Wheel Refurb

[Rbade12 at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/6/2007 8:24:37 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
tomegbert1323 at yahoo.com writes:

The  stock 20v turbo wheels appear to have a polished, clear-coated  lip
with
painted basketweave.  Paint seems to hold-up well; clear  coat cracks,
and
polished outer area tends to oxidize and look  ugly.
Any BTDT on DIY refurb of that area?
Sean


Just got my first set of original wheels on  a 20v and was looking for the 
same answer. Griot's garage just sent me a  catolog with silver alloy wheel 
paint and clear laquer restoration kit. Kit is  enough for a set of four and costs 
60$. 
Everything I  have used from Griot's is top notch. Anyone else tried this? 
How much prep is  involved?
Tom 


My OE 20v wheels had several curb dings and the clear coat peel. The first  
thing I tried was polishing the rims with 320 wet sandpaper, I quickly  decided 
this was way to much work. I'd seen a Duplicolor wheel paint at AZ so I  
bought some and tried it. I had the tires off at the time so I filed curb rash  
off, sanded areas that had loose clearcoat, washed well with mineral spirits and 
 painted. I used silver paint which looked just ok. I covered that paint with 
 their wheel clearcoat and that improved it some, but, it just didn't have 
the  sparkle I wanted [ I didn't want chrome, but, I want some shine]. I had the 
 tires mounted and the wheels actually looked pretty good when on the car, 
sort  of a satin silver. The problem is, the paint hasn't held up. Some of the 
wheels  have areas that the paint has peeled off [they did go through a winter, 
but I  expected longer life].
I believe I did everything possible to prep the wheels, perhaps a bit of  
sanding everywhere to give the paint some " tooth", but I think the paints as  
strong as it's weakest link and that's the clearcoat. So, if the clearcoat isn't 
 completely removed the paint will ultimately fail due to clearcoat failure. 
So,  perhaps get the wheels sandblasted then paint or what I think I'll do, 
get 'em  powdercoated.   Bob



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