Seeing as a lot of people are stuck at home during the COVID-19 outbreak, a lot of us have had more time on our hands to get jobs done, learn new skills or simply chill out and take it slow.
One of the things that I wanted to try while I was off was learning to refurbish and respray alloy wheels. Luckily, my girlfriend has been wanting her EP3 Type R alloys done for a while. These would be a nice challenge as they were slightly curb damaged so would require filling and sanding and the spokes were slightly complex and tight.
This was the first time that I've ever taken on an alloy project in the past. This is the process that I took and the things I learned along the way. As a bit of a disclaimer, I wouldn't use this as a pure "how-to" guide as I am by no means a professional.
Tools and equipment
This is a list of equipment I used to complete the project:
Pressure washer or hosepipe
Stiff scrubbing brush
Cleaning rags
Isopropyl alcohol
Petrol*
Dremel with wire brush*
Detail sander*
Wheel turntable*
Wet and dry sandpaper (80/120/320/600 grit)
Compressed air (can or compressor)
Masking tape
Masking paper roll/newspaper
P38 filler
3x Acid etch primer
4x Colour paint
3x Lacquer
Items marked with * were either necessary for my job or were tools that made the job easier but aren't required to complete it.
Stage 1 - Cleaning
The first step was to give the wheels a good wash. I used regular car shampoo without a conditioner or protectant as I don't want anything to stick to the surface. I used a jetwash and a stiff brush to remove the old brake dust and any other contaminants.
Recently my girlfriend had her car undersealed which will protect the car from rusting, unfortunately a lot of this had over-sprayed onto the wheels which would not budge using regular cleaning methods. To remove this, I rubbed it with a rag soaked in petrol. The petrol quickly melted the underseal while leaving the paint unharmed underneath. I also used this to remove any old tyre weight glue that had stuck around.
Stage 2 - Prep
Once the wheels were cleaned, I inspected the curb damage and found that the tyres were too close to the rim to get to all of the damaged areas. To get the access I needed, the tyres would have to be taken off their beads. This doesn't involve taking the tyres off entirely, simply pushing the front face off to give around an inch of clearance to the rim. Doing this can save time and money as if you were to take the tyres off entirely, they would then need to be balanced when they're put back on.
I began sanding the wheels down using 80 grit wet and try on the curb damaged sections as well as using a Dremel with a wire brush to smooth them out and clean them of dirt and dust. I then used a detail sander with 120 grit to begin sanding down the faces and then used 120 grit wet and dry in the sections the machine couldn't reach.
The paint only really needed to be roughed up as this would help for the new paint to adhere, however I did take all of the wheels at least down to the primer. I don't think this was entirely necessary and this did mean it took a lot longer than it possibly needed to.
Once the wheels were sanded, I began filling the damaged rims with P38 filler. My tube had begun to go off slightly which made getting the ratios correct a little difficult. My first couple attempts ended up with a very stiff mixture that went off very quickly. This ended up serving well as a first go as it was good for moulding into the deeper sections. My second attempt was the exact opposite resulting in a much runnier mixture. Again this worked in my favour for layering on the first stage and filling much smaller sections.
The filler was left to dry until hard and was then sanded down using 320 grit wet and dry. I decided to use mine dry as I found the piece I was using lasted much longer than using it wet. Sometimes wet sanding is better but I didn't think it made much difference in this scenario. I also gave the entire wheel a quick rub down with 320 to help remove some deeper scratches left by the 80 and 120 stages.
I want to mention the turntable I was using here. This was something knocked up by my dad to make the job easier, it means that the wheel can be turned rather than your turning around the wheel. This makes prepping and painting a whole lot easier but is not necessary to complete the job.
Stage 3 - Paint
Before painting the wheels, I used compressed air to remove any loose dust from the sanding and then cleaned the surface with Isopropyl Alcohol, this removes any impurities from the wheel and ensures a clean surface for the paint to stick to. This is probably one of the most important steps and is something that a lot of people overlook when painting, causing the paint to flake or crack in the future. I then masked up the tyres and the valve on the front. We decided we were only going to be painting the face so I also masked the back of the wheel.
Once prepped and dry, we began with two coats of acid etch primer. Acid etch is used to improve adhesion but if I were to do this again I would recommend using high build primer instead. High build is much better at filling and removing the scratches that are made during the sanding process and usually require less coats.
The wheels were left to dry overnight. You only need to leave them for an hour or two before they're dry but it was getting late that day. Once they were dry, I sanded down the primer using 600 grit wet and dry. This removes any marks from the primer and leaves the paint with a smoother finish, make sure you take your time with this final sanding as any imperfections left in the primer will show through in the final product. The paint was once again cleaned with isopropyl ready for the colour coat.
Next was the colour, we went for a metallic anthracite grey so it was important to make sure there were no runs. This is important for any paint but more so with metallic as the flake can pool and looks much more obvious. The way that this was kept to a minimum was to tackle the hard to reach places first before finishing with a mist over the main face.
