Painting Challenge Wheels

I decided to paint my wheels at home this weekend instead of at the shop, neighbors were away and wanted to just hang in the hot tub between coats. An added bonus was wife took off soon as she smelled the paint .

Wheels were media blasted looked in great shape as I bought them from a Steve an F chatter here.

To properly prep these took a little research, most of the good chemicals are no longer available to paint these wheels.

Materials:
Gallon Imron with 192 S activater

SEM etch prime (not zinc or chromate as it will corrode the alloy of the wheels)

Henkel Alumiprep 33, cleans the bare metal

Henkel Alodine 1201, is a conversion coating to seal the metal similar to anodizing that seals the wheels and allows paint to properly stick.


Forgot to take pics at the first few steps as you want the wheels to stay wet and workign fast is important

spray wheels with alumiprep diluted 1-5 with water SOAK wheels with it you wills see it foaming this is opening the metal pores getting all the crap out

Rinse with high pressure water really well

while wheels are still wet, work fast now no time for a beer but maybe a quick puff of medicine Hey I;m in californee

Spray or brush on the alodine to all 4 wheels make sure they stay wet at all times, let them soak for about 3-5 minutes keep them wet by adding more if needed.

after the 4 min wash them with high pressure water, pressure washer OK. Rinse them really good to get all the alodine off, let totally dry Hot tub and a few cold ones now, heck I wated overnight

One thing to note is DO NOT TOUCH the wheels with your grubby fingers or hands, keep them locked in a sterile place where you will be painting them

Prime them and spray them, I used imron, its tough as nails
Why not powder coat? Powder coating has issues with chips on allow wheels. Chips tend to spread corrode under the coating. Treating with these chemicals I feel provides a much better "sealing" of the bare metal. This is similar to mil spec painting of magnesium.

Well hope you understand what I did I am full of imron fumes and wanted to post it before I forgot what I did




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They had a great start

 

Any excuse to play with chemicals

Thank you Sir

 

No speedline, was thinking possibly "bite me" in script LOL