How to go about DIY restoring heavily corroded alloy wheels?

[Phil W]

Without wanting to sound rude, what are you actually looking for advice with? YouTube is plentiful with refurbishment videos.

Corrosion looks like your biggest issue, to get the paint flush and/or seamless the exposed alloy is going to be a challenge.

If you are really serious about doing them yourself rather than a full powdercoating job, why don't you see if anywhere local to you will acid dip/aqua blast them to bare metal to give you a fighting chance?

 

[jpaul]

£40 a wheel if you want them the same day

as you seem to say this is not powder coating - no time for the full oven/curing process

A lot of the youtube videos (youtube per se) are junk .... the first one I picked despite mentioning home/diy the guy had a compressor+media blaster.

There is equally a satisfaction in learning how to do things yourself even if the result is not as durable .. you're learning skills that can be transplaneted elsewhere too.
(you probably saw the article recently about declining motor skills .. because people are just swiping screens)

 

[Akagi]

Without wanting to sound rude, what are you actually looking for advice with? YouTube is plentiful with refurbishment videos.

Corrosion looks like your biggest issue, to get the paint flush and/or seamless the exposed alloy is going to be a challenge.

If you are really serious about doing them yourself rather than a full powdercoating job, why don't you see if anywhere local to you will acid dip/aqua blast them to bare metal to give you a fighting chance?

Mainly the best way to deal with the corrosion. None of the YouTube tutorials deal with wheels this heavily corroded.

 

[vanpeebles]

If there are classic/zato wheels, yours have already been mucked about with. The originals were diamond cut.

 

[Akagi]

Yes I think they are diamond cut Cuore Avanzato wheels which have been painted in the past.

 

[vanpeebles]

Just sand and paint. I gave up halfway through one mgb alloy lol.

 

[Lopéz]

as you seem to say this is not powder coating - no time for the full oven/curing process

You can strip, powder coat and bake a set of wheels in a lot less than a day. The baking takes about half an hour. As soon as they are out of the oven and cool they are fully cured.

 

[Lopéz]

Nice.

I asked for tips on a DIY fix and 90% of the responses are people ignoring what I asked about and telling me to pay someone to do it professionally.

It's because they have been through this process before you and are in an educated position to give you some advice.

 

[Akagi]

It's because they have been through this process before you and are in an educated position to give you some advice.

I've already explained why that is not an option though

 

[Jez]

Mainly the best way to deal with the corrosion. None of the YouTube tutorials deal with wheels this heavily corroded.

Not alloy wheels but i have dealt with many mechanical bits which have been rusty, a wire brush attachment on a drill will cut through that very quickly although will likely not leave an amazing surface.

 

[jpaul]

that's why I said use a brass wire brush - gentler ..... I forgot should probably have used a face-mask in retrospect

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I always start soft and work up on things like this, if you go in too heavy handed with power tool wire brushes and such you can end up seriously OTT on damage unnecessarily

Stiff nylon brush will remove anything loose, then a plastic scraper, pulling towards you not pushing away should help to dislodge anything thats got air underneath it.
Then some sandpaper imo. If the decay is hard then I would get it flat, its ally so if you get it sealed is less likely to react than bare ally.