DIY: Refinishing alloy wheels (polished lip)
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After steel wool and cloth:
Now, relish in your mighty ability to turn rough metal into something worthy of Nelly's grill. To protect your awesome work, tape over your polished area with painters tape for the painting.
Do the edge where the paint will meet first, and very carefully
Then do the rest
STEP 4: LET THE AEROSOL FLOW
Now that you have your wheels stripped, and the lip polished, its time for paint.
Start with your clean metal primer on the inside of the wheel. I chose white because silver will cover over white easily. You arent doing body work so you dont need high-contrast. Silver primer would make it hard to see your coverage.
First coat do lightly, concentrating first on getting any hard-to-reach areas like in lug holes, side of spokes, etc.
Second coat lay on heavy
Primed:
Wait for the primer to dry enough to flip it and rest it on the primer. Mine was dry enough for this after a couple hours.
Repeat the process on the front of the wheel.
Face primed:
Make sure to wait the required time before applying your base/clear. The primer I used required 48 hours of dry time before applying any other paint. ITS VERY IMPORTANT AND NOT JUST A SUGGESTION. There are well-educated chemical engineers deciding on the instructions on your cans of paint. I was in no rush to finish my wheels so I used this schedule for painting each wheel:
Day 1: primer back of wheel
Day 2: prime front of wheel
Day 3: base/clear back of wheel
Day 4: base/clear front of wheel
If you are trying to get the wheels done in a more reasonable amount of time so you can start pimping your wheels STAT, you could polish all the wheel lips first, then follow the above schedule but do all 4 wheels at once. You could probably do a set of wheels in a week properly that way.
OK where was I? Oh yeah base/clear:
Make sure there is no dust/debris that found its way onto the surface.
I like to do two light coats followed by a heavy coat for the base. Follow it up immediately with your clear. You can apply many coats (4-7) within the 1 hour typically allotted for spray paint. If you let the base dry, you will have to wait for it to completely cure before doing the clear (7 days or some such crap). For the clear, I usually do one light coat, followed by a heavy coat. Make the heavy coat as heavy as you can without the paint running. That part takes practice, i still screw it up.
Inside with base/clear:
Again, wait for the paint to be a little more than dry to the touch to flip it over. I waited overnight, but a couple hours should suffice.
Face with base/clear:
(IMAGE COMING SOON)
IMPORTANT: Try and remove any masking tape which touches your new paint as soon as possible. You'll have to be super careful (much like playing the board game Operation. BZZZZZT!) to not touch the wet paint, but if you let it dry it may peel away your new paint if you remove it later.
STEP 5: DRINK AND BE MERRY
You've probably f*ed something up, but unlike committing a felony, you can have a do-over so dont sweat it. With this particular set of wheels, I did not follow the proper drying times on the first wheel, so I had to sand down and re-clear the first wheel.
Have a victory beer anyways. (You should have been drinking beer from the get-go, but better late than never)
VICTORY:
Dan
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Did this last winter but wish I had them blasted. Did it with the tires on and had the bloody fingers to prove it. Stock paint is a bitch to get off, I used 3 different strippers and none took the primer off.
Just the polished lip:
All done:
On the car:
After the drop with the Blizzaks:
1998 328is 5sp projectors w/HIDs and angel eyes, strut brace, x-brace, Prosport gauges, all lights smoked.
2003 325xi auto nothing special but a beast in the snow
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yeah the oem paint/primer are especially tough to remove. its best to leave it on and just scuff it up before painting. i did my last set with tires on, also makes it more difficult (worth the remounting fee)
Dan
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I love these threads! Looks like they turned out pretty good.
There was a guy on bimmerforums that sanded his lip while the wheel was spinning on his car. Seems like an easier route if anyone else is thinking about doing this. Just watch your fingers!
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i'd have broken knuckles! the spokes hang out over the lip too much on DS1 wheels (mine) as well as the DS2 pictured spinning. wouldnt dare!
Dan
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It's definately riskier than the old fashioned way!
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that was sick, very nice. You should shoot a little video come next time around. you can show off your technique!
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straight6pwr said:
yeah the oem paint/primer are especially tough to remove. its best to leave it on and just scuff it up before painting. i did my last set with tires on, also makes it more difficult (worth the remounting fee)
Kinda tough to polish the lip with the primer still on. LOL
1998 328is 5sp projectors w/HIDs and angel eyes, strut brace, x-brace, Prosport gauges, all lights smoked.
2003 325xi auto nothing special but a beast in the snow
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