Hi Sam,

for blast media I used fine sand (also with the Kaercher). Works fine, but needs time. The surface is not too rough due to the wet process.
Professionals use glas pearls or nut shell granulat in a dry process. Little better surface but expensive.
BTW, the dust of this sand is dangerous when dry blasted.

The steel rims were blasted by a professional with special material (korund) and cost only 7$/each.
I will take my alus there just before the guy will change the blasting media (the small edges get round by wearing, at this time it will less/not harm the alus).

Sam, in the background I am working on the other story

Tom

and thanks for your information about blast media and your use of wet sandblasting. The box that my wet sandblasting accessory came in has a picture graphic including two part numbers that must be associated with blast media...
P/N - 6.280-105 and
P/N - 6.280-106
but when I ask Karcher.Com about here in the U.S. about these P/N(s), they don't even respond. Of course I have "browsed" by computer InterNet both the German and U.S. WebSite and still no information on these P/N(s).

I have found considerable information about many different blast medium [ sand etc.] but none of them specific to wet blasting or aluminum-alloy wheels.

Too bad your German countrymen there at Kaercher did NOT do a better job of marketing this accessory... or Auf Deutsch :

"Auch erledigte Schlechtes deine deutschen Landsmänner dort bei Kaercher NICHT eine bessere Arbeit des Marketings dieses Zusatzgerät."

Best regards Tom,
Sam

Thank you very much for posting! I don't have much money to dump in the car, but for $45 and nice looking wheels I think I can do it!

__________________
1985 300D, 237k.
1994 F-350, 6.9 diesel, 5 spd manual, Banks Turbo. 261k.
Sold: 1985 300CD- 267K

Since we're on powder coating, help me out with a color chart (have access to get my wheels done in this stuff for essentially free.) The electronic version really does look like crap, but go to the last page of the brouchure and check out the three silvers towards the bottom. Which one would you think is best for the benz, the "Silver Metallic 70% Gloss*" or the "Silver Metallic 30% Gloss*"

http://www.cardinalpaint.com/a_img/PowderBrochure.pdf

You know, the more I look at this online, it just looks like *&#$. You'd think a company that does nothing other than sell color coatings would try harder to make their color charts accurate. Heck, a jpg of the actual brochure would have been a better idea. At least then you'd see a picture of the real thing, not an electronic representation.

__________________
B
-
1983 300SD

Sam,

here we are. I gave a call to Kaercher and will get even more info.

Tom

Attached Files

blast media.pdf (39.0 KB, 303 views)

Where is "out here" ??

Warren C.

that looks like an appropriate blast media for preparing these aluminum-alloy wheels for painting. Take a look at these two links from Harbor Freight:

http://da.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=blast+media

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92155

The first includes the 2nd where as the 2nd is what I think I need. Now the question as to whether
" 24 Grit walnut shell blast media " will work or just gum up my wet sandblasting accessory that fits onto my 1500 PSI consumer model high-pressure washer. Anyone out there know... how about you Tom over in Stuttgart... do you have a response from a factory source?

Sam

What would we do without the InterNet. This time I have found a great WebSite for blast media that is specifically for "wet blasting" at:

http://www.thomasnet.com/products/abrasives-wet-blasting-150409-1.html

Where there are 15 different manufacturers/suppliers and 9 of these have their own website to further research the subject.

I still think the 25 lbs of 24-grit walnut shells at Harbor Freight will be hard to beat.

Sam

This is a lose-lose situation, unfortunately. If you paint the wheels with the tires on, you can't do quite as good a job. If you take the tires off and then paint the wheels, you can do a much better job but risk having the new paint damaged in the tire mounting process.

I would imagine that powder coating would provide the hardest surface and most resistant to damage, although more expensive. For those of us who don't want to spend that much money, mounting the new tires and then painting the wheels would seem to be the way to go. My existing tires should be good for a few more years; if the wheels get dinged up in mounting new ones, I'll just repaint again.

Incidentally, the lug bolts on my two "good" wheels now look terrible in comparison to the others, so I will have to polish and clearcoat them, too. Maybe this weekend after I mount the oil pan skid plate.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Thanks for the heads up, Olympic Powder Coating seems near enough for a visit.

__________________
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Post Some Pictures Of Those Wheels Guys!

will be part of my project... but this will not likely happen for another 2 weeks. I just picked up 25 lbs of #25 grit walnut shells for my attempt to prepare the wheels by using a consumer model high-pressure washer with wet-blasting accessory attachment. If this works on the 300D, then we will likely use it on the 300SD as well which has the same wheels.

