Wheel restoration 05 OBS

[smelt240]

Here is one about 30% done,in the cabinet

A shot of them at about 75% done-Boy,does Subaru use some tough primer! The awful black spray paint,and the factory topcoat came off OK,but the primer is really stubborn!

Im going to order up a Hotcoat gun next week,then the real fun starts! I have found a media,that at 90 psi,doesn't harm the aluminum whatsoever. It leaves it at about a 1000 grit finish,perfect for paint,as for the powder,I haven't tried it yet. If I used a nastier grit,it would eat the primer easily,but the goal is for the wheels to look factory new,other than the scuffs,gouges that come from being a 7 or 8 year old chunk of aluminum. Over the next couple of weeks,Ill be perfecting my blast cabinet,Ill throw up pics as I go,on the rims,and the cabinet.

 

[apkarian100]

What they looks like before:

 

[Mighty Subie]

I have used 'black beauty' on alum before in my cheap blast cabinet that I made. I found that at around 40-50 psi, sand works great. Just have to keep the pressure down. I did some stuff on one of my motorcycles and ended up just using a scotch bright pad after and they look incredible.

 

[smelt240]

Yeah,Ive tried lots of things in the past,the Starblast seems to be the best for what Im doing. Regular sand does a good job,just wear a good respirator! I work in concrete demo a lot,you wouldnt believe how bad silicosis is,unless you've seen it in person. This set of wheels is getting a bunch of extra work thrown in,Im actually going to hand sand them down to bare. I threw a quick primer/topcoat on a couple spokes,and wasnt happy with the smoothness. So Im reblasting that wheel,and then finishing the handwork later today. Its too bad these wheels have a few small nicks and gouges,they would be awesome with a full polish! Im going to try to find a set for my car,and do a show polish on them,it will probably take 50 or 60 hours of hand work,sitting in the shed drinking a few beers.

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

Just curious as to how much it would cost to have this done. I have a set of wheels that I attempted to strip with aircraft paint stripper. The clear coat went bad and they have the nasty surface corrosion on them.

 

[smelt240]

Id have to see them,the aircraft stripper isn't all that nice to aluminum,if it gets to sit there too long. If its something you may want to do,PM me,Im not doing this as a business,I pretty much broke even on this one,but its almost fun to do. The media is $50 for 100 lbs,and it does lose its edge fairly quickly,but the cheap stuff tears up soft metal,so its kind of a trade off. Right now,Im still playing with my nice new blasting cabinet....

 

[GREASEMONKEY]

hey I got some parts to be blasted......

 

[Mighty Subie]

Yeah,Ive tried lots of things in the past,the Starblast seems to be the best for what Im doing. Regular sand does a good job,just wear a good respirator! I work in concrete demo a lot,you wouldnt believe how bad silicosis is,unless you've seen it in person. This set of wheels is getting a bunch of extra work thrown in,Im actually going to hand sand them down to bare. I threw a quick primer/topcoat on a couple spokes,and wasnt happy with the smoothness. So Im reblasting that wheel,and then finishing the handwork later today. Its too bad these wheels have a few small nicks and gouges,they would be awesome with a full polish! Im going to try to find a set for my car,and do a show polish on them,it will probably take 50 or 60 hours of hand work,sitting in the shed drinking a few beers.

couple responses:

I made a blast cabinet out of some lexan and a 45 gallon plastic tote. Works great. Not quite large enough for a 5 gallon motorcycle gas tank (Which I was rather disappointed to find out) or rims really. I cut a hole in the back of it and put a little screen and then taped one of my larger nossles for my shop vac to it. It keeps a lot of negative pressure on the tote so even my arm holes (which I have sleeves in them) don't let out any dust. I put a bag in the shop vac and it doesn't blow any dust. Works great for being $10ish total for materials.

I took mine right down to bare with just the sand and then only did hand work to smooth it out some. It wasn't really tedious work or anything. Let me find some pics.

My cabinet:

One peg mount for my bike before and the other after. Literally less than 1 full min work of hand work on it. The original one had paint and clear:

Before any hand work but after blasting. Like I said before. Low pressure and heavy sand. Not what is recomended actually, but works amazingly well. Takes a lot less time, effort, money and you can re-use it more times, unlike other media.

Same one after a minute with a scotch bright pad:

Not trying to Hijack. Just showing an alternative to your media/methods that I found worked great for me on alum.

 

[smelt240]

Looks pretty good. The only hard thing with wheels is the tight areas.(lug nut area,behind the spokes etc..) If you get a finish like on your mounts,on the spokes,but not on the hard to reach parts.the finish looks really bad. Paint will actually look to be 2 tone. The only other way,is to go with a really high build primer,then you have a super thick finish,that chips easily. The blasting and sanding isn't hard,its getting everything to come out even.

 

[Mighty Subie]

I didn't hit the other parts with any sanding. They don't show, and even if they did, I liked the contrast. I was keeping mine bare alum anyway. If the area is able to be sanded, it wouldn't be too much elbow grease to get it where you wanted it. Walnut hulls work pretty good on alum as well as glass beads. mcmastercarr.com should have media for cheap.