Painting alloy wheel with Wurth paint

[moosey]

Hello everyone,

I want to completly paint all four of the alloy wheels on a 03' 996 Carrera with 18inch 5-spoke. These wheels are in bad shape, clear coat is peeling, its stained, and there are ligth to medium scratches. I wanted to know the correct steps to take in order to get a great result. I know the wheel needs to be clean of all greese and dirt, but I thought by sanding it it would remove everything. But since I never done this before, my main question is the part of sanding and priming. Do I lightly sand the wheel until it is smooth? Or do I sand it down until metal shows? I read if you sand down to the metal you must use self etching primer by Einzet? After priming do I need to lighty sand the primer until it's smooth before I put the first coat of the WURTH SILVER METALLIC wheel paint? Any input from anyone who has painted the whole wheel would be great! Last what type of grain sand paper do I need, Thanks

[scubadawg]

Hello everyone,

I want to completly paint all four of the alloy wheels on a 03' 996 Carrera with 18inch 5-spoke. These wheels are in bad shape, clear coat is peeling, its stained, and there are ligth to medium scratches. I wanted to know the correct steps to take in order to get a great result. I know the wheel needs to be clean of all greese and dirt, but I thought by sanding it it would remove everything. But since I never done this before, my main question is the part of sanding and priming. Do I lightly sand the wheel until it is smooth? Or do I sand it down until metal shows? I read if you sand down to the metal you must use self etching primer by Einzet? After priming do I need to lighty sand the primer until it's smooth before I put the first coat of the WURTH SILVER METALLIC wheel paint? Any input from anyone who has painted the whole wheel would be great! Last what type of grain sand paper do I need, Thanks

Have you considered sand blasting?

[cvhs18472]

2 years ago I repainted all four of my wheels. My car is Artic Silver and instead of using Wurth paint , which is not a match for the Artic Silver I went to the paint shop and had them mix up a pint of Artic Silver. I then did the following, 1. sand the clear coat off 2. patched al gouges with body filler 3. Sanded smooth and repatched till the hole was filled 4. blew off the wheels and cleaned wheels with brake cleaner 5. took to a dust free place 6. sprayed 2 coats of color with a light sading between coats 7. Clearcoated the wheels, If you are using lacquar to clear coat the best thing to do is give it 3 light coats 1/2 hour apart; let sit for a day and sand and then give it 3 more coats 1/2 hour apart. I gave mine 9 coats and they have survived a little curb rash, 2 winters with salt and still look great with no peeling or chipping. The most important thing to remember is to sand well and keep it clean. It takes a little work but when you are done it will look great and last a long time. The best thing about lacquar is that you wont have to strip the entire wheel if you get curk rask, just sand the area, clean and respray. Ed

[1schoir]

Hello everyone,

I want to completly paint all four of the alloy wheels on a 03' 996 Carrera with 18inch 5-spoke. These wheels are in bad shape, clear coat is peeling, its stained, and there are ligth to medium scratches. I wanted to know the correct steps to take in order to get a great result. I know the wheel needs to be clean of all greese and dirt, but I thought by sanding it it would remove everything. But since I never done this before, my main question is the part of sanding and priming. Do I lightly sand the wheel until it is smooth? Or do I sand it down until metal shows? I read if you sand down to the metal you must use self etching primer by Einzet? After priming do I need to lighty sand the primer until it's smooth before I put the first coat of the WURTH SILVER METALLIC wheel paint? Any input from anyone who has painted the whole wheel would be great! Last what type of grain sand paper do I need, Thanks

moosey:

Sanding alone will not remove grease, oil and other contaminants. You must clean the surface thoroughly with a proper cleaner such as "Pre-Kleano" or "Prep-Sol". These are available at any auto paint store. Not cleaning and preparing the surface properly is the most common cause of paint failure.

If you can avoid going down to bare metal, you should do so. You will be better off just sanding the top surface down and using the steps that CVHS has outlined above. Remember that filler shrinks slithgly after it cures, so you should apply the filler in thin successive coats until you get a smooth surface.

