Alloy wheel refurb - polished lip

[gezmeister]

Hey guys

As some of you may have seen, i recently got some 18"s back from the powdercoaters. I asked them if they could spray the spokes, but tape up the lip so i could polish it up. The wheels were originally silver with a polished lip, but were sprayed black when i got them, and i have since got them done in red. Only problem is that when the guy took the tape off the lip, some of the tape got stuck on, and it looks like some of the lip has got some overspray on too. But my major concern is that the lip seems a bit pitted. I've tried with a few different grades of sandpaper, but it doesn't seem to be shifting. Anyone recommend some stuff i could use to get it back to how its meant to be?

 

[Mylo]

what grade are you using ?

I'm doing a set of TSW legends at the moment that have some nasty lacquer corrosion. Start by giving the lip a scrub with soapy water and then polishing with 800 grit wet n dry.

Takes a while to start eating in to the lacquer but it does suddenly start to cut in. Once the soapy water turns black move on. Takes about 10 minutes for a 2 inch area

Then polish up using 1600 grit upwards .

 

[gezmeister]

I've been using 320, 600, 800 + 1200 so far. Just isn't shifting it

 

[gezmeister]

What method do you recommend? Could you give me a quick step by step?

 

[luke_h]

did you say they masked out the lip then powded them?

 

[gezmeister]

Yeah

 

[SalSheikh]

cant you take it back to them to sort out? surely they should sort this issue out for you?

 

[Fl@pper]

I've been using 320, 600, 800 + 1200 so far. Just isn't shifting it

stay longer with the lower numbers, like paint the polished surface is only as good as the work on the foundation

if you still can't get the pits out with a 320 then they are too deep and probably want machining out

one way that helps is a post/pole with an old wheel hub on it or make one outta wood so you can spin the wheel round and round - lot more even

 

[gezmeister]

I'm not bothered about the tape, and i don't think they caused the pitting. I'll persevere with the sanding a bit more

 

[adam cupra 20vt]

I would say they shot blasted the wheels before they powdercoated them and thats why they are pitted?

Ideally they should have had the lips polished first then masked up and sprayed instead of coated.

If they have been shot blasted I don't see any way of polishing them now they have been powdercoated.

 

[gezmeister]

They were sandblasted

Think i'm gonna give one wheel a real good going over tomorrow, and see what the results are. Only other option is to spray the lip another colour, but can't think which one. Already done a photoshop with black lip, looked proper cack

 

[Fl@pper]

never too bad to save - always put coloured gator trim on you can try all colours then

 

[adam cupra 20vt]

What about sanding them as best you can then high build priming the lips and paint them an off white color?

You'll never polish them up to the painted edge without taking the powdercoat off unfortunately.

Or take them back and complain, they might redo the whole wheel in red?

 

[gezmeister]

All red would be over the top tbh. What about spraying it silver? Would that look ok?

 

[adam cupra 20vt]

Yeah I reckon so mate, you can actually get a chrome paint but for it to be effective you'd have to get a nice smooth silver finish first then apply it over the top.

To get shot blasting marks out you can go quite a bit more coarse than 320, I'd use 120/ 180/240 then what you have been using

 

[gezmeister]

Ok mate, cheers. Looks like i'm gonna spray them then, just gotta be careful to cover up the newly powdercoated centres lol

 

[adam cupra 20vt]

lol make sure you use etch primer as your spraying onto bare alloy.....the U-Pol one is good and pretty cheap.