Diy RePainting Car Alloy Wheels..?

Most places refurbishing alloy wheels need the car for about a week, unless you happen to have a spare set of wheels! so not keen on not having the car for a week.

Quiet a few ytubes on Diy repainting alloy wheels but wondered how good the finish really is and more importantly how resilient it is ?

Anyone tried painting their own and can suggest what readily available paints are best ?

Plenty of time on our hands to sand them down and paint them one at a time, using the full size spare steel wheel to keep us on the road.

 

I used to do mine on cars that were in good condition but the wheels were pants. I had a helper at the time. We chose a sunny day took the wheels off one by one (in case we ran out of time) and rubbed them down with wet and dry then rinsed them off and left to dry in full sun for half hr. Used very sticky masking tap to cover the tyres with newspaper and gave them 2 coats with standard Halfords Alloy silver aerosol allowing time to dry between coats. Spray in shade, dry in sun. Clear lacquer to finish. Did the whole set over about 4 to 5 hrs for about £50 as I recall. Seemed to last ok as long as I stayed away from kerbs lol. I wasnt prepared to pay over £500 for a garage to do them. If you need new tyres its always worth looking at packages of new wheels with tyres. Ive always used a company called Rimstyle. Great chaps and loads of price ranges.

 

My advice would be to get the wheels done by a professional. Rubbing them down by hand is hard work! Then theres the question of painting. Spray can paint does not last very long, so its a question of either using 2k, or (preferably) powder coated. To do a proper job, I would also remove the tyres. No offence intended to you, @ThePlantAssassin I'm only giving my opinion.

As I usually say, do it right, do it once!

 

Hi,

Thanks both, some interesting info there, never really knew about 2K paints.

We have seen an identical pattern s/h alloy on ebay, so will probably get it and see if we can repaint it successfully.
Can take our time doing it in the shed by hand, not much else to do in the garden now the weather has turned.

If we survive the lockdown/ s? into next year we might be getting a newer car if we are then able to make decent journeys again, so just not worth spending on a proper refurb.

 

My alloys were only slightly scuffed and chipped so i used Carplan aluminium high temp silver paint. It's sold in small tins to be applied by brush.
Not suitable for a total refurb but good for touching in scrapes etc.
If i wanted the whole 4 wheels refurbed I'd go for a 'black' gloss alloy look... That's down to personal taste, but i think standard alloy looks a bit yesterday since virtually all cars come with alloys now.

 

DIY refurb of alloy wheels. The best advice is don't.

 

...and the reason/s ? ... just that ours look a mess now, all the bubbling of the paintwork.
might be an old car, but apart from the wheels, no other paint bubbling or rust on the exterior.

 

Ricky, it depends what you are looking for. The reason I said don't is I hate painting cars. A professionally refurbished alloy wheel would have a powder coating or stove enameled finish, both are baked on and give a really hard wear resistant finish. Obviously the wheels take a lot of punishment from weather and stone chips etc.
Now there are special sprays for wheels ( see below ) and a quick search on YouTube should give you some techniques for doing this. Would you be removing the tyres before painting?
My step son does paint his own wheels, but he is a dab hand on bodywork and detailing cars. The problem is possibly you will only be able to have one wheel off the car at a time so you can still drive around. When the wheels on a car I had started bubbling I found a replacement set on Ebay, may be worth considering.

Alloy Wheel Paints | Car Wheel Spray Paint | Euro Car Parts

 

@ricky101 , the joys of lockdown, I have been viewing a few wheel painting videos. With the specialised wheelpaints and clearcoat, it should be worth a go. The finish achieved is very good. May take some time doing one at a time, but it will really spruce your motor up