Wheel respray DIY

**Mrk_Mickey** · 20-08-2009, 12:31 AM

Okay...No more paint stripping.

It no longer works on such small amounts of paint for some reason... once I pay for rego this month I'm going to pay to get them sandblasted (5 of them). Can anyone give me the number of a well priced sandblaster/can anyone get it done for me for cheap?

Despite wasted efforts to get rid of paint, we did more on my first wheel

. Second coat of primer went on and this time I painted it so I set the gun up just right

it came up an absolute treat! It's really nice and even now, so I think this wheel doesn't necessarily have to be a test wheel.

For this style of wheel - ie multispoked/hard-to-get-to faces - you basically want to set up your spray so that the spray width is about as wide as the spoke depth, and the amount of paint that comes out leaves a *just* solid line on a test piece (like cardboard or something else flat that you can paint onto) without runs or being too dry/transparent. The speed you spray at depends on how much paint you put onto the surface; it's pretty easy to understand how fast you need to go depending on how much paint comes out of your gun

.

Painting the wheel is done best by doing it in segments - face, inside of spokes on one edge, inside of spokes on the other, lip, rear of wheel. Just spray it evenly and straight at the surface until the colour you're painting on is solid. Remember, you can quite easily overdo it! - so it's best to leave dry/uneven marks until later.

For the rear of the wheel, I adjusted the gun to give a wider spray pattern (about 70-80 degrees out of the gun nozzle) and a bit more paint. I set the gun so that when spraying paint, it looks like powder whilst in the air, and comes out quite wide. This is best for the back of the wheel as it easily covers the larger areas that don't need as much accuracy.

Pics:

I've been offered a really nice dark metallic paint to use if I want to....what do people think of the charcoal metallic you see on Mazda 3's?

I can either use this colour on its own or mix my audi paint with it. I have a feeling I won't like my audi paint on its own, because it's going to be too light for the comparison with the polished surface.

I'll be finishing this wheel off before starting the others, so that I can keep updating this thread

so stay tuned!
Cheers.

**goodfella** · 20-08-2009, 12:41 AM

I dont mind that mazda colour, and it should contrast well with the polished faces...

just an idea, is it worth the hassle doing multiple colour sprays on the one test wheel, ie 1/3 Audi - 1/3 Mazda - 1/3 custom mix of two...

**Mrk_Mickey** · 20-08-2009, 06:28 PM

I was thinking that! I think I'll spray a teensy weensy bit of my audi colour onto the wheel first and see how it looks. If I think it should go darker I might spray a bit of darker stuff on it. I honestly don't think I'll get to the point of mixing the two paints haha.

Should be painting them tonight so stick around peepz.

**Manaz** · 20-08-2009, 08:47 PM

What about a base coat of the Mazda colour (since it's nice and dark), and then if it's too dark, layer the Audi colour over it in nice fine layers (multiple thin layers being better than one thick one anyway) - that's in part how they get the colour you were after to start with...

**Mrk_Mickey** · 21-08-2009, 12:18 AM

No need to worry about the mazda colour anymore. I hit the nail on the head (and some) with my audi colour! I'll let the pics do all the talking this time

The pictures weren't the best this time but I am definitely very happy with the colour

This is only the first coat too. The second coat will even it all out (as you can see it's not 100% atm), and the third coat is 80% thinners so it will shine it up really nicely. Then comes the re-polishing of the surface of the spokes and clearcoating...

P.S You can see what I mean by doing sections of the wheel at a time. In the fourth picture you can also see how wide the spray pattern is - that's the width I used for the front/detailed sections of the wheel. The back of the wheel was painted with a pattern about 2 times that size (it wasn't as big because we didn't need it).

**maca** · 21-08-2009, 12:21 AM

Nice man!! Can't wait to see them on the VR6... It'll defs stand out from the crowd with these on..

**KI11Z** · 21-08-2009, 06:26 AM

mmm yep! i'm diggin the colour my mate, now to decide polished or painted, i've no idea though I do think the polished face with this colour backing it up would look a treat! Heaps more messing around though

**Pullstarter** · 21-08-2009, 07:30 AM

Sweet colour Mickey, excellent choice. Now you can spray my wheels when you're finished

**team_v** · 21-08-2009, 07:45 AM

The colour looks awesome, a little darker and more glossy than they were before.
It will just add that extra bit of contrast to our car.

Nice work

**Mrk_Mickey** · 21-08-2009, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by KI11Z

mmm yep! i'm diggin the colour my mate, now to decide polished or painted, i've no idea though I do think the polished face with this colour backing it up would look a treat! Heaps more messing around though

Alex mate, the spokes are still polished underneath that tape! As soon as the second and third coats of paint are on the tape is coming off and I'm restarting the polish the way preeny told me to do it to get it MIRROR finish.

The good thing about this project is I don't have a time frame so if I decide to do a little more work then it's ok. My plan is to finish this wheel with a polished front and then we'll see how it looks. I assume it's gonna look just how I want it to so I'll then organise to get my other four wheels sandblasted (Can't be bothered with the fifth one) and I'll do it all again

Originally Posted by team_v

The colour looks awesome, a little darker and more glossy than they were before.
It will just add that extra bit of contrast to our car.

Nice work

Yeah that's exactly what I thought...sooo stoaked!

Cheers.