Quote:
Originally Posted by daveo2002
Have you ever started on a simple job that seems like it has a curse on it?
My offering is a refurb of two virgo alloy wheels, started last June and not quite finished now. It was supposed to be a simple rattle can job with a good brushing off with wire brush and a decent finish by means of layers and wet n dry.
Started in June 2018. Aborted as they were tatty and I ran out of time just prepping. Resumed August but aborted as family member was admitted to hospital in an emergency. Almost resumed in November but rattle cans had become buried in a house move. Resumed in March, by now mice had nibbled the paint so it needed taking back to primer. Corrected that but ran out of time for lacquer. April, applied the lacquer to find that it drew yellow primer through to the surface in patches. Corrected that this weekend, but a water pipe burst as the lacquer was curing and it peppered one wheel in little droplets. So one down, one to go!
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I've had a similar story of refurbing an Omega alloy, the original intention was to mirror polish the front face and paint the rest of the wheel then lacquer the whole thing.
I wasn't beset by so many "external" disasters as you but i found firstly the wheel was originally rough cast (after sanding through 2 coats of lacquer, 2 of colour, one layer of normal primer, another layer of filler primer that was obviously flatted after application and finally a layer of etch primer) so it had a "mottled" effect on the surface.
After sanding through that and using progressively finer sanding discs, i finally got to a mirror shine but then found other casting imperfection such as gouges so took the decision to paint it instead. Since then it moved a bit quicker!
Here's a few pics to fill the gaps :
What i started with ^^^^^
The "mottled" effect.
I did get a presentable shine and then i found these :
Gouge marks only visible after sandblasting the "square holes".
Decision taken, paint all the way :
Not perfect, a couple of "time worn" battle-scars left for character but most imperfections removed or "hidden" under layers of primer, paint and lacquer, awaiting a final coat of lacquer which it's now had and arrival of a replacement tyre.
The whole process took about 6 weeks, a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a steep learning curve despite having previously refurbished alloys before :
From that ^^^^^ to this :
Those took considerably less than 6 weeks (about 6 days in total) for all 5 of them, including fitting the tyres and getting them on the car.
Some jobs just go pear-shaped from the start, fortunately not all of them!
