How I refinished my wheels.

[ルーカス]

I was recently looking for some wheels for my daily driver and I came across something that I had liked. They weren't in the best of condition but for the price I couldn't really pass on them. Without much convincing my friend sold me on the idea of refinishing them. This is the first time we've tried to refinish wheels. It turned into a weekend project with some friends and some beer.

Here is a pre-refinishing picture.


They were heavily curb rashed but no bends or cracks on any of the wheels. The first thing I did was sand them with some 60 gritt to see what I was dealing with.


After the 60 grit, I cleaned up the wheels and did some research on what product to use to fill in the scratches/curb rash. I decided to go with some J-B weld. It was easy to apply, easy to sand and didn't smell like total crap lol. So I went ahead and applied the J-B weld.


I again used 60 grit to shape the J-B weld. After much sanding and my left arm becoming significantly larger than my right arm I switched to 100 then 150 to smooth things up even further. After I was happy I took 400 grit to it to prep for primer.



After smoothing out all the bumps and filling in the areas that needed attention I taped off the tire and primer-ed the wheel.


After a quick 800 grit pass over it was ready for paint. It took us about 3 hours to paint/clear coat all 4 wheels which wasn't that bad as it was our first time doing it. Here are some pictures of the finished product!



All and all I think I spend around $90 in sand paper, paint/primer. And another $40 on beer. They turned out way better than I thought they would have. It was a huge learning experience and I can't really put a price on that. As I had mentioned they're going on my DD witch is a Audi A4 Avant on some ST coilovers. I'll upload pictures to show you guys how it looks in the next couple of days, if that's something that interests you guys! Just waiting to put some new rubber on them!

Thanks for reading!

[RedTele58]

Lucas - looks good. Post up some pics of the Audi once you get them installed.

What brand primer/paint did you use? Rattlecan I'm assuming?

[ルーカス]

Originally Posted by RedTele58

Lucas - looks good. Post up some pics of the Audi once you get them installed.

What brand primer/paint did you use? Rattlecan I'm assuming?

All the paint and primer used was dupli-color. I used the Dupli-Color Hyper Silver kit that came with clear coat!

Will post pictures as soon as they're on!

[jeepdad]

Looks terrific. When restoring wheels like this, do you also primer and paint the inside surface? I'm considering restoring my 17" turbo twists. Also, I assume the wheels/tires would need to be rebalanced afterwards?

[BruceH]

They look fantastic! Nicely done

[Deserion]

Which adapters are you using to fit them to your Audi?

[ルーカス]

Originally Posted by jeepdad

Looks terrific. When restoring wheels like this, do you also primer and paint the inside surface? I'm considering restoring my 17" turbo twists. Also, I assume the wheels/tires would need to be rebalanced afterwards?

Thanks pal! I kind of just scuffed the barrel with some 400 grit so any over spray would stick. As for rebalancing I would definately do it. You're adding weight to rotating mass. I'm doing it regardless because I have some new rubber to go on!

[ルーカス]

Originally Posted by Deserion

Which adapters are you using to fit them to your Audi?

I'm running H&R 15mm in the front and 20mm in the rear. I had to roll and pull my fenders to get the wheels in. I don't really mind as I am going for a ''stanced'' look lol. The spacers bolt on to the hub and then convert to wheel studs. Not hard to install.

[KRAM36]

Really nice job you did!

[ルーカス]

Thanks guys! As promised here is a picture of the wheels on the car. Glad to see project daily driver is slowly coming together.