Judging from reading an earlier POST on this THREAD, I should make sure I allow for adequate drying time between the primer and paint.

In looking at the products in the kit I purchased from **************.Com I have:

(1) a U.S. made primer called "Hi-Build" [high solids content] from Crest Industries, and
(2) the paint is also U.S. made from "Dupli-Color" with color name/code that is "T178 Silver (M) CC".

Q1 - Anyone have first hand experience with this kit/these products ?
Q2 - What about "clearcoat" ?

Especially if I also need to apply a clearcoat, this process could take much more time than I originally thought... so swaping out the spare to allow time to work on one wheel at at time might be the way to go!

Maybe I should ask **************.Com about clearcoat!?

Oh, for reference I looked into two different local specialty shops that do this kind of work... one grit blasts the wheel in a small box type unit and uses air-dry primer & paint and the other blasts, primes and then uses electrostatic dry coats which is then baked on. I didn't know to ask about clearcoat but their prices were such [ $65-75/wheel ] that I decided to invest the $50 in the wet sand-blaster accessory for my Kaercher 1500 PSI electric pressure washer. The wahser has been useful for so many projects, thus I'm hopeful the wet-blaster accessory works out too.

Regards,
Sam

Just an FYI, these guys sell the paint:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=20229

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I took the silver paint that the store had mixed for me and asked them to sell me a clearcoat that would "get along" with the color. They grabbed a can of clear spray enamel off of the shelf and said it would work fine. And it did, except for my failure to wait long enough (less than a day, two or three days would have been better) between color and clear.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

This is preliminary update on my ongoing project... and to recap what it is, I have a "Kaercher" electric 1500 psi high pressure washer and thought I might use it along with Karcher's $50 wet sandblasting accessory to prepare the wheels from my Son's '80 300D for painting. If things go well on the 300D, then I will do the same for the '85 300SD. I already have a kit for the painting part from **************.Com. My MBZ private mechanic friend has loaned me use of two of these same wheels in return for returning two that I have cleaned/blasted/& refinished... this way I do not have to disable my Son's car or rush through the work. Here are my lessons learned:

(a) Walnut Shells - Well I have picked up some inexpensive #24 walnut shells and gave them a try... and just as "Tomnik" said about fine grit sand in one of his POSTS, the stripping goes slow and with walnut shells it's really slow. I tried this on the outside only of one of the two loaner wheels. This result is NOT worth showing a "pic" of!
(b) Course Sand - My local landscape materials dealer gave me a 5-gal paint pail of his finest sand product so I figured I would give this a try but first only on the backside of these wheels as I don't think I'll be painting there anyhow. Sorry, but I don't have a "pic" of what the wheels looked like before I blasted but I think most of you know what 300K miles of road dirt and grim looks like. Attached is a "low res" picture of the after result. The course sand did a more than adequate job of cleaning up the surfaces here that solvent and high-pressure water alone would not clean.
(c) Sand Grits (no NOT to eat!) - I have discovered that there are at least 2 grades of ordinary bagged construction grade sand... " 0/30 " which is a very fine grade and a candidate for taking over from my walnut shells to clean the finished outside surfaces of these first 2 wheels. There is also a " 2/12 " grade which is about the same courseness as the FREEbie sand my landscape company gave me [ yes he asked me to report back as to how it worked out]. My guess is that he would charge $1-$2 per 5 gallon pail which I figure is enough to blast away decades of dirt and grim from 3 or 4 wheels. My project has now grown to 6 wheels.
(d) Where to Next - Well I will examine closely the inside surfaces I have blasted with the course sand and make a decision as to whether to use on the outside finished surfaces the “ 0/30 ” fine grit sand. My original paint kit from **************.Com uses a primer that has a heavy dose of “solids” and because I plan to use primer, paint and clear coat, I figure such triple-coatings should fill any pitting the fine sand might cause.

So that’s where I’m at until I start priming/painting/clearcoating… making sure I allow plenty of time to let each application dry. Oh yes, I found that the same brand of paint is available at Kragen Autoparts locally for ~$6/can and they also carry a clear coat in the same brand/line of paints.
See photo of back-side cleaning with course sand.
Until the next report,
Sam
Oh yes – Tomnik, Did you get any answers from Kaercher?