Paint my wheels

[Leeroy]

I have the early Ozwheel Halibrand wheel .

Due to track days the centers have been very hot at times and the brake dust
has stained the original paint.

I am going to split the centers from the rims and sandblast them back with Aussie Mike's neat little machine.

I would like to use a paint which is available in some reasonable colour choices but also will withstand high temps. without discolouring or lifting etc.

Has anyone gone down this path with success ?

Leeroy

[Rob. Smith]

How about Ceramic coating ? HPC and Jet hot are in Melbourne.

[sambo]

That was my thought Rob, only they're both 2 hrs from Melbourne.

HPC are in Leongatha and Jet Hot in Castlemaine.

http://www.hpcoatings.com.au/pages/contact.htm

http://www.jet-hot.com.au/contacts.htm

[Aussie Mike]

I got Garrett's centers HPC coated when I rebuilt his wheels. They turned out great and I was all set to do mine the same but after blasting my centers I got the idea of being able to change colors down the track. The HPC coating probably won't come off again easy once applied.

With the sand blast cabinet it's an easy job to unbolt the wheel centers, blast off the old paint and give them a fresh coat. If I get bored with the black paint, off it comes and a different color can go on.

It's a pretty straightforward process to unbolt the centers from these 3 piece wheels. You can even do it with the tyre still fitted. As long as you mark the position where the center was when removed it can be refitted and you keep the balance and run-out within spec.

Cheers

[Gav]

Pink Leeroy?

[Merv and Sharon]

Some seem to use caliper paint for the centres quite effectively. Also K & H make urethane wheel paint.

Merv

[stephen low]

Leeroy

I was contemplating painting the centres to match the planned stripe colour for the car.

Made the mistake of letting the abrasive blaster test blast one rim only to find out centres were powder coated and that continued blasting would have buggered the surface. Fellow tested front face of course so I had to then do something anyway.

Ended up putting centres through overnight furnace to remove coating sucessfully and have had them powder coated in Onyx black, rather than painting due to preparation costs.

Can give you the details of the two companys I used if you want and this exercise cost me $170 all up to achieve the finish for the four centres.

I'll try and get a picture of a centre to post here later on for a visual clue.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

I would advise against powder coating the centers. On track days the brake temps get hot enough that the heat conducted to the wheel centers causes the powder coat to soften and melt. Brake dust then sticks to powder coating.

The coating is also pretty brittle. It can chip and flake off if hit by a stone. That was the general state of Garrett's wheels before restoring them.

Cheers

[Zedn]

I used to have a set of gold Simmons wheels that i had refurbished by the Simmons factory in Sydney (back in 1999). They were just using regular 2-pack paint from memory. The paint lasted fine for the 2 years i had the car afterwards, however i didnt do any track driving, which would add a lot more heat.

I think as long as you wash them regularly and dont use harsh wheel cleaners this would be ok.

I would phone up an automotive paint supplier and ask them what they recommend. You can always use engine enamel but the colour choices are limited.

Ceramic coating would be worth checking out.

[stephen low]

Thanks for the advice Mike.

I guess my work at present is just to tart up the wheels as an interim measure (x years) until I get a nice set of Vintage wheels onto the beast.

A tad worrying about likely effects on track days for other reasons, as the heat treaters did a rockwell hardness test and my aluminium centres were already soft by aluminium standards anyway.

Will worry about that when the wheels fall off. That's assuming I can granny fast enough around a track when I'm mobile again.

[Mando]

I wish I had known a few weeks ago that problems exist with powdercoating, I would have 2 packed or ceramic coated them. They should be fine since the car wont see trackwork.

Regards.

[Zedn]

I doubt you will have any trouble with powder coating. The Hlibrand from Vintage wheels are all powder coated (so are most other wheels) and there appear to be a lot of people using them without trouble.

I think the big issue is how well you clean them and what you use to clean, also what type of brake pads are used will make a difference.

Liam

[stephen low]

Oh well it was partly why I chose Onyx black I guess, a little less obvious should powdering occur.

[Merv and Sharon]

As mentioned black caliper paint is cheap and has a high heat tolerance.

Merv

[Leeroy]

Thanks guys for some good advise.

I tried the high temp RED caliper paint on the face of my rotors to see if it was going to withstand the track days and it was black after one weekend.

The HPC coating is the best but the cast finish on the centers isn't that great and I would only go the HPC silver which would highlight the imperfections of the casting. (Vintage wheels casting is beautiful) Also I guess its exxy as Mike would know the cost here.

So I guess its a 2 pack in a colour choice which sounds good as I always wanted the centers as per my stripes. I would like to paint myself but not a painters butt crack so does this mean no clear if you use 2 pack? Does it need to be done in an oven?

Leeroy

[Zedn]

If using 2 pack you will need an etch primer to begin. Then one of the following:

Solid colour with hardner added,
or
Metallic colour without hardnerr followed by clear with hardner.

You dont need an oven, just a decent mask, spray gun and compressor. You can buy faster hardner for outdoor spraying.

I would say that clear is more likely to yellow with the heat so if you go a solid colour it might be better. However, metallic gun-metal grey would look pretty nice.

Liam

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Leeroy

Thanks guys for some good advise.

I tried the high temp RED caliper paint on the face of my rotors to see if it was going to withstand the track days and it was black after one weekend.

The HPC coating is the best but the cast finish on the centers isn't that great and I would only go the HPC silver which would highlight the imperfections of the casting. (Vintage wheels casting is beautiful) Also I guess its exxy as Mike would know the cost here.

So I guess its a 2 pack in a colour choice which sounds good as I always wanted the centers as per my stripes. I would like to paint myself but not a painters butt crack so does this mean no clear if you use 2 pack? Does it need to be done in an oven?

Leeroy

HPC worked out to be about $100 per center by the time they removed the old powder coating.

I've got all the gear to spray 2 Pack at my place. We can set up a clean enough area to spray the centers in the shed. You don't need an oven we can just heat up the area a bit with a patio heater. Clear is probably easier to spray than color. If you do get any runs they aren't going to be easy to see on a complex shape like a Halibrand wheel center.

Cheers

[Leeroy]

Spoke to Mando and he has the same wheels as mine and has just sand blasted and cleared his centers and said they look "fully sick".

I think I will take you up on the offer Mike and do them in clear and see how they come up. Liam if they yellow at least its not to much of a hassle to go again with a solid colour of choice.

Maybe your preferred Pink, Gav.

Leeroy

[stiffy]

Aussie,



When you get that clean area sorted maybe you could do my box while you are there


I thought you would be sick of painting by now.....



stiffy

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by stiffy

Aussie,



When you get that clean area sorted maybe you could do my box while you are there


I thought you would be sick of painting by now.....



stiffy

Hi Stiff. I'm waiting on some parts from the US

I thought you'd be putting an Auto in by now. How's you leg after Jaws gave it a chomp?

I'm not going to be painting. I'll show Leigh the gear and how to do it and he can go for it. I don't want to spoil his fun.


Cheers