Turbodiesel,

A few months back I seem to recall you gave a little information on the refinishing of your alloy wheels. My son is doing the same to his car, and is having some trouble getting the 17 years of built up crud out of all the pockets and around the little design features around the pockets/holes. He has the stock wheels on the 16 valve 190. He bought a kit from Griot's Garage, which has some German paints and preps, but he needs a good cleaner/stripper first I think. The kit has stuff to put on the wheels after they are cleaned and stripped and I don't think he should paint over any of the black stuff or old paint. How did you do the job? Thanks, Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Find a shop in your area that does Media blasting.

My brother borrowed a friends steam cleaner once, and that got the wheels clean enough to paint.

I used about 15 brillow pads per wheel cleaning them on the front, back and in all the vent slots. It took me a good hour per wheel to get them as clean as I liked.

I didn't bother stripping the wheels, I put 5-6 coats of paint then 5-6 coats of clearcoat on each wheel, that alone hides any imperfections such as the original clearcoat that peeled off and left a crator.

I then took a big piece of cardboard, folded it in half and cut a moon shape in it so I could easily mask the tire. I just layed it on top with a couple heavy objects to keep the cardboard on snug. I let it dry for about 20 minutes before each coat of paint and clear.

I used regular paint thinner to remove any overspray on the tires. I took the center caps out and painted them the same as I painted the rims, 5-6 coats, as well as the lugnuts.

I used Wurth silver and clear, it's been about 19,000 miles since I did this and there is no chipping or anything, they look like the day I finished them - that is if I can keep them clean Good luck!

BTW - I ordered two cans of Wurth silver and one can of Wurth clearcoat. I still have one brand new can of silver, and a 1/2 can of silver and a 1/2 can of clear - It should finish the job if you guys want to buy it. I finished all 5 rims and I have no use for it now.

turbodiesel,

Thanks for the details. He has a few more Brillo pads to use by your standards. He got the center smooth area down to polished Aluminum and it looks great as-is, but the holes around the periphery of center smooth area are giving him some trouble. A few more Brillo pads sounds like it will do the trick.

I will let you know if we need more paint, but at the moment the kit from Griots and your description (5 coats of each of Silver and clear coat per wheel, using less than a single can of each) makes me think we will have enough for another car. The kit comes with a spray wash/paint prep to remove any traces of wax or grease, a Zinc primer (one can) and two cans of Silver and clear coat each.

Did you repaint the insides too? Peter (my son) is not really enthralled with the idea of scrubbing and painting the insides too. He did give the insides of two wheels a brief scrubbing to get the goo that the Brillo pads ooze that kind of ran back there, off. But they look really tough to clean on the back side.

Once again, thanks for the response. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Yes, the brillo pad will do the trick with the vent slots on the rims, It just takes time. I did not paint the insides, but I did clean them thoroughly to prevent any contamination to the fresh paint. There was about a 1/4" of brake dust on the inside of the front rims. By the time I was done with all 5 wheels my fingers were not only sore, but my finger nails were worn down to about a 1/4 of thier thickness - but I think it was worth it. Good luck.

turbodiesel,

Well, Peter got 90% or more of the stuff off both the front and rear (outside and inside surfaces) today, and I will go get a wire brush or some similar attachment for the drill to clean out the last remants of the black stuff in inside diameter surface of the holes/vents/slots or whatever they are called. He wore rubber gloves through the event so I think he lost less finger mass than you. He has invested about 8 hours so far, and used lots of Brillo pads, Scotch Brite pads, and a bottle of paint stripper. He will be done at about sunset. and then it will be too cold to paint them tonight (it is in the 35 degree F range at the moment here). So they will "warm up" over night in the basement and get painted down there tomorrow.

The back sides came pretty clean with that Castrol Super Duty Cleaner stuff. He learned to let it soak for a while and wet it a couple times before applying elbow grease. Overall it is a bit of work, so I hope his come out as good as yours did. Thanks for the tips, Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Why not use a Brass Wire wheel brush on a Electric Drill or Grinder to strip? I am about to. Brass is softer than aluminum...

Peter was offered the option to use some wire brushes and a drill, but opted for some reason to do it by hand. I would definitely give that a try if I did it again. By the way, they came out a little less brilliant silver, which must be the paint, but other than that they are nearly perfect. Not bad for 17 year old wheels. We had enough to respray the insides too, just to make sure the aluminum was not exposed to salt and other corrosive elements. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Has anyone given any thought to baking the paint and clearcoat on when refinishing the wheels? My 300D w/275k miles on it has been in three different accidents to the tune of about $16,000 in body work. Each time there has been painting done to it, the paint has been baked on...140 degrees for about three hours. BTW, you'd never know the car had been in an accident, much less three of them.

Was thinking it might not be a bad idea to put the rim(s) in the oven at 140 for a couple hours to bake the paint on when I refinish my rims.

Good idea or bad idea???

Thanks,

__________________
Don
'85 500SL (Euro) - 186,000 w/a complete restoration and engine rebuild at 154,000
'95 C280 - 174,000