$5 "alloy" wheels
White&Nerdy
Senior Wagonist
After some time and work this weekend, here are my new alloys for the wagon:
Check out my new alloys! Well, OK, I have to tell you a secret... They're not alloys. They're not even aftermarket. They're my stock 14" white steelies after I refinished them. 8)
They were not only white, but rusty before, with some big rusty scrapes on a couple of them. I wish I had some decent "before" pics. Anyway, my original plan was to simply sand them down a little, then repaint them. This past weekend we towed my gf's CRX to a friend's shop in NH. I have some almost new tires for the wagon, and figured I'd dismount the old tires, paint the wheels with no tires on them, and mount the new ones after. Then when he said he had a sandblasting box, I was all over it! :twisted:
It was basically that simple. I sandblasted the entire outer face of the wheels to rough up the paint a bit, but paid special attention to all the rusty areas and took them down to bare metal. Most of the surface was still factory paint. I gave them 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of wheel paint, intended for alloys and a bit thicker than regular spray paint. I let it dry overnight, then mounted my "new" tires in the morning. I can't believe how well they turned out.
Best of all, all it cost me was $5 for a can of wheel paint. I already had some primer kicking around.
Though I had the use of my friend's shop to do the job better, I could've done this in my driveway with a bit of sandpaper (and have done so in the past). Even with tires still on them you can just mask them off real well so you don't paint the tire.
Check out my new alloys! Well, OK, I have to tell you a secret... They're not alloys. They're not even aftermarket. They're my stock 14" white steelies after I refinished them. 8)
They were not only white, but rusty before, with some big rusty scrapes on a couple of them. I wish I had some decent "before" pics. Anyway, my original plan was to simply sand them down a little, then repaint them. This past weekend we towed my gf's CRX to a friend's shop in NH. I have some almost new tires for the wagon, and figured I'd dismount the old tires, paint the wheels with no tires on them, and mount the new ones after. Then when he said he had a sandblasting box, I was all over it! :twisted:
It was basically that simple. I sandblasted the entire outer face of the wheels to rough up the paint a bit, but paid special attention to all the rusty areas and took them down to bare metal. Most of the surface was still factory paint. I gave them 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of wheel paint, intended for alloys and a bit thicker than regular spray paint. I let it dry overnight, then mounted my "new" tires in the morning. I can't believe how well they turned out.
Best of all, all it cost me was $5 for a can of wheel paint. I already had some primer kicking around.Though I had the use of my friend's shop to do the job better, I could've done this in my driveway with a bit of sandpaper (and have done so in the past). Even with tires still on them you can just mask them off real well so you don't paint the tire.
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