www.imoc.co.uk

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Before I start, I take no responsibility for any damage you cause to yourself, or you property by use of this guide. This guide is not gospel, use some common sense and a bit of personal judgement when refurbishing your wheels.

Stuff You Will Need.
I've tried to estimate the paint ammounts required, this has been estimated from my usage, using aerosol cans. If you are just refurbishing the fronts you will need less.

Etching Primer (Acid Etch 1k stuff) (200ml per wheel [ish])
Grey Primer (300ml per wheel [ish])
Paint (of your required colour probably silver) (400ml per wheel)
Laquer (300ml per wheel)
Some polish/t-cut and polishing cloth / electric polisher
An electric detail sander with 60 & 120 grit pads (optional)
Wet and dry paper 800-1000 grit
Unibond metal repair kit (liquid metal) if repairing kerb damage


The Guide

A full refurb will take around 4 days in total, 2 days sanding 2 days painting. If you're just doing the fronts, you can probably do them in a weekend.

I can't stress enough that taking your time is the key to getting a good finish. If you rush it WILL go wrong!

To do a full refurb, you will need to remove the tyres from the wheels. Get this done at a local tyre centre as you'll never get them off yourself without doing damage. Get the weights and valves removed as well!. If you wish to just refurbish the front then mask off the tyres when painting.

Take the wheels off the car and wash them down front and back with some decent wheel cleaner to remove all the brake dust and grime from them.

Take one set of slightly damaged wheels, not looking too hot.


The first stage is to remove any paint, this is important if your wheels have been previously refurbished improperly. My wheels had been sprayed straight onto with black paint, it chipped easily and was not a good base to spray onto.

I've always used an electric detail sander to remove the paint as it gets into the corners easily and speeds up the job. You could however remove the paint with celulose thinners or sand by hand. I think electric sander is the best option unless you can get the wheels sand blasted.

1) Sand the wheels with 60 grit paper followed by 120 grit paper. This should removed the majority of the paint.



2) If you've got kerb damage like I did, file or sand the damage down untill the lip is circular, then mix up some of the liquid metal and smeer plenty of it on to fill the damage. Let it dry and then sand it down to the same level as the rest of the wheel.




When spraying, spray at a distance of 6inches and spray with a smooth motion and with light coats. If you spray beyond the edges of the wheel then you can avoid geting an excess of paint building up along the rim.

Lots of light coats is much better than 1 heavy coat. If you've put too much paint on (small pools of wet paint) then let it dry and see what it looks like. Don't try and cover it with more paint. If you get a run, let it dry and sand it down with the 800 grit paper.

Always spray the rear of the wheel first, as some paint will overspray onto the front.

3) Spray the entire wheel with a light coat of etching primer, untill you can't see any bare metal This is very important with alloy wheels. Once dry Spray several coats of regular grey primer ontop of this. Put plenty of coats of primer on as you will need to sand it back.



4) Once the primer is properly dry rub it down (very lighty) with wet 800 grit paper this will give you a nice smooth finish, try not to sand through the primer. If you do you can always spray some more.

5) Clean the wheel off with a damp cloth and spray several coats of the colour of your choice. I chose black. Again try to avoid putting too much on in one go, and again start by spraying the back.



6) Make sure the paint is dry, spray on several coat of laquer to finish it off. Spray the coats lightly and evenly as its quite easy to mess this up. Dont put too much on in one go!



7) Let the laquer dry overnight and tcut / polish it to a smooth finish.

Job done!!

-- Simon