Jim Morton

Ron:

I got a set of cosmetically challenged hollowspokes from a local Rennlister. I had a wheel shop check the wheels for straightness and take some minor wobbles out. The challenge was the old finish. It took a combination of "Tal-Strip" paint stripper and fine bead blasting to get the factory finish off. I would have sanded out the bad areas, but there were many small paint dings to make that feasible.

With the wheels now in a fine bead blasted finish, I will prime them with PPG "black" DP-40LF, the use the wheel silver Concept LV. Should be quite nice when done.

Getting to this point, I experimented on a set of BMW wheels for my daily driver. I used the same basic process and the results were good. The challenges seem to be getting all of the road grime off the used wheels and removing the factory wheel finishes.

Let's both post photos of the results, OK???

Ron

Jim,

I just finished applying the last coat of clearcoat. Here's what my spray booth looked like 10 mins after I finished. Fog city. Neither the primer nor the color coat had any overspray but boy the clearcoat sure did. Suprisingly though dust was not a problem.

When the fog clears I post of photo of the wheel.

Ron

Ok Jim,

Here's the results. And I must say that color Atlas Grey Metallic looks great. I need to take a photo of it next to one of my Kinesis Suspercup wheels. The Atlas Grey looks like the same color as the centers of the Kenesis which are Porsche Stone Grey Metallic.

Jastx

Looks great!

A friend of mine recommended what I think is a good idea when doing wheels:
Put them on a lazy susan/roundtable so you can rotate them as you shoot them for an even coat.

aam993

Just curious - do you paint inside of the wheel? Behind the spokes? In order to do that, don't you have to hang the wheel somehow?

Ron

Since I was just experimenting I just painted the face. I have several ideas how to do the whole wheel but I don't know which way would be best. If you notice the insides of a lot of wheels are not finished nearly as nice as the outside. In fact this wheel the inside looked like it had been primed and then had a little colorcoat and clearcoat overspray like it was never really painted at all. Just whatever got on it when the front was painted.

I was thinking if I painted a whole wheel I would do the inside first. Let it dry real good and then mask it off and do the outside.

The lazy susan idea is great I heard that somewhere too. I have an old boat seat base that swivels and I was going to screw plywood and each side so I'll have a swiveling base but with just one wheel I didn't bother, but the idea of the wheel moving and not the painter is a good one.

aam993

Got it. Thanks for sharing!

Ron

That wheel I just painted is real close to the color of the center of my Supercup Wheels. Supercup centers are a little bit darker. If I could find a set of hollow spoke stock wheels I'd paint them that Mercedes Atlas Grey Metallic.

JohnJL

When you gave that much vapor trapped in the booth while the parts are drying you can get an unfavorable result called "dying off."

Looks like you did OK though, good job!

Ron

What is dying off. Beside me dying off from being overcome by fumes which would be a real bad result.