Rim polishing woes...

[AngleT]

Nothing like hard work gone to waste. Here is a before and after pic of what my rims looked like before I polished them. I thought it was worth the effort for the look that was achieved.

Well, here is the time wasted part. The magnesium centers that I polished tarnished quickly to a blah gray. (Thank goodness I had only done 2 of them) With the FFO just around the corner, I'm just going to paint them. The question is what color. Silver, Drk Gray, or Black.

 

[lookforjoe]

Nice wheels, though!

Car looks good, too!

 

[Greg (in Conn)]

My vote dark grey. <nt>

 

[toddr124]

I have no idea of color, powder coat them instead of paint

Powder coat lasts long and finishing with a clear powder coat makes them shine with just soap and water for years.:sun:

 

[eflexter]

MAN!!!

I really HATE woes. Don't you hate woes??? I hate woes. Darn those woes. :nana:

 

[AngleT]

powder coat

I've already looked up a couple of powder coaters in the area to go talk to. The start of this whole fiasco was our neighbor's cats!!! FYI, cat urine will screw up an aluminum/magnesium rim in-a-hurry! Maybe the powder coat will hold up better. Woes, damn woes! LOL

 

[bbrown]

My vote, clear coat

Tom, get a quart of Imron Clear plus the activator...
They'll stay beautiful for YEARS.

I did this with my polished plenum last year and it looks exactly the same today.
At FFO last year I saw a couple guys rubbing "NeverDull" on their polished plenums because the finish had deteriorated so badly.
Save your efforts and consider it.

The clear coat does add a slight haze to the high gloss finish but they still look impressively nice. Consider it.
Those wheels look really sharp, BTW.

 

[mblommel]

I say powdercoat clear.

If that's not an option then my vote goes to dark grey painted centers.

 

[Pete Whitstone]

Make sure to check with the wheel manufacturer...

I've already looked up a couple of powder coaters in the area to go talk to. The start of this whole fiasco was our neighbor's cats!!! FYI, cat urine will screw up an aluminum/magnesium rim in-a-hurry! Maybe the powder coat will hold up better. Woes, damn woes! LOL

Before powder-coating aluminum wheels. I have heard that the heat of the powdercoat curing process (about 400f) can weaken the heat treatment already present in the aluminum. I have no personal experience with this, but it'd be something to check out.

Pete

 

[eflexter]

COMMENT

They clear coat polished aluminum 747's with Imron, and it seems to hold up for 20 years or so. That stuff is BULLETPROOF and you can do it yourself in any color or clear. Just a comment to add to the comment above.

Many years ago in my body shop days,I worked on a pickup that was repainted with Imron. I found big spots where the metal had completely rusted away from behind, but the paint was strong enough to stand by itself!!

Available from the DuPont auto paint guy.

 

[JimD]

Well.. with apologies to cat lovers

I've already looked up a couple of powder coaters in the area to go talk to. The start of this whole fiasco was our neighbor's cats!!! FYI, cat urine will screw up an aluminum/magnesium rim in-a-hurry! Maybe the powder coat will hold up better. Woes, damn woes! LOL

An aluminum/magnesium rim will screw up a cat in-a-hurry too. It would be a terrible accident for sure, but it can be arranged. :devil:

 

[AngleT]

I like that idea

I do prefer the polished look, but just didn't want the maintenance of polishing it every other week. I'll have to look to see who could spray it for me. I don't have the facilities/equipment to do it myself. The humidity has been so high here in VA lately, I'm not able to paint anything, unless it's a flat or semi-gloss. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[AngleT]

Good idea

I hadn't thought of that. Nice catch.

 

[Dave80GTSi]

Magnesium vs. Aluminum Wheel Finishing

Guys - Be cautious here.

You have to be -very- specific about refinishing magnesium wheels. Basically, get down to bare metal, then a special primer, followed by your finish of choice

I personally ruined a set of $2000+ Ferrari 16" magnesium wheels before I discoved this procedure, so be forewarned.

Full details on exactly what you need to do are at my website, address in the footer below, under the X1/9 album.

 

[AngleT]

I have been meaning to flush the cooling system...

I kid though, that's a cruel death for any animal. When I was in Iraq, our mouse catcher got into some antifreeze in the motorpool. poor thing...

Our neighbor has 4 outdoor cats and there are 2 more wild cats hanging around too. I have a trap for the wild ones, but they are not falling for it, yet. Our lot sizes are only 1/2 acher, so I'm constantly stepping in cat poo and smelling the markings of the wild cats!! I'm all for A (singular) cat as an indoor pet, but my situation has gotten very frustrating.

 

[Joe F]

To Paraphrase:

One man's woes is another man's salvation...

I would gladly swap your wild cat pee problem with my mouse hotel issue.

And for the price of shipping, I can take those pesky wheels off your hands.

p.s. I think a natural polished finish would look best on your car.

 

[quattrorules]

Clear coating polished wheels

I used to work for American Racing Equipment, the wheel manufacturer, and they had a lot of trouble with the clearcoat on their polished wheels. The finish was just too smooth for the clearcoat to grip onto. The machined finish wheels were fine, but the polished ones all peeled after a short time, resulting in many warranty claims. Eventually they stopped coating the polished wheels and left it up to the owner to maintain the shine by polishing the bare aluminum. They used powder coating at the factory for the clearcoat finish.
All the wheels returned for finish defects were sent back to the factory and refinished to new and resold as new too. Not something that the customers were ever told about.

 

[bbrown]

Clearcoating a shily surface

First thing I do when clear-coating a shiny surface is to insure the surface is oil and dirt free.
Second thing is to spray a very light coat of clear (so light, only an even haze of the coating exists) and
this creates the base for the finish.
Spraying the base coat (or "haze" coat) to heavy will cause "pooling" spots in the paint. This is what
we try to avoid.
Then I wait 30 minutes... and spray the finish coat heavy. The light "haze" base coat insures
the paint doesn't pool up in spots, a common problem on a shiny surface.

I'm sure others have their techniques as well, but this is what I've done with excellent results.

 

[Terry]

Excellent writeup (photo of my wheels)

On the magnesium wheel refurbish Dave. Thanks for posting the details and photos. I am about to start on my CD3's. I hope I can find a media blaster and aircraft paint for the job. Cheers, Terry

 

[jvandyke]

I vote something gun metalish-graphite gray. I vote spray bomb 'em with Duplicolor (or Rustoleum version) Wheel Paint from the rattle can (provided the magnesium likes it alright) quick, cheap looks great, get the clear coat too. With $$ and time and hassle you save you can do it every year if you need to (you won't). Powder coating is over rated IMHO. I've had some parts done and it was more hassle then it was worth. IMHO.

I'm a bit biased though, mine look great and cost me about $12.
http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/8695/

Oh, BTW your car looks $%#%ing spectacular, I'm not exactly sure why it strikes me that way, something about the whole package, wheels and stance....don't know. It just makes it.