7 replies to this topic

[edi57]

Hi All,

I have a set of these standard Rover Minilites and I want to refurb them to look like the ones in the pic below.




to...



Here is the plan:

1) Have the wheels blasted to strip back to bare alloy.

2) Rub down any imperfections (slight curbing to a few of the rims).

3) Start polishing the rim. To do this I will do as follows:
- Mount wheel on front hub of a mini with the front of the car in the air
- Start with some corse wet & dry paper
- Put the car in gear with the engine on to get the wheel turning
- Hold the paper to the rim to start the polishing, working to finer and finer grades of paper
- I should then end up with a highly polished rim with the minimum of elbow grease

4) Clean wheel thoroughly

5) Get some pin stripe type masking tape and mask off polished rim that I want to keep.

6) Etch prime wheel

7) Paint

8) Lacquer

9) Remove masking tape

10) Finished product


So that's the plan....here are my concerns about my plan:

- Could possibly be dangerous having my hands so close to the wheel while it's turning (I think I'll be fine as long as I'm careful and wearing some gloves)
- Masking off the area I want to keep could be an absolute nightmare. I don't want to end up with a wonky line. My idea to solve this problem would be to find a dispenser for pin stripe masking tape like one of those tip-ex mice (does anyone know if they exist/where I could get one from?). I would have the wheel mounted on the hub and my elbow resting on something steady like a step. I could then turn the wheel with one hand and hold the tip-ex mouse thing to the rim with my other hand, eventually creating a nice steady line. One of the biggest problems with masking this bit is that those rover alloys don't have a sharp lip to them, they're rounded.
- After it is all painted and I remove the masking tape, I could be left with a ridge. I'm guessing that this ridge would be delicate and susceptible to chipping/peeling off of the paint, possibly even when removing the tape. Should I remove the tape before the paint is fully dry to solve this problem? Or should I lacquer the whole wheel including the polished rim to effectively "seal" the whole thing. I'd be worried about loosing the polished finish if I were to do that.

[Ken555]

See here

[edi57]

Wow! Amazing thread! That's making me want to get down to the garage right away!

I'd definitely going ahead with my plan now... that's given me all the confidence and encouragement that I need!

Thanks!

[cookie4343]

That is crazy but looks great but if you do this remember how inportant your fingers are

[edi57]

Yeah I'll be careful. The safest way to do it is to make sure you have your fingers at a safe angle to the spokes at all times. Then the worst that can happen is your fingers get hit instead of caught up in the spokes.

[foxfan]

Hi edi57, thats a great look that your aiming for with your minilites. Not sure about mounting the wheels on the raised car and sanding them while the car is in gear and runninig. Sounds like the kind of thing that some of us might do but never admit to (me included) It would certainly make life easier to get a nice shiney rim rather than manual sanding with the rim off the car. I once restored a set of rostyle wheels (googalise rostyle in google images). I totally paint stripped them and sprayed them silver with an aerosol and they looked ok. The next step was to paint the black bits near the centre of the wheel, but no matter how hard i tried to keep a steady hand with an artists tiny little paint brush, i just could not get a decent edge to the black. After sanding off my effort to paint the black bits and re-spraying to silver and have another go, i had a brain wave. Now this sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. I used a black marker pen, the sort with a chisel shaped tip, not a pointy tipped sort. This made it much more easy to get a nice sharp edge to the black bits of the wheel and a great contrast. Even though it was permanent marker, i sprayed all of the wheels in clear lacquer to make the marker pen weather proof and they looked great. They lasted untill i sold the car a year later, and were a selling point that the buyer thought they were new. This might not answer your question mate, but if your struggling like i did back then, it may be worth a try.
Hope this helps
Gaz

[edi57]

Thinking of safer alternatives...

I could get an old hub, attach it to a drill and mount it in the workbench vice.

Then to keep my fingers further away, I could attach the paper to a modified rubber sanding block.

[Globule]

I thought about doing things like that but gave up, the amount of time and effort put into setting up all the running gear etc you may as well have just done it by hand! I found that the first coarse sand paper was the worst one of them all as you have to be very thorough, and then when you grade finer it gets easier and easier! I think your advised not to jump more than 2 grits in paper!