[NjPrince]

Okay guys, so time has come around for me to refinish my wheels. I've been looking to do this for a while as my wheels were totally curbed and damaged from the previous owner (he never learned how to parallel park in DC apparently). However, since im a broke college kid, I decided to do it myself, which was well worth it . So as you can see the damage is really bad on 1 wheel, and moderately bad on the other. I will only be showing you the repair of two wheels because of time constraints.
I will try and post large picture so you can see the full detail of the damage and progress of refinishing. Whenever I was looking at other DIY's on how to do it, their pictures suck and it was really frustrating . I have to give credit to Acejam2k From IWSTI Forums, His DIY inspired me to refinish my own wheels, and create another detailed DIY for us Fanatics
As for paint color, I choose gunmetal/graphite just b/c i thought it would look nice against my orient blue and Im pretty sure it will. I was seriously considering painting it green, yellow, orange or some other wacky color, but decided against it....(mainly b/c my car is too stock to pull of that look). You can choose w/e color you want obviously.


First let's start off with what you need:
• Two cans of Filler primer (I used duplicolor "FP101 Grey Filler," its sandable)
• Two cans of Duplicolor High performance wheel coating ("WP10 Graphite")
• Two cans of Duplicolor Truck, Van & SUV Clear top coat. ("T125 clear top coat")
• Tack cloth (you will use this to wipe off excess dust)
• Bondo Spot putty (comes with hardening cream)
• 220 Grit sand paper (does NOT need to be wet or dry)
• 400 Grit sand paper (Wet or dry)
• 1500 Grit sand paper (Wet or dry)
• Blue Painters Tape
• Latex gloves
• Respirator mask
• Pack of Index cards (Very useful but not required)
• Wheel Cleaner of your choice (I bought a non diluted simple green bottle)
• A lot of time

Links to all items:
Bondo 801: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...AAAOSw8XBZtwq8
Filler Primer: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...IAAOSwk6ZZsxc3
Clear Coat: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0AAOSwGWNUXQGT
220 Grit Sand Paper: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...8xSyiWkh74wcKA
400 Grit sand paper (Wet or dry): https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...8xSyiWkh74wcKA
1500 Grit Sand Paper: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...8xSyiWkh74wcKA
Blue Painters Tape:https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0AAOSwxN5WaIVH
Respirator mask: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...wAAOSwajVUUQl-

Step 1: Clean

You first want to get the wheels very clean, I used a 1:1 dilution of simple green to clean my wheels, this is a fairly aggressive cleaner so I wouldn't recommend it on wheels that you will not be refinishing. I used a wheel cleaning brush I had laying around to really scrub in the caked on brake dust. I got bored and started to clean the wheels inner barrel as well (which had around 5 years of built of brake dust on it). After cleaning the wheels thoroughly and removing as much brake dust as you can we can move onto step 2.

Step 2: Sand

Okay now comes sanding, but first you want to tape off the wall of the tire with your painters tape, making sure to get the tape under the wheel lip. This step prevents you from sanding on your tire, and it also makes the clean up job easier. You want to sand the whole wheel down with 220 grit paper, try to get the surface even. In this step I was also able to remove most of the pitted brake dust that the simple green wouldn't fix. In areas where there is severe curb damage, you want to fold the paper and get in the crevices so that the bondo can adhere well.

Step 3: Clean (again)

Time to clean the wheels again! Yay! /sarcasm. At this point your hands will probably be falling off from sanding (hint, that means you should spend a lot of time on step 2, Preparation is the key in this DIY). Okay, seriously though, clean the wheel thoroughly with your simple green solution, and rinse all of the solution off. Time to use your tack cloth to pick up all that sanding dust that was not removed from washing (this is so that the bondo can properly adhere to the damaged areas of the wheel). Instructions on the tack cloth say to move in a circular motion with very little to no pressure, I would wear gloves during this process as it can get fairly sticky/tacky on your hands.

Step 4: Bondo time

So now we are at the step that will take you the longest. I spent a good 3-4 hours on steps 4-5 alone.for each wheel. Safety is key here, so you need to wear that respirator mask no, bondo is not the best stuff to breathe in; I would not do this part without the mask. Now, I would re-tape the wheel because the tape that was on before might not hold up well after you washed it, make sure you get the tape well under the wheel. I used a flat head screw driver to push it down more and make it flat against the tire (where tire meets wheel lip)What you are going to want to do now is apply the bondo and hardener cream to the damaged areas of your wheel. I applied this liberally as this was my first time ever using bondo. Now the instructions on bondo say to mix the hardener cream and bondo together and then apply to the wheel, I didn't do that. But rather I applied the bondo to the damaged area, and put hardener cream on top of it and mixed them together with my finger (covered by a glove of course).

