How to make old alloys shiny new again along with the plastic cap?

[richardwbb]

I have original Nissan rims dating from 1993 and I want to prevent further corrosion by sanding and then put some wheelspray on it but I'm completely lost on the subject.

How do I do this better then sanding it a bit and throwing wheelspray at it?

 

[.Maarten]

Get them sandblasted then powdercoated or painted.

Paint has to come off if the corrosion is underneath the paint

 

[richardwbb]

Get them sandblasted then powdercoated or painted.

Paint has to come off if the corrosion is underneath the paint

This is a valid answer .Maarten and while I seek to keep them as original as possible, I would like to sandblast something for the joy of it someday.

Yesterday I believed my rims contained corrosion on the inside and while they do, it seems to be very minor, I just have a large gray stuff over the brake dust so it seems and the baddest rim I have, I was able to remove it by a lot of sponging, this many I decided not to do it. This is because the brake stuff can be brushed away and underneath I see a non corroded part of the rim so I believe I'm good.

Of course getting them painted is the best possible way but besides necessary professional paint jobs on the hood trunk and bumpers, everything else is diy. And the baddest rim was dull and looked like it was that way and I couldn't believe my eyes after a two hours thorough cleaning inside and outside. This rim is terrific, over 25 years old, neglected and still in original color.

But I still am looking for a way how to restore what has been corroded and leave everything that is good as intact as possible.

My worries go out to the corrosion. I will sand it but I'm not sure what next. I did ask around though.

Here is my list up to now.

a. degreaser
b. sanding paper, regular and wet, but what grain do I need?
c. three rim sprays I will test for best matching colour
d. tape to protect the parts that are good
e. very thorough degreasing like in point a.

I don't believe my list contains al necessary steps.

I also wonder if I can do something about a scratch in the plastic and how to use a home use spray can to let that paint go over in the original rim again at all the corroded points. My plan is to protect my rims from further corroding and no less, come up with a good plan as the list above and find a way to remove the not holding rimspay on my plastic caps since I ruined them, I didn't even know about degreasing back then.

Here are two pictures. I'm not worried about corrosion on the edge of the rim since spraying this will be easy, the corrosion in the blue circle I'm worried about, I have absoluteley no knowledge on how to get a good result. The brand I will use is Motip and I will stick with Motip.

I'm sorry for the long post but please consider this as a rolling release.

 

[Sparky2018]

Watch or read some guides first.


I'd use some 400 grit in your case on the area you are focusing.
Then a higher grit (depends what you have)
Then fill the area as in the video.
Its not the best guide.
Make sure the temperature is right also.






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[John_D]

I had a set of scabby alloys for my Saab refurbished by these people, cost about £50 each but finished like new......
Front....

And back.....

 

[richardwbb]

Very nice Sparkey, a good example for somebody like me, diy, spraycans and as I could see, someone who knows how to do it and do it quite quickly with an acceptable result.

John_D, very neat, now I have an example of how good it gets professionally.

There is one thing though. I'm not convinced yet that my wheelspray will look the same as my rim colour and I really don't want to spray the whole rim. I do have a test rim though, I happen to have five rims and here is what I'm trying to do.

First the goodies, there is no degreaser, filler or primer yet and after viewing the youtube I think I will need all of it. I'm also aware that I might look for something that is not possible but I have testing rim. The other matter is about the wheelcap.

Sanding paper 400 and lower, dry
Sanding paper, 600, 1000, 2000
Sanding paper on a roll, heavy duty for deep scratches and heavy corrosion
Painting tape
A sponge a bit heavier then a kitchen sponge
Motip wheelspray
Action silver paint
Alloy Devil
Not on the picture, acetone.

This wheelcap I have cleaned with acetone, I used a half bottle of it but I would like to find a way to get to the letters and the lining of the Nissan logo? I only used kitchen towel and cotton buds but both are not adequate.

Here you see Alloy Devil working. When you use it you will know why it is called like that. This stuff eats away brake dust. It is that good it will even get off the caked layer on the inside but that bottle is one liter and you will need more then one for this.

How should I proceed here? I saw the youtube and I believe I can do it too but I really would like to keep the part of the rim that is good, intact, so I'm looking for a way to make the repair as small as possible, is that possible? Don't mind the curb rash, I got this covered already. Also this is a testing rim so that is why I did not sand there.

While for the above I know I can be quite rough with the painting tape, the part of the rim to restore on this picture is that bad I will need to use a filler as seen in the youtube and I will require a larger area, is it possible to maintain the originallity of the rim somehow? Again, don't mind the curb rash, painting tape can be applied there tight.

 

[Sparky2018]

Are the wheel caps plastic?
For me they are in two parts emblem clips onto the cap.
The cap was good but emblem is curbed. I just sanded the cap and painted it. Left the emblem silver.
The wheel paint looks very different to the k12 one I was using as a tester.
On yours I see no primer coat or filler.
While testing I removed as much of as I could till I got down to the bare alloy.
Imo I took away way too much.
You could try to paint such a small area mixed with thinners and just brush it on to see if it covers good.

