chancecasey

I used generic paint stripper - the gel methyl chloro something or other.
I actually recommend using this - one or two thick applications and GENTLE steel wool after each, and the topcoat is pretty gone - then you can smooth out with 400 pretty easily and you are ready to paint. Trick here is it says not for use with rubber. If you have a bead blaster that is definitely the way to go, though. Not using any primer.

chancecasey

another closeup of the tools

springer3

Looking good.

Are you doing the center caps separately? They will look a little off next to your glossy new wheels if you don't. My at-the-time 12 year old wanted an art project, and she painted the crest using the hood badge as a color guide. Outdoor paint and brushes came from a hobby shop. I put the clear over her art work at the same time I painted the wheel. After 2 years it still looks good.

The clear will cause a slight green tint. Do no be alarmed, it goes away after a few hours in the sun. If you keep the car garaged, it might speed the process to put the wheel in direct sun before mounting it on the car.

MarkD

Chance
Thanks for the pics and the documentation

Looks great!

BTW, you know that varnish will be a bit green but will fade to clear, right?
Also, no worries if it doesn't go on completely smooth. You can wet sand and polish imperfections after it cures completely.

springer3

One nice feature of the urethane is that it beads water and sheds dirt easily. If you cut the original flow coat, you will forever need to keep wax on the surface or dirt will stick.

MarkD

Oh, I see... hmm.. well, mine weren't too hard to maintain. Shed brake dust pretty well. I polished afterwards... maybe that helped?
They aren't on the car now... so my testing is over for now.

chancecasey

Well, I got another 3-4 coats on, not much to show, they pretty much look the same. One thing I will say about the completely stripped down wheel - MUCH better finish. You just don't realize how many mars there are in a partially stripped wheel until that wet paint hits it. Having to stop painting and go back to sanding is kind of a pain. Makes a good argument for sandpaper-only approach - or perhaps instead of steel wool use a toothbrush or some other softer finer plastic bristly thing besides steel wool if using stripper.

TIP/TRICK - to help fill minor (very minor, mind you) imperfections, hit them direct with the paint with QUICK close shot 6 inches away. It might run a little, but after it dries you can take a thin strip of 400, wet it, shake off the excess, and with one finger gently smooth out the run mark, and the next coat will cover it nicely.

edit - I just saw you said outdoor paint for the center cap detail - just a plain old indoor/outdoor latex paint? You don't happen to have the mix #'s for them do you? Or did you not get that ****?

chancecasey

Well, here's the finshed product before applying the clearcoat.

chancecasey

Still have to clearcoat, but here it is next to the untouhed OEM wheel. Amazing match!!!

TIP - I used more than half a can on 2 wheels. Maybe I used too much, but if you'e doing 4, get 2 cans just in case if it's your first time. You would't want to have to put your project on hold while you wait on more paint via UPS, and you'll have little extra if you have to redo some stuff.

chancecasey

Hmm weird - the paint left a silky smooth finish - but the clearcoat is drying with a kind of dimply finish. Did I do something wrong? Maybe I just need to polish it when they are cured? Also, doesn't seem to be turning green.

springer3

I hate to hear that after all the hard work. Spray painting is tricky, but gloss coats should go on smooth and flat. Is it possible the paint was still curing when you saw the dimple pattern? Curing is a chemical reaction, and some sites may have triggered before others. The green is quite subtle, or perhaps Minwax changed the formula and there really is no green.

Troubleshooting information needed:

Did you paint indoors with ventilation, or outdoors?
What was the wind speed, temperature and humidity?
What technique did you use (nozzle to surface distance, overlap pattern, speed)
How many coats?
How thick was each coat?
How long was drying time between coats?
Any dust in the area?

I suspect the problem is too thick a coat, or possibly insufficient time between coats causing build-up of too thick a fluid layer. If the "dimples" look like ulsers, you have fish eyes, probably caused by dust or other contaminants getting on the surface before the clearcoat.

Now that you have enough clear on the surface, concentrate on getting one more thin coat barely thick enough to see the gloss.

