1. Home
  2. SAAB Cars Forum
  3. Alloy Wheel Coating?

Alloy Wheel Coating?

Salutations:

Right - alloy wheel repair is an interesting process.

I had the rims into a retail tire place with a wheel straightening service and was told that they didn't want to chance breaking them given the outside lips on the rims were equally dinged. Fair enough and very much appreciated honesty on the shop's part. Apparently the donor machine drove over something hard with low tire pressures or short profiles.

The concern was that if they broke in the press - they didn't have the facility to weld them. So, I tracked down a commercial welding shop that does wheel repair. The welding shop does a little off-road racing and were comfortable with the idea of welding the rims in the event the press broke an edge.

Interestingly - the problem really comes down to the way the rim is built. NG900 three spokers have a 'thick' short outer lip as opposed to the inner rim - which is a much longer and thinner section of alloy. This means that while the press will most certainly flatten it out - if they don't get the heating process right they stand a good chance of cracking it along the spokes.

Anyway - it was advised that I should be prepared to do some decorating at the end of all of this - assuming that the welds (if any) are not too ugly

- can anyone advise on a coating that would keep the shine up if I polished the rims. If not - can anyone provide any experiences with good alloy wheel paint? Wonder if they would/could benefit from some bright colours?

Reply to
Dexter J
Loading thread data ...

I've wire brushed alloy rims down to the bare metal and then sprayed with clear coat; nice and bright and shiny; clearcoat makes them easy to wash off with a NYLON brush.

My MY74 99 and MY73 95 have the wheels painted the same as the body, with black details on the soccerballs. Looks great, I think.

I've thought also, for really bright/durable colours, powdercoating a set of wheels (for example, i really like the eastwood kit for motorcycle and bicycle and small automotive parts:

formatting link
There are some great colours, should be durable, and fairly easy... let me know if you decide to do it! lycka till! GTr

- -

formatting link

Reply to
gregory trimper

Find somewhere nearby that does powder coating. It's surprisingly cheap, and provides a superb finish.

Reply to
Grunff

I'd really, really advise going to a specialty shop who does just mag wheels. Probably involves shipping them off somewhere. There was a link posted here a few years ago, but I can't google it up right now for some reason.

Look at "Wurth" automotive finishes, I've used their products and am happy with them. Not cheap, but not cheap either so it evens out.

Dave Hinz

Reply to
Dave Hinz

I'm going to have to work with my local welding outfit who feel pretty comfortable they can get it right. They are not a wheel specialty shop per say - however they apparently do a lot of wheels and have the right gear. There really aren't enough folks around here to make a wheel repair speciality shop a going concern, so they job for several outfits in town in addition to their primary line custom building and bending sheet and rod. Cost of shipping is prohibitive otherwise (big country - not a lot of options).

Very much appreciate the Wurth finishes lead - will follow up when they are done. Don't suppose anyone has colour codes for NG900 three spoke wheels?

Cheers and thx.

Reply to
Dexter J

We invite you to learn more about the wonderful process of powdercoating by visiting

formatting link
and going to the FAQ page!

Andrews Powder Coating, Inc.

formatting link

Reply to
Andrews Powder Coating, Inc.

We don't take kindly to spammers 'round these parts.

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Hey brother Dave - it's cool, it's a reply to my request for info on the subject a couple of weeks ago.

Reply to
Dexter J

We don't take kindly to delayed responses round these parts. Somebady fetch me a rowpe, we're gonna have a tri-al!

Reply to
-Bob-

A _trile_? Whut are yuh -- sum kinda goldurn leeberal?

-- Andrew Stephenson

Reply to
Andrew Stephenson

Build a bridge out of them!.. :) ..

I only mentioned it because brother Dave is, with my greatest thanks, a very serious spamcop.net warrior. I use their blacklist as part of my anti-spam solution here at radio free dexterdyne and I would hate to see a friendly fire victim on my thread.

That said, thanks for the Wurth finishes lead Dave - I think that unless I decide to change the wheel colour outright - Wurth has what I need to touch up the straightening damage. Although, I saw a VW today with powder coated white rims and thought they were pretty nice actually.

At the end of the day, not sure I can convince anyone here to toss any more money at the wheels at this point in time though. Clutch bearing let go last week - $1,100 (cnd) with new seal, clutch, bearing, plates and a flywheel mill - only a day off the road though.

Reply to
Dexter J

Hey... we ain't no libruls. We's always had a tri-al befores we had a hangin'. If'n we didn't do that, the Judge wouldn't have no job and cousin Clem wouldn't get to say his favorite line "we finds the defendant guilty of whatever the sheriff says he done".

Reply to
-Bob-

Hot dang. Y'all got thu rite ov it thar. Minds me of them pesky awto-mo-bile manfatchers whut got them "deziner" fellers. Figger them's more dekyrayshun 'n use. Kinda like thurd-cousin Hans's's Mercy Deez Ben or cousin Fifis pink poodly-dawg.

Gotta go check on thu revnooer stashed out in ma shed. Bye now.

-- Andrew Stephenson

Reply to
Andrew Stephenson

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.