Sandblasting and Painting wheels.

[Harrington]

Hey guys what's up.. nice day to be out riding huh? I bought some wheels from a friend for my civic and new that they were in bad shape before purchasing.. didn't know how bad though. They're pretty bad needless to say. So I took them to work (AFB) and use aluminum oxide to blast the paint off, it worked wonderfully and left the wheel smooth. Now my question is what type of paint to use? I was told by a guy in our paint shop to use an expoxy primer to avoid weather damage until paint, but he wasn't sure of what paint to use, or where to buy it. Should I be paint specific or will automotive paint work? Thanks in advance.

[zcghost]

Why not powdercoat?

[Harrington]

Duh, I forgot to mention that. There's a powder coating shop on base, not sure what colors they have, or can get. The problem with that is that it will take some time to do a whole set of wheels I think, and I'm trying to be 'low key' with the wheels because I "shouldn't be using the governments electricity" is what they say. Any idea how long it should take apx. to powdercoat a whole set?

[Kckell]

I had my wheels powder coated black last month. My guy did it in about 3-4 days. Don't worry about the colors, they will have it. What color are you looking to put on your wheels??

[ComeOnNow]

If you have already blasted the wheels there is only about 1hr of labor involved in spraying the powdercoat on. they they just roll the stand into the bake booth, and turn it on.

[Harrington]

I'm not sure what color I want yet. I work at an Airforce base, so they may not have any good colors.. we don't customize C-5 cargo planes They're going on my black Civic, so I'm not sure what color they have that would look good. I'm not sure if they have a silver or anything, I'll try to check tonight and get back to ya on the colors. Also do I need to prime the surface before powdering coating? I used a steel shot blaster first and it roughened up one wheel just a lil, nothing serious but I don't know if powdercoating will fill in the small indentions or not?

[ComeOnNow]

Powdercoat is fine going over bare metal.

Yes powdercoat fills most small surface imprefections wonderfully. As it melts it puddles and smooths out like liquid glass.

[Harrington]

Sounds like powdercoating is going to be my choice. I went back tonight and blasted the wheels with glass this time, worked much better and much faster. I'm not sure what grain grade the glass beads were but if you are looking to blast.. be ware of the static emitted by the blasting hose. I nearly fried my unit when I leaned against the table this evening. I'll post pics/progress soon.