Step 5: Sanding the Bondo

Now that your bondo is fully dry, its time to pull out the 220 grit sand paper again. You want to sand the bondo so that it is flush with the contour of the wheel (make sure your painters tape is still sticking onto the tire). I used my fingers to get a smooth finish rather than using a small wooden block because when I used the block it would sand down way to far. Now this step is probably the hardest step because you have to find the contour of the wheel to make it fully flush and clean. Since my curb rash essentially destroyed the figure of the lip, I had to pretty much do reconstruction surgery on the lip, and try my best to make it look flush with the other part of the lip. I was trying to make these wheels look as perfect as possible, but with all the sanding and reconstruction of the wheel with bondo, I just got tired and lived with some minor defects which you will see later on.


Step 6: Cleaning the wheel (yet again)

Now that your bondo is fully sanded down, and is 100% the way you want it, no damage is showing, and it looks pretty good, you want to clean it again. Follow Step 3 to do this process.

Step 7: Prime the wheel

Now comes the fun part! After all that hard work, your wheels probably look like ass, but applying some primer will change all that. I used the duplicolor filler primer for this step. Pull out your index cards and line them around the wheel

Step 8: Wet sanding your primed wheel(s)

Time to tape off your tires again, and pull out your 400 grit wet or dry sand paper. Let the sand paper soak in a bath of water for at least 30 minutes (ideally an hour), and wet the wheel very liberally. Now start to sand down the primer to a smooth finish removing any small defects you see along the way (don't be aggressive in this step, you are mainly just smoothing down the primer, you don't want to undo all the work you just did). Remember, you want to keep the wheel very wet during this step, I just kept the hose next to me and sprayed the wheel almost constantly wherever I was sanding. The 400 grit will leave a fairly smooth finish, but that's not good enough for me. I did the same exact process except this time I used the 1500 grit wet or dry sand paper to get a real nice smooth finish for the paint. After you have sanded the primed wheel down, it should be very smooth and almost ready for paint.

Step 9: Cleaning, I promise, this is the last time!

Keeping all the dust off will ensure a perfect finish. Follow Step 3 to clean the wheel one last time, preparing it for painting and the clear coat.

Step 10: Painting

I chose duplicolor WP102 Graphics paint for this step. However, if you want a perfect match, I suggest buying Wurths Alloy silver lacquer paint


Step 11: Applying the clear coat

Pull out our tack cloth and wipe the wheel down to remove and superficial dust on the wheel which may have gotten on during the night. Again, put the index cards around the wheel, use the same painting process to apply the clear coat. I applied 4 coats per wheel, making sure to get it very even, and in every single crevice. However, I did not apply a heavy coats, it was still light. After you are satisfied with your clear coat, let it dry for an hour, and admire your fully refinished wheel.

Be proud of yourself, you just turned an ugly wheel into something that looks brand spanking new!

Before

After

There are slight imperfections because it was nearly impossible to get in between those spokes but cheap DIY so...can't go wrong.

(Pic on car..weather is so shit can't get a proper picture but here it is) The lighting in the picture isn't doing justice to its true color which is actually gunmetal/graphite.

[ken1137]

Nice work buddy...they look great! I have a similar process but I try not to use bondo. I use HTS2000 when necessary, but you have to remove the tires. The plus, is that you can have them powder coated.

[wdeerfield]

wont the bondo just crack when you get new tires?

[NjPrince]

Originally Posted by wdeerfield

wont the bondo just crack when you get new tires?

Yeah I'm assuming the bondo would crack when you get the tires replaced. A few people I spoke to said that their wheels with bondo held up when they got their tires replaced but I don't see that happening tbh. I just got my tires replaced last week so I should be fine for a while.

[wdeerfield]

nice! i like the gunmetal flake. pics installed?

[DOMs335D]

great result!

[ken1137]

BTW...what paint did you use ?

[NjPrince]

Originally Posted by ken1137

BTW...what paint did you use ?

Duplicolor High performance wheel coating WP10 Graphite

Originally Posted by wdeerfield

nice! i like the gunmetal flake. pics installed?

Thanks! I'm ganna wait till tmrw to install it because my center hub caps are coming in tmrw. I will update this once it comes in!

Originally Posted by DOMs335D

great result!

[The Maxican]

Looks good!

[BAL278]

yeah that first after shot looks great, can't wait to see pics of them mounted

[bimmette]

Wow, you did an awesome job! Really well done!

[DC_Oldboy]

That's really nice! Well done!

[JAL0988]

Good job, man. They look awesome!!

[J-Spec Dan]

Originally Posted by wdeerfield

wont the bondo just crack when you get new tires?

i refurb'd my 219M's this way and the bondo did crack

[Mardio]

Looks amazing...

[kmeghtx]

those look great! lovin' the flake!

[#Tee]

good work !

[NjPrince]

Updated in a more organized fashion !

[TopBack_Mack]

Nice work man