Need Clear Coat Wheel Help.

**BlazerLT** · 10-31-2006, 12:34 AM

I have the clear coat problem where the weight from balancing the tires has trapped salt and such and thus over time the clear coat has weakened allowing it to attack the aluminum itself. The wheels are not a flat finish but are machined, then clear coated.

Close up pic up pic of the ribbing I am talking about.

http://www.tweaknews.net/img/ribs.JPG

Anyone have any tips on getting my winter beater rims looking better?

It does have to be perfect, But I would like to remove the white oxidization and maybe respray a little clear here and there to keep it looking better longer.

Again, not looking for perfection, just a little better looking than right now.

Help?

**imported_steveo3002** · 10-31-2006, 03:10 AM

you wont perform a touch up on those.

you could either sand /paint strip/bead blast and paint them silver .....bead blasting, and rattle can etch primer and silver would be fairly cheap, or have a shop re machine them and add more clear coat

**BlazerLT** · 10-31-2006, 03:28 AM

These are winter beater wheels to take on the salt and crap.

All I want to do is get them looking better than what they do now. I am not going to pay anyone $500 to refinish these wheels seeing they are too far beyond spending that kind of money on.

The spots will be sanded down to metal and a couple layers of clear sprayed over them just to get the white spots out so they don`t catch your eye so easily.

I guess wet sanding and spot clearing is the best way to go with the least amount of cost.

**imported_steveo3002** · 10-31-2006, 03:37 AM

im confident in saying your wasting your time trying to wet sand spots and touch in the clear...they wont look any better, and rattle can clear wont hold up to winter grime

not sure on US prices, but i can get rims bead blasted here for about $12 each....that brings them back to near new ready to paint metal ( and you can leave the tires on if you like) then say 1x etch primer and 2x silver wheel paints and youve gotve got smart winter wheels, if you did them as i describe you could then wet sand and spot in any further damage

**BlazerLT** · 10-31-2006, 04:03 AM

The thing is, I can`t sanblast them seeing they are not a smooth finish.

In the second photo you will see the ribbing texture to the finish.

**imported_steveo3002** · 10-31-2006, 04:19 AM

yes i know the originals have a slight ribbed effect

bead blasting gives a alomost polished finish, while they would no longer look like they did when new id have thought its the cheapest way to get clean and tidy wheels on your car ! a nice clean and bright silver wheel looks better to me than a poorly repaired clear coat

**vwgtivw** · 10-31-2006, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by steveo3002

im confident in saying your wasting your time trying to wet sand spots and touch in the clear...they wont look any better, and rattle can clear wont hold up to winter grime

not sure on US prices, but i can get rims bead blasted here for about $12 each....that brings them back to near new ready to paint metal ( and you can leave the tires on if you like) then say 1x etch primer and 2x silver wheel paints and youve gotve got smart winter wheels, if you did them as i describe you could then wet sand and spot in any further damage

I agree with steve, just get them glass bead blasted and paint with dupli-color self etching primer & wheel paint

**Accumulator** · 10-31-2006, 12:32 PM

I have those on my beater-Blazer. One was almost as bad as that and I just replaced it with a somewhat better one from a S10/blazer junkyard. IIRC it`s something like "s10warehouse.com" or something like that (got it off e-bay). If forget what it cost but that`s a clue; it was cheap enough that it didn`t stick in my memory.

IMO the only way to get `em remotely decent would be to pull the tires, beadblast, refinish, remount/balance the tires. If I thought that was smarter than getting some better ones I would`ve done that instead

If you have your own media blaster you could try doing them with the tires still on but none of the shops I know will do `em that way Maybe the shops in your area *will* do it, then OK, blast `em and paint and you`re good to go. Oughta hold up OK for winer wheels if you use good paint (I like Wurth`s wheel paint).

FWIW, I played around on one spot (maybe 1" x 1/2") of the wheel I replaced, sanded it/etc. It didn`t look like *total* crap but it wasn`t a quick/simple job and after doing it I said "no way". You`ll go nuts doing that on all the damage you have, even if you use a Dremel.

**BlazerLT** · 10-31-2006, 03:38 PM

Yea, I have been weighing my options, there is no media blasting in my area so I can`t get that done properly.

I understand what everyone is saying but I don`t want to be taking them off and unmounting the tires and sending them away or anything seeing they are installed.

I just want something to take off the white.

I don`t need a showroom finish at all, just the white reduced where you have to really check them out to see.

**imported_steveo3002** · 10-31-2006, 05:17 PM

if you really cant find a blaster localy....the next option would be to use a d/a sander to sand away the clear and corrosion , finish up with 240 grit, then prime and paint

i really would try to find a blaster....theres usualy a few around, its much easier than sanding and gives a far better finish

**Accumulator** · 10-31-2006, 05:42 PM

The way those wheels are, using a DA isn`t really feasible

I`d go at it by hand with something that has plenty of cut for the initial passes (maybe try 320) then finer stuff to smooth it out. But I sure don`t expect it to turn out well enough that you have to look hard to see that they`re messed up. But then again, it sure wouldn`t be the first time that somebody pulled off something that I considered unlikely and beyond my abilities

Get some really good clear though, so you`re not right back where you started after a few weeks.

**xtahoex** · 10-31-2006, 09:02 PM

I really have no idea, but would some type of chemical paint stripper work to remove the clear? Then you could possibly just reapply clear to the whole wheel, and you wouldn`t have to deal with all the sanding.

**David Fermani** · 11-01-2006, 08:03 AM

Try some wheel acid. It will brighten and clean the wheel. It obviously won`t fix the problem, but it will make them look nice and clean.

**Accumulator** · 11-01-2006, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by xtahoex

I really have no idea, but would some type of chemical paint stripper work to remove the clear? Then you could possibly just reapply clear to the whole wheel, and you wouldn`t have to deal with all the sanding.

He`ll have to sand the corroded areas anyhow, I`d just leave whatever clear`s still there alone and not bother stripping it.

Originally Posted by David Fermani

Try some wheel acid. It will brighten and clean the wheel. It obviously won`t fix the problem, but it will make them look nice and clean.

Same sort of thing...the corroded areas are the wildcard. I got my beater-Blazer wheels pretty clean and shinier with the acidic approach, but if anything it made the corroded/"white" areas look even worse! When you`re trying to improve something that far gone you gotta employ some pretty drastic measures, namely *mechanical* ones

Once the acid hits the bare aluminum it looks crappy again, so abrade-then-clear is gonna be the ticket IMO.

Heh heh, all this talk about nasty Blazer wheels has me thinking I oughta do something along these lines to the one I took off, maybe use it for the spare. Might make a good project for some winter weekend...

**tom p.** · 11-01-2006, 02:44 PM

Yeah, this is the result of lame factory clearcoat. My wheels on my GM (and many other vehicles I`ve seen) look nearly identical. I don`t know of any partial fixes. I`ve learned to live with it and realize, like you, how costly it would be to fix it properly.