You can use 220 grit wet sand paper to start out. Then go to 320, and then 400 before you apply the primer coat. Applying the primer coat will insure even color over the areas that have filler. Before you spray on the color coat, you can use 600 and again 600 before you apply the clear coats. Follow the instructions on the paint can for the amount of time to wait between coats, as it is also very dependent on temperature and humidity conditions.

For best results, use the wet sanding method where you spray a continuous fine mist of water over the area where you are sanding, rather than dry sanding. The wet sanding method carries away all of the sanding residue as you are sanding and gives you a much smoother surface.

If you get any spots that look like "fish eyes", it means you did not degrease the surface well enough. Even the oil from your fingerprints can mar the paint job, so be meticulous.

It's difficult to get great results without using a spray gun, but even with a spray can they will look much better than what you have now.

Good luck!

Regards, Maurice.

[Benjamin Choi]

don't paint it, powdercoat it

[zoomsan]

Has anyone considered using airplane paint stripper? This should be available at auto parts stores. Gritblasting will remove a lot of of the material and clean it up, but if there's a chemical solution that won't damage the alloy, why not use it? Especially, if the wheels are aluminum with an anodized coating. The chemical strip won't remove the anodization. The chem strip would be a lot less hands on, but would definitely take more time to remove the paint.

[70Sixter]

There was a nice wheel repair/paint piece in one of the last coupla Excellence magazine.

Edited April 10, 2009 by 70Sixter

[flyingpenguin]

don't paint it, powdercoat it

+1 for powder coating. I paid approx. 120 bucks per wheel for a super durable silver metallic + clearcoat powder coating job. Just make sure that you tell the guys to keep the powder coat from getting into the center hole. This stuff is so tough that it took me a good while to scrape it off in order for the wheels to fit on the hub again...

Joost

[jvcuenca]

I saw this on YOU TUBE...planning on paintning my other car(C230 Kompressor). check it out :

[togilvie]

Hello everyone,

I want to completly paint all four of the alloy wheels on a 03' 996 Carrera with 18inch 5-spoke. These wheels are in bad shape, clear coat is peeling, its stained, and there are ligth to medium scratches. I wanted to know the correct steps to take in order to get a great result. I know the wheel needs to be clean of all greese and dirt, but I thought by sanding it it would remove everything. But since I never done this before, my main question is the part of sanding and priming. Do I lightly sand the wheel until it is smooth? Or do I sand it down until metal shows? I read if you sand down to the metal you must use self etching primer by Einzet? After priming do I need to lighty sand the primer until it's smooth before I put the first coat of the WURTH SILVER METALLIC wheel paint? Any input from anyone who has painted the whole wheel would be great! Last what type of grain sand paper do I need, Thanks

Use a strong chemical stripper (Jasco) and get them powdercoated. I got a powdercoating shop to strip and powdercoat my stock '99 996 rims flat black for about $550. They quoted me $400 if I prepped the rims myself.

I do like the flat black look, but in retrospect, I would have put that money into a set of R-comps or saved to get coilovers.

[achillies]

I just finished my wheels following the Excellence mag instructions. They came out perfectly for about $40.00. I didnt dismount the wheels just used masking tape...not a big deal. Cant beat the price.

[RJ'sGottaDrive]

I'm going to be fixing some minor scratches on my wheels that were there when I bought my car a couple of months ago.

Will WURTH SILVER METALLIC paint be an exact match for my wheels?

Please see attached pic.

 

Thanks.

[Loren]

Yes, it should pretty dead on. You will need Wurth clear coat over the silver.

[RJ'sGottaDrive]

Thanks Loren

[RJ'sGottaDrive]

Loren-

 

I found the paint-

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/wus-892181.html#.XWs34ONKjIU

Then I found this kit with everything I need for a good price.

But the paint is different. Lacquer vs. enamel?

https://www.autogeek.net/german-wheel-scuff-repair-kit.html

 

Please advise. Thank you.

[Loren]

I don't think enamel is legal to use in many states anymore.

 

Here are some tips from a DIY...

 

[RJ'sGottaDrive]

Thanks again.

Unfortunately Wurth's doesn't make that exact can anymore. I'm sure it's been superceded over the years.

Both of the links I provided say they match all German cars.

I might have to take a leap of faith.

Excellent write up.