Painted My Accord Coupe Wheels

[davebrads]

Well I have finished one wheel. The first wheel was started using an assorted pack of abrasive sheets from Halfords, their "Project Pack". It soon became apparent that the sheets were rubbish, the coarser grades fell apart, and the wet and dry disintegrated when it was wet! I found a couple of sheets of Norton Abrasives in the shed and they were much better. So today I went to Wickes and bought a pack of assorted aluminium oxide paper that was actually Norton but it was branded differently, and some Wickes branded "specialist finishing sandpaper" which was actually quite good. So I made much better progress on the second wheel. I got it to a reasonable standard and gave it a coat of Collinite No. 845 Insulator Wax.

I quite happy with the results. You can see light scratches if you look close up so not up to concourse standard, but acceptable, and hopefully fairly easy to maintain. I though about polishing, but I expect that would take quite a lot of maintenance to maintain the finish. This might be heresy to some on this forum but I am not the kind of person who wants to spend every weekend messing with his car :-)

[Laird_Scooby]

Good work there! The main advantage to polishing, especially if you did it with some sort of machine, is once you had it extra bright and shiny, you could degrease it to remove traces of polish and then clear lacquer it. Not only would it protect it but once the lacquer had fully cured you could wax it and then washing would be about the only maintenance you'd need to give to the finish.

Like you i don't spend all my spare time cleaning and polishing and to be honest, have enough trouble finding the enrgy to drive it these days but if you spend a bit of extra effort now to get it really good and then wax or similar it should only need a "lick and a promise" in between for a long time.

[hughezee]

Great work Dave looking good

[Randell]

I got a quote on the wheel refurb yesterday from a local company. £300 which doesn't include the diamond cutting finishing. 


 

[hughezee]

1 hour ago, Randell said:

I got a quote on the wheel refurb yesterday from a local company. £300 which doesn't include the diamond cutting finishing.

Why not have a go yourself, painted my wheels and a couple of project cars with rattle cans, one member had them professionally done didn't last 18months all mine still fine 😁 

[Laird_Scooby]

A nice little cheat for masking the valve is a short length of garden hose Stu. 👍

[hughezee]

4 hours ago, Laird_Scooby said:

A nice little cheat for masking the valve is a short length of garden hose Stu. 👍

Good suggestion Dave, another good tip given to me by member Rob, using a pack of cards placing them between the wheel and tyre worked a treat for me 👍

 

[Laird_Scooby]

21 minutes ago, hughezee said:

another good tip given to me by member Rob, using a pack of cards placing them between the wheel and tyre worked a treat

That's a great way of doing it if you can't/don't want to break the bead/seal but if it's possible to break the bead and get the outer face of the tyre off the rin and inboard a bit, wrapping it in cheap cling film to mask it works well too. This gives the added advantage that the bead area of the wheel can also be painted which helps the tyre to seal again on the alloy rims.

I've used this method a few times when i've refurbed alloys and fitted new tyres, it means the tyres can be fitted and no danger of getting marks in the new, soft paint and/or lacquer. Also the valve can be renewed completely allowing the valve area of the wheel to also be painted, again improving the seal.

[Randell]

I would do it myself, but it's time. I'm short of it on the weekends and I want the job done quickly to be quite honest. Your's look cracking though, you did a great job on them.

[hughezee]

1 hour ago, Randell said:

I would do it myself, but it's time. I'm short of it on the weekends and I want the job done quickly

The last two in the pictures where rushed and still looked good, but wouldn't be in any hurry to do the job again 😆 so don't blame you 👍

[PTR200S]

26 minutes ago, hughezee said:

 wouldn't be in any hurry to do the job again 😆 so don't blame you 👍

So true, i spent a lot of time doing mine 18 months ? Or so ago....in the what have you done to your Coupe today section i think  ...looked really good but now the salt has got at them this year i need to get in top of them again..they did look good though and the satisfaction of doing them was immense.