Refurbishing teardrop alloy wheels

[rat boy]

I have a set of teardrop alloy wheels at home as a spare set for the mk1. I brought them about two years ago. They had previously been refurbished by power coating. Unfortunately after they had been powder coated one of the previous owners of the wheels applied the wrong type of alloy wheel cleaner to them . The result - the cleaner has chemically reacted with the powder coating and left a "leather cracking" type look which penetrates right through the coating

I thought that shot blasting would be the answer so that we would be down to bare metal again. Unfortunately the shot just bounced off - the professional who did it said in 20 years of shot blasting he's never known of wheels like mine .

Does anyone know of any way that I can get these wheels looking tip-top? Are there any special treatments available for hard-to-shift powder coating or do I just have to learn my lesson the hard way Hopefully there might be a relatively cheap way forward - otherwise I will make these my "winter wheels".

Many thanks!

Steve R (aka Rat Boy)

[waynestoyotamr2]

Isnt it dependant on what type of "shot" is being used?

IIRC - plastic beads wont work - but you need a steel shot.

[MartG]

Power sander

Though you'll need a good bit of elbow grease for those 'hard to get at' places

[Dazza7]

Yeah, you need to get an electric sander around them.

I just did mine, got the nasties out with the sander then went from a medium through to fine grades in wet and dry paper to smooth the surface.

Finish off with some cutting compound and buff up with a wool attachment on your sander/drill.

Mask off and spray the 'teardrops' with some nice satin black spray and then complete the job with a few coats of clear laquer.

Any slight black overspray can be polished off before laquering.

They will come up as good as new!!

=D> =D>

[ldavies83]

After spending A LOT of time doing mine! I went through 4 methods. Firstly wet'n'dry by hand, then power sander, then shot blasting and finally (and by far the best IMO) was block of wood and medium grit WND paper.

I found with the wND by hand it took way too long but fantastic finish.

Power Sander, WAY to heavy duty for the job, I spent most of the time sanding out the scratches the sander put in, even with smooth paper!

Shot Blasting was a PITA because I only had a small gun and small guage grit, heavier guage I'm guessing would probably be the way to go here. But still I had to use paper again

By far the best was Medium guage WND, even finish, immediate results I managed to get it down to an hour a wheel for prep work.

Check out my garage for B4 After pics of the wheels as mine were really heavily corroded. Nothing a bit of elbow grease, Holts Alloy Silver and Hammerite Silver/Grey could'nt sort out!

[MartG]

Holts Alloy Silver and Hammerite Silver/Grey

Snap - that's exactly what I used when I did the ones on my old NA

[ldavies83]

hehe, its a good match, gotta be said!

[rat boy]

Thanks guys, the problem is that the wheels have already been powercoated and the stuff just won't come off - even with sand shot blasting!!!! Wayne said about using steel shot, I've also heard of a practice where the wheel is dipped in some sort of acid bath but I don't know any more details about that. Can you help?

Cheers

Steve R aka Rat Boy

[MartG]

Burn it off with a blowtorch ?

[tunna_uk]

I left paintstripper on mine overnight worked a treat

[rat boy]

Thanks everyone for your advice on the wheels - it seems like a lot of elbow grease or paintstripper will be the job. I've also managed to find out who powder coated the wheels in the first place so I will contact them direct.

Cheers

Rat Boy

[Chunky Monkey]

2 Q's

1) Were the original teardrop alloys a darker gray in the teardrop than the outer face?
2) I want mine polished to a mirror, but is it better to have them plated??