ThomWV

I haven't got anything against my stock wheels other than they look like hell because of curb-rash. A bevy of previous owners have left them pretty scared, both the "spokes" and Center Caps. I expect I will just have them powder coated next spring but I'd like to do something for them now so they aren't so unsightly going through the winter. So, have any of you all had any success cleaning up the finish on stock wheels, something that might last five or six months? Oh, I'd like to do this with the tires on the wheels and if possible with the wheels still on the car.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

You could repaint them if the gouges arent deep, but you run the risk of them looking worse then they currently are.

How bad is the rash?

ThomWV

They're pretty nasty. I imagine they will need at least a fine disk on a grinder or maybe a coarse Rolox disk on a die-grinder. That might clean the scratches up enough to paint them. The truth is I'm more concerned about taking off too much metal rather than not being able to remove the ridges and flatten it out down to the gouges. I was just wondering if anyone had tried that or something like it and maybe have a recommendation for some kind of paint that would stick too.

Come spring I'll still have them powercoated. They'll look like new for not too much money - just enough to remind me to keep away from curbs.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Can you snap some pics? It might just be cheaper to find a set of on the Black Market/CraigsList. The OEM wheels aren't that expensive.

eneffex

I just tried painting my curbed wheels the other week:

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-cl-photograph-gallery-53/wheel-paint-curb-rash-fix-836024/

You can try it out, compare your scratches to mine, deep gouges are hard to deal with, but with some spot putty and patience you'll do fine. However, if you plan to powdercoat later, don't bother with painting now. Hope it helps.

ThomWV

OK, two pictures, two different wheels, but they are all 4 in about the same condition:

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Thats really not that bad at all.

Id hit them with some sand paper to smooth it out, primer, paint, and clear coat. If you dont clear coat, it'll probably end up looking worse once the salt starts to attack it. If you are planning on powdercoating them, I wouldn't go crazy fixing them because all the paint needs to be stripped off anyway.

dfv3.2CL-S

iTrader: (1)

Take them to Wheels America or call Fix A Rim. They can rectify the rashes you have on the wheels. It will cost about $100 get each wheel fix but will look brand new and warranty for the length of ownership.

ThomWV

Well, I did good and I did bad. I cleaned up one of the the wheels a bit, got rid of the gouges and ridges, sprayed it with two colors and was quite pleased with how it looked. I did this one as a test wheel because to be quite honest with you I had very low expectations for the products I was using. That was a mistake.

Because I didn't have much hope of them coming out right I didn't bother to do a particularly good job. I'll get to how that happened and what I'll do about it, but you all might as well know about the process.

I started with all four wheels with about the sort of problems you see above. First I cleaned them off with Acetone, then hit them with a light skuff pad, and then took out the gouges with an electric die grinder (sort of the King Kong of Dremel tools, but with even more power than that) with a Rolox red pad on it. So they looked about like this:



So then I cleaned them with the acetone and skuffed them. After that I masked the tire:


I painted the wheel with Silver to start. It was cold out so I didn't expect the paint to set well. I shot it on too heavy and didn't give it enough time between coats. I did let it flash but I should have given it another ten or fifteen minutes between coats. Anyway here it is with 3 coats of the silver on it:



So then I let it dry for maybe ten minutes - when an hour would have been appropriate - and then masked it for the second color. I shot "Graphite" as the second color:
.

I didn't bother shooting a clear coat because by this point I knew I was going to re-do the wheels over the weekend, but this is how they looked when I got them back on the car. The paint was no where near dry and I goobered it all up putting the wheel back on. I pawed paint off the centers and managed to put deep fingerprints into each of the spokes. But what the hell? This at least gives an idea how they can look, and I like it. So this weekend I'll pull them off and do it properly. I like the silver spokes and outer rim with the center sections using the darker graphite color. Oh, both paints are Duplicolor, just stuff I picked up at Auto Value or one of those places.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Looks good. In for updates. I plan on refinishing my 3G TLs when I have some free time. The clear coat on three of them is messed up plus Im not a fan of the bright silver.