As for how the pitting or corrosion looks on my alloy this is all in between the spokes on the lip.
For me I will prime just this area and try to then spray the whole wheel again.
But in that photo you show would try a small repair filler prime paint dry then view.
Depends really what you aim for or expect.
Would be happy here if not visible at a couple feet away.
Silver would have been a good choice for me to test with.
But I did think that it would also be hard to get a close match with stock.
For removing brake dust and the like I got better results quicker when using a nylon pan brush hard bristle tooth brushes and hot car shampoo with a hand pump pressure sprayer.
When I used the pressure washer in the first wheel it seemed to take a lot longer. Having to revert to manual wash afterwards.



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[richardwbb]

Are the wheel caps plastic?

Depends really what you aim for or expect.
Would be happy here if not visible at a couple feet away.

Yes the wheelcaps are plastic and believed to be ABS but that probably doesn't matter as long it is not PP and it isn't PP.

For what you said, yes not visible at a couple a feet away is what I am aiming for and I also aim for that people that do not know I refurbished my rims on my own can not see it. If I can tell because I know what I did this is okay for me.

And the plastic caps, there might have been a darker yellow primer there, this cap got a lot of acetone, didn't melt but there was a thin darker yellow layer that also went.

I will test the pencil idea, I will test the primer with painting tape and sand it out then wheelspray it and remove the fluff around it with some stuff I'm not sure yet what will work.

I hope for more replies, especially if thinner is the best thing to remove fresh spray paint 100%. On the other hand, acetone will remove it.

 

[Sparky2018]

Another idea that would be to use a Mini air brush. (Leaning towards this idea for panel scratches and stone chips etc)
Not sure if Iso will work for the plastic or not but will work to remove newly sprayed paints from surfaces.
Can also work to thin the paint if using an air brush or regular brush would require more layers to not be transparent.
An artists brush would be a good place to start if you have a good steady hand.

 

[richardwbb]

I think I will not go for a airbrush though I do have some chipping on my Micra. And the owner before me put some red paint on it and now it looks messed up.

Any ideas how I can retouch that? It is annoying me but being aware what a profesional paint job will cost me per part I'll be probably happy with some refurbushing, retouching.

Also, just use thinner or acetone to remove wheelspray fluff or is there stuff that is specifically meant for this job or is thinner meant for this? I'm really unaware of painting, this is my first painting project.

 

[Sparky2018]

For chips try a tooth pick and a touch up bottle.
This you dab the pick over the area to fill it up. Then you can use a fine razor to pick off the high spot. So the area is filled and flat at same time.
Then you can wipe off with your desired method of removal for paint.
(Its not perfection but does protect)

Or otherwise a touch up kit might do a better job.
The colour you are matching might be easy or hard depending on the colour.
When I tried some stood right out. Others did not but after a few months they seem to have blended in nicely. (I used pick method.)

I'm not really that up on paint removal as this part I have not yet mastered probably going to try a very fine sanding off the clear and blend a bit of new paint to the surface.
The problem is blending in the clear coat. That can work but won't last very long as professional job.

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[richardwbb]

Well I go with thinner for fluff removal anything stronger after investigating seems to take away a little of the original paint. And the original paint comes off lightly with a heavy duty sponge so I did the math

Toothpick, awesome I happen to have those somewhere, never thought of that.

I did some spray testing, the Motip Wheel Spray can I have is over ten years old and is spitting a bit but it's colour is a bit darker then Action silver paint (where Action silver paint, two three coins a bottle is being used by a lot of people and they all say it holds well), is definately lighter in colour. The Motip Wheel Spray clames to be resistant for what rims endure, forgot the list, brake dust is on it.

Now I'm after finding a way to get closer to the texture of the original paint, do you have any ideas? The only two I have are not possible with common diy and finding another brand of wheel spray?

 

[Sparky2018]

Can you not take the wheel to a paint shop and have them match paint then tin it for you?


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[richardwbb]

Yes I thouht about it, need to investigate first. I do have a time constraint though. I hope an experienced person can explain to me how Momo (Nissan uses Momo rims back then) has coated on the spokes. The rest won't be noticed I'm quite sure.

Please scroll up and then first foto bottom left, a spoke, I would like to have such a grit of paint somehow.

 

[richardwbb]

I just learned that there is more then Motip wheel spray. https://carlifeguru.com/best-spray-paint-for-wheels

 

[richardwbb]

I also found this stuff, https://www.motipdupli.com/nl/product/colormatic/aerosols-putty/painting/ipg-1241.html

ColorMatic spot blender is universally applicable for spot blending of 1K and 2K clear coats as well as for 1K and 2K topcoats. It is specially formulated to ensure the overspray will blend into the transition zone, leaving no visible difference between the old and new paintwork. This reduces the need to polish.

If someone would clarify the above for me I would be grateful.

 

[richardwbb]

If you are interested in repairing diy for low cost with a very good result you may want to view this youtube,

You could skip to 1 minute 10 seconds to see what their spray nozzle can do imitating professional nozzle and on 7 minutes 44 seconds they tell about spot repair.

Does anyone know other brands with similar properties for spot repair?

 

[richardwbb]

I reckon spot repair is not so common. Because I wasn't able to figure this out in time, I decided to reinstall my stocky rims and geez those are silver now. Besides a few spots I will keep an close eye on, it gonna be next year.

And my Micra is a very properly a trial and error de-denting, restorer, with the non-varnish easy colour, being fire truck red. Awesome. This going to cost me some coins for more then the fun of it. I'll go after the closest as possible diy restoring and not being sure about the result I'll hire a spray box, golly!