutely perfect, go to a paintshop and pay full whack.

[chinchilla]

Thanks Munky, thats pretty clean looking!

however my rims have chunks missing so i need to use some type of filler, do you know of any?

[StuBeeDoo]

When I did my MiM's, I flatted the sharp edges of the gouges with a file, then filled them with Davids Isopon Metalik.
Other than that, as Munky says, good preparation is vital. I painted my wheels with rattle cans too (Simoniz Wheel Silver over white primer).
I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but intricate wheels like cross-spokes aren't exactly DIY-refurb-friendly.

[munky30]

they are, but they're a f*cking pain in the ass to do!

Those ones had some chunks taken out, I just rounded the edges of the chunk as much as I could. You can see the worst of them at 3 o clock in this pic - http://img69.imageshack.us/my.php?image=refurb149hm.jpg . On the car you really cant notice it unless you're looking for it.

Filler will work though, the stuff stubeedoo mentions will do nicely... but I prefer not to use it unless absolutely necessary as it will eventually crack/fall out...