Refinishing Iron Cross Wheel, Questions Before I Start.

[mr_han_solo]

Hello,

I am planning to refinish my iron cross wheels as one of my winter projects. I originally talked to two different powder coating companies and they were leery/doubtful about replicating the current two tone paintjob.

In turn, I have decided to just paint and refinish them. Before I do, I have several questions:

1. Is it going to hurt the rims for me to sandblast them? If it will damage them, what is the best way for me to remove the current clear and paint?

2. Can anyone point me to the color names or color codes on the rims themselves? I'm hoping this will help with being able to actually find/match the correct colors without having the wheel with me.

3. In my area I have both a PPG and a DuPont paint supplier. Which one makes a better paint for wheel, (assuming that it's going to have to be a specialty paint)?

Thanks,

Han

[cbuczesk]

Why not have it powder coated in silver, mask it off and paint the rest in gold? They will sand/bead blast them before powder coating. I've often found it to be cheaper and much easier to have parts blasted and powder coated as compared to sanding/stripping and painting it myself. Powder coating will hold up better than paint.

 

Chuck

[siteunseen]

Use baking soda instead of an abrasive media like sand.  It works great for removing paint without pitting aluminum.  there's a youtube video on a homemade soda blaster.  A trick I learned from another video is to put a small nut in the pick up tube to reduce the amount of soda coming out, less of a mess and less soda to buy.  You can get 2 lbs for a dollar at Dollar General.

 

Good Luck, Mr Solo!  

 

You'd be shocked at how bad those carbs were on that motor I got from you.  They were flooding that motor to death, it's amazing it ran.  But the gas cleaned up the cylinder head for me. 

 

Cliff

[mr_han_solo]

Why not have it powder coated in silver, mask it off and paint the rest in gold? They will sand/bead blast them before powder coating. I've often found it to be cheaper and much easier to have parts blasted and powder coated as compared to sanding/stripping and painting it myself. Powder coating will hold up better than paint.

 

Chuck

Well I considered it that, but for the metallic silver color drove the price of powder coating up so much that it would be more cost effective to paint. The original  paint up fine for 40 something years anyways.

 

Use baking soda instead of an abrasive media like sand.  It works great for removing paint without pitting aluminum.  there's a youtube video on a homemade soda blaster.  A trick I learned from another video is to put a small nut in the pick up tube to reduce the amount of soda coming out, less of a mess and less soda to buy.  You can get 2 lbs for a dollar at Dollar General.

 

Good Luck, Mr Solo!  

 

You'd be shocked at how bad those carbs were on that motor I got from you.  They were flooding that motor to death, it's amazing it ran.  But the gas cleaned up the cylinder head for me. 

 

Cliff

Looked into the video, pretty nifty DIY project and something I am going to have to do.

 

Wow, I knew it was running rich, but not that bad.

[siteunseen]

It was an experience for sure, one I've never had or seen.  The oil pan was so full of gas it overflowed the drain pan.  The gas smell was so strong I got a little scared and got my hose pipe out in case of a fire.  But I have a 2.4 on an engine stand.    

 

What about some paint remover and brass wire brushes on a drill?  Xenon's had a formula for the paint on 240s hub caps but no luck on the Iron Crosses, http://www.xenons130.com/wheeldifferences.html

[ajmcforester]

I don't think these wheels are painted originaly.  some people don't like how they look over time a paint the rough surfaces.  If you let the rough areas age they will adventually become a grey and get darker over time to almost black. So if you care for the wheels the smooth surfaces they will have that shinny alluminum look while the rough areas will darken to a dark magnisium color.  I like this look.  For your problem the key is the gold is just gold paint, if you like the gold just get a gold color you like and paint them.