wheel repaint? how?
 

Hey everyone,

My 190E's wheels are in need of a repaint. It looks like the wheels rubbed the curb during parking. No big deal for me. What I need to know is how do I go about doing this? I helped a buddy of mine repaint his steel rims black and all that required was sanding and stray painting. I believe these wheels are aluminum. I want to coat it so that the are resonably soild and wont chip/crack or anything like that. Is this comthing I can do? or should i take it to a paint shop?

Here are some Pics:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...y/IMG_1380.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...y/IMG_1379.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...y/IMG_1378.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...y/IMG_1377.jpg

While I have the wheels off I would like to touch up the calipers...

Any advice on how to do these tasks?

Thanks guys,

Kris

JD, it looks like some kind of a clear coating has come off of your wheels and allowed them to oxidize in places. Are you talking about stripping off this clear coat, cleaning the metal, and then reapplying the clear coat?

i have very little experience when it comes to paint and such....Is what you said what I should do to restore the rims to the original condition?

Even if you had some skill, you say you don't , this is a tricky proposition.

There are those that claim success with the Wurth spray paint. I tried it
once years ago. What a tedious process and what a mess.

I have those centers on my W124 wheels. Nice, but a mis-match to those
tattered wheels.

I would just find the money for 4 replica 8 holes at $99.00 each from TireRack.

You can also buy re-finished MB wheels all over the internet.

Way less painful and the product actually looks good.

Remember that even if you succeed in painting the wheel, how long will the
paint last in the environment of an allow wheel with brake dust burning into the paint?

Steve

I repainted my 190D's wheels 3 years ago; the original paint or coating that was on them was flaking and yellowing. My wheels were the type in the attached photo (not sure if yours has the same kind-of-sparkly metallic finish or not)

I believe I used this paint, in silver and clear:
http://duplicolor.com/products/wheel.html.

I took the wheels off of the car and thoroughly cleaned them to remove all brake dust on the visible areas, then sanded them smooth with a random orbital sander (using multiple grits of paper) to remove the old flaking paint. I cleaned all surfaces again with alcohol to remove any dust and fingerprint oil. Then I masked off the tires and valve stem very, very carefully, and sprayed a coat of silver followed by a coat of clear. Of course, I took the center caps out and cleaned/painted them separately. The finished product was fantastic, and the metallic flake effect looks identical to the original.

After 3 years of all-season driving (including snow, salt, gravel, etc), the paint still looks as good as new - no cracks, no chips, no flaking. I painted the lug bolts too because they were rusty, but they didn't fare as well (tightening them causes the paint to flake off, obviously).

With painting, prep work is an important step. Paint does not hide any flaws; it just changes their colour. So sand, clean, sand, sand some more, and clean some more. Then repeat. Then paint. :)

EDIT: Here's a useful link (although I don't know why they didn't take the wheel off of the car to do this...) http://www.autopia-carcare.com/realwhda.html

If you don't have a bead blasting machine then you should have a pro do it. Sand blasting won't work b/c it creates pits which primer won't stick to. You might also consider a good alloy replica wheel which are pricedfrom $99 up.