Post #172
Right, I haven't been slacking I promise, just been accumilating some photos and getting some things done.
First up - I got myself some new wheels from Silky; he'd picked them up on a car he was breaking and didn't need them, so I liberated those for some cash. Not the best of condition I'm sure you'll agree, but I reckon they'll look alright on the car:
So first up, orbital sander on the face to get rid of all the horrible peeling lacquer. That's the simple satisfying bit. Next up is the rubbish bit - it's Dremel time. It's very easy to take lots of bit gashes out of the wheels if not being careful, and careful I was not. Still, the old paint has to come off and I really don't care too much about how these end up looking. As long as they're roughly the same colour all over, I'll consider that a job well done.
Half an hour later:
I've done a wheel refurb once before, and forgot to do the centre caps. Me being me, I never got round to doing them and then lost them. I was not about to make the same mistake again, so sand down the nasty old caps, removing the "Dotz" logo while I was there. Primer those bad boys up...
The wheels had plenty of kerb marks round them, so I bought some
epoxy putty stuff which I've used before; it's very easy to work with yourself but I do believe means you can't get the wheels powder coated, so don't use it if you're ever going to want that done.
Basically just squidge it into any kerb marks:
Leave it a couple of hours, then sand it down. Leave it 24 hours to dry, sand again and wash then primer it up.
That picture's quite flattering, they're not as great as they look but then they're cheap nasty track wheels, so I really don't care all that much. They didn't lose any air sat in Silky's garage, so that's good enough for me.
By this point you'll have lost any will to complete this job you ever had, but you know deep down that primer'd wheels will not fare well against brake dust, so just get the hell on with it and quit your whoring. Useless dog as always:
No help whatsoever.
It's then painting time. What a frickin ballache this turned out to be. I went down to Halfords and picked out a colour I liked that they had two cans of. Done. Got home, started painting up the wheels. Turns out Halfords standard size cans actually come basically empty, so two cans didn't even get me a single coat over all four wheels. Call up Halfords but oh no, why *would* you keep more than two cans in stock ever?
Anyone who's ever worked in a shop knows full when the pain-in-the-ass that is only being able to get any product in packs of 6, 12, maybe even 20 when you can fit only 2 on the shelf. This is the case everywhere I know except Halfords, who get in individual cans, and only on one delivery a week. Poor.
Get on the phone, call around most of Essex. Basildon have ONE CAN. Braintree have ONE CAN. Both are in OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS.
An hour and a half's driving and a most unhappy girlfriend later, I return with the two cans and finish up the wheels, having forked out for a Harvester to make amends. Did a pretty poor job of the insides of the wheels, but the faces look okay and that's all I care about.
Sleep for 24 hours.
Not being stupid enough to run out of cans again, I've picked up two cans of Halfords Heavy-Duty lacquer, made for alloy wheels.
Or at least I thought I did.
Oh no, just because you've colour-coded your cans, why *would* that mean that the two yellow-banner'd cans in the same place on the shelf are the same thing? Turns out only one was the Heavy-Duty, and other was just standard.
By this point I'd opened the latter to fcuk it, that'll do. Luckily I didn't quite finish up the first one in case of splatter, so had enough to give all the faces (of the wheels, not the idiots in Halfords) and quick once-over with the hard stuff.
Doesn't matter too much as I'll probably be running RC-6 pads anyway, which create brake dust nasty enough to melt through the world, let alone some pikey Halfords primer.
Ideally you want to leave the primer a couple of weeks to harden properly, so I've booked Event Tyres for tomorrow. I *might* be on a trackday this Friday but might have to cancel that for a mate's personal reasons. Either way, let's plough on as if we're going.
I don't have any pictures of the finished wheels as of yet, they'll follow later today.
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owain
Posted 9th Aug 2010 at 20:30
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