Suggestion:

Pick a dry day with low wind and not much activity in the house.
Use 1000 grit wet sand paper to get the surface smooth and flat.
Spray one light coat just thick enough to gloss up (don't go too thin, or the surface will be rough and not glossy).
Leave the area for at least 30 minutes (milling around admiring wet paint stirs up dust).

You can of course polish the sanding scratches out, but if you don't have any more problems, it is less work to spray one more coat. Good luck.

chancecasey

Did you paint indoors with ventilation, or outdoors?
-In garage, doors closed but opened the side door occassionally to vent vapors
What was the wind speed, temperature and humidity?
-No wind, temp 67 degrees, humidity "low"
What technique did you use (nozzle to surface distance, overlap pattern, speed)
-About 12 inches away, went left-to-right a few inches during "travel", covered the whole wheel in about 15 seconds of spraying
How many coats?
-3 coats
How thick was each coat?
-tough to judge - but first 1 or 2 definitely looked better than last
How long was drying time between coats?
-45 mins
Any dust in the area?
-a little, but nothing like outdoors

Unfortunately, the weather is turning cold so my little electric heater in the garage may not keep the temp above 50 - which may make this even harder. There were no "runs" - but maybe I did go too thick. I noticed the dimpliness right away - I don't think it's blistering the silver paint - I can only guess I went on too thick. The thing is - the minwax can says if you wait too long (75 degrees, 2 hours, good ventilation) you must sand before next coat. Guess I either didn't wait long enough, or like I said, got too thick on the last coat.

And everything was going so well

The light you see in the pic is a flourescent - so with a glossy finish should be smooth curve, not pixelated-looking (the pic is exaggerating the effect a little, but this is the way it looks)

JasonAndreas

Try Wet/Color Sanding and then polishing and that should give the surface a mirror finish.

darth

Chance,

I'm not an expert (i.e but I have painted a few cars) but I think there maybe a slight reaction between the two products you're applying and I know some base/clearcoats are not compatible. I don't see any problem with your application procedure other than the amount of work you put into stripping. I think using body fill or a glazing putty would have been easier in order to correct any deep imperfections/scratches rather than stripping the whole rim. Then spraying them with a compatible (i.e. compatable with the silver paint you're going over as well as the paint you're applying) scratch filler primer which you can sand lightly to your level of satisfaction of smoothness before the base coat is applied. I'd take the two cans of paint as well as a rim to a body shop or an automotive parts store who sell automotive paint and get their opinion on compatibility. Also, on the rim you stripped to the bare aluminum I think a zinc primer is required before you apply any paint on top. The areas of the rim where you're leaving the original paint on has to be sanded lightly in order for whatever is being applied on top (i.e. whether it's primer or silver base coat) has something to grab on to.

I think Jason's suggestion above is typically used to remove "orange peel" but I'm not sure this is what you're dealing with here (it's difficult to tell from your photo) but will probably work to achieve the desired finish you're trying to obtain. Body shops sometimes want a bit of "orange peel" left in a paint job.
I recently had a panel painted on my car and I seen a bit of "orange peel" which I pointed out to the painter and he pointed out the rest of the car which he didn't paint also had some orange peel and he was willing to wet sand and polish it out but also suggested against it after he pointed out there was some in the original paint. I left the "orange peel" in and after a few washings I don't notice it.

Hope this helps
Bill
90C2

chancecasey

Thanks for the tips, guys! I looked at the original wheel and it also is not perfectly glossy - also slightly dimply - just a little less severe than my job. So I think some kind of polish will fix me right up - thanks for the link, Jason. I figured out the problem, I think, it's the crappy irregular spattering coming out of the spray can, and perhaps due to the cooler temperature and lower humidity, the clear coat urethane is not "spreading" - it just kind of lands, sticks, and dries in these globules. The paint, on the other hand, comes out of the nozzle in a much finer mist.

Another contributing factor is it took me a while to realize that as the cans empty, you must spray more parallel to the ground - because at an angle they tend to gasp (empty propellant) intermittently which only contributes to the bad atomization of the liquid.