Hi,
Just thought some of you might be interested in the wheel refurb I did recently on a set of 172 alloys I bought from a friend from work, he sold the car with cup wheels and had these in his shed, they were scuffed around the edges and had a few minor dings but were straight, he sold them to me for £50 with out tyres.......bargain!
Not the best pic but the only one I can find at the mo:
I rubbed the wheels down with various grades of wet and dry to key the surface, I also used Liquid metal to fill some of the small dinks and kerbing to the rim. The wheels were then given a couple of coats of primer (my mistake using white meant more coats of the final colour but you live and learn - next time i'll use grey)
Once the primer was rubbed down with a fine wet and dry gave the first coats, the colour is Ford graphite grey:
Once totally covered inside and out they looked like this. I removed the renault badges and painted them with some black spray paint I had in the garage.
After leaving them a week to harden (you only need to leave them for 24 hours) I gave them a few coats of clear laquer, to be honest the photo is crap as it was taken on my phone and the light in my garage is poor but they looked ok.
This is where I lost interest until recently, the clear coat looked a bit orange peal and didn't give a very good shine, they have sat like this in my garage for 5 months. Last week with the nice weather and show season on my mind I decided to do something about it. After speaking to a few paint shops a friend put me in touch with a local guy who recomended two coats of 2 pack clear coat. He charged me £30 for the privilage.
This afternoon I picked them up....... what do you think?
All in i think the wheels have probably cost just over £100. Now I just need to get some tyres and get them fitted. I'm after 105/40/16's if anyone can recomend a place to get some for a good price? I'll post some more pics when there on the car.
Only thing I could pick fault with is there are dust particles in the paint if you catch them in certain lights, but i put this down to them being done in my garage and not an expensive booth, plus the place i took them to for the clear coat didn't have a booth.
Comments welcome, I've just picked a set of williams wheels up for a song too (yes i'm a wheel whore), in much need of new paint! Can anyone recommend a colour to compliment a white 5? On the cards at the mo is Gloss black with a red lip.
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definatley looking good.
Originally Posted by Ashy
(Advise on here was welcomed and backed by most alloy wheel people / garages I stopped to ask). Ended up buying 5mm from Wheelmainia near town, wheels now fit a treat and dont rub at the rear, I get slight rubbing on the front on full lock, but no where near as much as the 195/50/15's I was running before. Well happy, would totally recomend 195/40/16 to make these rims work a treat. 