We did hit a slight technical during this time. After finishing two of the wheels, we noticed that one was considerably darker than the other. It turns out that at the time we bought the paint there were three bundled together and one loose. The odd one out had a separate batch number and was a completely different colour to the rest.
This was almost a disaster. We were now a can down and had one wheel a completely different colour. The way we decided to combat this was to use the odd can for a light first coat on all of the wheels, then we finished the coats with the other three, leaving an even colour on all four wheels. So if you are buying multiple cans for any job, make sure you check the batch numbers match on all of your colours. It's also always worth buying at least one more can of each paint than you think you need. You can always return unused cans later.
After about four colour coats in the end, the wheels were again left overnight to let the paint cure. The final stage is the clear coat. Simple job, two to three coats with a little time to dry in between. Now that the wheels were finally painted, they were left in a warm area (outside in the sun or close to a radiator) for two days to cure. This helps the paint harden which makes it more resilient to scratches and knocks. The wheels were now ready to go back on the car.
While these were left to dry, I decided to experiment with the centre caps and respray them in a metallic red. This would create a nice accent in the wheels and give them a little flair compared to painting them in the same colour as the wheels. I sanded the originals down to key them and then used plastic primer and model paints to give the desired look.
This didn't originally go to plan as the glue that stuck the original logo on began to react and bubble through the paint. I therefore had to scrape them down then sand and clean them much more thoroughly before repainting.
I took them back to my local tyre store to have the tyres put back on the beads. The wheels were then put back on the car and ready to be revealed in all their glory.
The result
Overall I am extremely pleased with the outcome for a first time refurbishing wheels. This was a complete DIY project and a massive learning curve for me, I was extremely proud of the result at the end. I also detailed the car once the wheels were on to give it a complete makeover and return it in the best condition possible. Check out the results below.
Time required to complete
One of the things that I think is important to understand when taking on a task like this is the amount of time it can take to complete. It's something that wasn't mentioned in any of the tutorials I watched before taking this on and it's something that can't be overlooked. If, like me, you're looking to do this yourself in your spare time with little to no professional tools, these are the times you should be expecting.
Cleaning the wheels took me around 7 hours over two days. This would usually never take this long but the underseal on the wheels made this stage much more of a nightmare. Using a pressure washer and standard cleaning products you should expect around 2 hours.
Initial sanding took me roughly 2-3 hours per wheel which I spread over a few days. Admittedly I was being pretty meticulous but with the tight spaces between the spokes, I wanted to make sure that these sections were well scuffed. I was also taking off a lot more paint than I needed to which added to the time but this is simply down to inexperience. Were I to do it again I wouldn't take nearly as much paint off and probably get the time down to an hour or so per wheel. The sander would shorten this time by quite a lot but is only really good for the face of the wheels and not everybody has one.
The filler took me around 3 hours as like I said there was a lot of trial and error. The filler was left for around another 2-3 hours to dry and were sanded the same day taking around another hour. The next day the wheels were given another quick sand as mentioned above which was maybe another 2 hours.
Masking was around 10 minutes per wheel which isn't too bad. Each coat of paint took around 10 minutes to spray with a minimum of 20 minutes to dry between coats but as it took 10 minutes to spray per coat, this gave each wheel around 40 minutes to dry.
Once the two coats of primer were applied, the wheels were left overnight to fully dry. Each wheel was then sanded one last time at about 40 minutes per wheel. The total taken for the primer was just under three hours plus the overnight dry.
The colour and lacquer took similar times to spray but didn't require sanding. The wheels were again left to dry overnight between the colour and lacquer. With four coats of colour and two coats of lacquer per wheel this totalled 4 hours plus overnight dry in between. Once the final coat was applied the wheels were then left to cure for another two days to ensure the paint was completely dry and hardened before having the tyres reinstalled. I then spent another 5-6 hours detailing the car once the wheels were installed.
Doing some napkin maths and totting up the rough time taken, I reckon that this project took around 43 hours over 13 days. Again I want to stress that I was very meticulous throughout which added to the time. I wanted these to come out as close to perfect as possible and I didn't want to cut corners. I also did take my time on these. The wheels were completed in my spare time between taking breaks from the job to finish other tasks/projects and generally go about my life. It is definitely worth thinking about just how long a project like this will realistically take if you want to do it the right way, even more so if the car in question is your primary mode of transport. It can obviously be done much quicker, but the results will be affected.
All this said, this has been a fantastic learning experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed learning a bunch of new skills and having the feeling of satisfaction that once they were done, that I had done them. I want to thank my Dad for his knowledge and assistance especially during the painting phase. I also want to thank BAB Motors in Derby for their service and kindness when I took the wheels into them. I hope that this gives you the motivation to try something new and learn something along the way.
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