Need your advices for repainting rims

T

Terry

Hello,
I'm new to to this but would like to learn from you guys,I already did rims from my 2013 taurus,presently I'm working on rims from a 2010 SX4 and planning to do my 2014 RAM this spring.
I have tried sparkles in clear on the taurus for fun and I like it,car was sold the next week and the lady owner liked it too.
I will add copper sparkles to the SX4 rims (wife's car)for testing purposes too.
The rims were in good shape so I just sanded the clear,coated with a urethane primer,colored and clearcoated with sparkles in the second coat,let it dry,water sanded and recleared.
I'm using RM products only,they are available here and I'm wondering if the RM easyclear is the best choice to apply on rims ?
Also using RM purple sand paper and Trizact,can't get anything else or other brands have to be ordered .
Should I go with a different clearcoat like a harder one,this one is a universal one I think ?
Would a ceramic coating over that clear will be a smart choice to protect rims from elements and contaminants in time ?
For infos rims are not used during winter time .
Hope to have advices from you.
Terry
 
Ceramic is good, but you need to see what they suggest spraying over. Some of them don't even want Primer getting in the way of adhering to the base metal. So if you are just scuffing factory finish, it may not work like you expect it to.

I think ultimately, softer clears are better for rims. Harder takes a hit and ends up getting hair line cracks that eventually chip and fall off.
 
Hello,
Don't hesitate to share your experience with flakes,I like this stuff on rims and nobody doing it in my area so I could be offering this services as I get better.
I don't feel comfortable right now working on larger panels so I'm playing with rims.

Thanks barry for your infos.
Good day
Terry
 
Well, my take on rims is a terrible one. Powdercoat, That means every spec of that factory finish has to come off and that is the miserable part of it. This is from the powder trying to do some for the 36 chevy. It came from Florida sat thru a hurricane after it was blasted and not primed. It came with a Z28 drive train so I figure get the iroc rims and it will be like a camaro with the 36 body.
When we were working on it, I was thinking gasser paint job in the green metal flake. So I wanted to get the tires mounted to shorten the rear end and fab the inner wheel wells while trying to add a rumble seat. Anyway, that was the green flake in clear powder. It stays clear for the flake, but then the rest of the blasted part turns gray, so we added some flake to the clear to get some glitter on the inside of the rim and polished the outside, which, also turned gray. Thing has just been sitting by the sandblast booth all dusty and still gleams in the light. This is why we will most probably still do powder with the base colors but topcoat with UC so it does not go gray when baked.


that is the miserable part of it.
IMG_20190320_095531959.png
 
Hello,
I'm working on my rims,got two clear coated but I don't like the results,I've decided to sand and reclear but while sanding the first one I went through the clear and through the color a little,(my eyes are getting bad),I'd like to know how many coats of clear do you apply to be safe and still got protection left when you want to have it peel free ?
I had 3 coats applied on,let them dry out for 2 weeks and sand with 1000 wet,1500 wet at the end I've used a scoth-brite purple one to have a grip for the next coat of clear,I'm using RM easyclear.
I haven't done the second one yet,waiting for a different plan from you .
IMG_0277.JPG
 
2 coats or less work fine for me. I typically thin down my clear for wheels. I treat wheels very differently than panels on a car. You don’t need the same level of protection since they won’t receive the same amount of punishment from the sun and with wheels there’s no amount of protection that can prevent the typical damage that a wheel receives. Plus if they’re yours you can always do a small blow in if they are damaged again.
 
After reading differents posts I see that there're many ways to approach rims finish and protection,I have a long way before getting where I want but this forum is the right place to be.
Thank you all for giving us the best informations and methods,really a great forum.

Terry
 
Could anybody help me on this,just found a little piece of the paint has chipped out,rim was waiting to be reclear after I had decided to sand them down smooth, while scratching it with my nail the color is coming off quite easy.
I think the rims were too cold and humidity was high the week-end I did spray,it was a few weeks ago so not sure,I don't have access to a spray booth so it is done a mechanic shop with all the problems you can imagine.
Second though could be sanding the primer with a too gentle grad like 1000 or 1500 ?
I don't remeber which one I picked(will right down every steps from now on.)
What are my options,is it possible to dry the color and what is left of the sanded clear with a infra-red ramp or not ?
Just happy I just did 2 of them,I am learning and this one will be one good lesson,I have to check on the second one and I guess there'll be just as this one .

Terry
 
I would guess it’s the grit sanding you used. 500-600g is what you want to paint over. I personally like spraying an adhesion promoter like UPOL Grip 4 after some steps. Here’s my wheel steps not including cleaning:
Sand out damage-working down grits to 400 and grey scotch bright the entire wheel.
Aerosol etch prime bare metal.
Grip 4.
Aerosol primer filler-I like SEM
sand primer with 600 soft pad
Grip 4
Base then 1 coat HS Clear or 2 coats MS Clear
 
Just with masking tape I'm able to take off the paint,I'm not sure but I think I've used 1000 or 1500 Wet paper,you can see the sanding marks on that picture but using that grade wasn't the brightest idea !
On the perimeter of the 4 rims I had a fews scratches I needed to repair so sanding went to the bare metal,should I use a special primer for aluminum ?
Need help please .
Terry
P_20190411_165209_vHDR_On.jpg
 
Also you want to “dust on” your basecoat, I’m guessing here to your problem but basecoat can come off like that if it’s cold and your putting it on too thick where it skims over and doesn’t dry all the way through. A hair dryer or can be your best friend on wheels
 
Just an etch primer is all you need on the bare metal. And again just dust a bit on before adding primer. If there’s no damage you could also just basecoat over the etching primer.
 
If I remember the temperature wasn't much over 60 ° F and maybe I had too thick applied too,rooky'errors I would say .
The etching primer is for bare metal like rims ?
 
Terry said:
If I remember the temperature wasn't much over 60 ° F and maybe I had too thick applied too,rooky'errors I would say .
The etching primer is for bare metal like rims ?
Click to expand...
I think you need to get all that gloss off to get paint to stick. I think the finest you should go is 320. You could probably take the rims in the house and put them in the oven for an hour and they might have gone up 10 degrees if it was a temperature deal, alot of metal that stays hot long but stays cold too long too.
If that is gray paint under there, its doing its job and not allowing anything to stick to it.
 
No,the grey you see is a RM primer,the AM 800,I m doing some research and found that DE17 (a etch primer ) should have been applied first on bare metal and repairs than the AM 800 been sanded with 320 to 400 grit.
I completly screwed up my first attemp,I m learning my lesson for sure.
 
Not using an etch primer would not cause the paint to peel off the primer. That is caused by insufficient sanding or contamination. Using epoxy primer ONLY before paint will give the best results. In general, spray can products like primers will not be anywhere near as durable as a 2 component mixed product. Clean, sand with 180 to 320, epoxy, (follow the tech sheet), then paint will prevent problems like this.
 
You are right for the can products,I will forget this stuff even if it's from RM.
I think now that my rims were too cold and sanding with 1000 or 1500 wasn't the smartest choice.
Lesson learnt ,I now will wait for warmer temperatures in spring to recoat.
Thanks.
 
It was already borderline too cold, how much time did you wait for the primer to set up before painting? Some paints will eventually get hard in the cold, but it might be after a longer time between coats. You might just have the primer still trying to evaporate and getting sealed with paint that did dry.
Etch primers are mostly frowned upon here, but the key is bare metal. the phosphoric acid that is usually in those cannot get thru paint, so you would be all the way back to my problem of stripping everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top