How To: Painting Bare Aluminum Wheels
Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:21 pm
Hello everyone! I am ecstatic at how my indy wheels turned out. I can't bite my tongue any longer. Actually, its just prioritizing to post instead of continuing work at 11pm.
perhaps this post could go in the wheels section... IDK feel free to move it moderator.
IF YOU ARE THINKING OF PAINTING CLEAR OVER BARE ALUMINUM, THIS POST IS FOR YOU.
I called a body shop to see what they would do. There is this stuff called Bulldog, that is an adhesion promoter, for plastic bumpers... it churns up the plastic [unable to see with eye] and makes it real sticky and paint adheres right over it. its not a flex agent. its a layer to put on when a new black bumper is purchased. THEN goes on the primer. This was recommended to me for aluminum wheels. Based on what I just told you, I had doubts. So I went the way of airplane paint methods since airplanes are made of aluminum and do not tolerate the mako-type paint jobs, although its perfectly legal to do so on airplanes, its generally not found due to stereotypical care of airplane owners.
Brian/Dante recently forced me to buy/rescue an indy feb 2015, so I've been working on it. it basically needed a full paint job and light tlc. I've been an aircraft mechanic for 15years. Certification is coming this year if I can help it. there is a lot of apprentice time!
Aluminum is non-ferrous and lends itself to rejecting primer stick quite vigorously. We can use an ALUMINUM ETCH PRIME, army green in color, but thats not good if we want bare aluminum to be cleared. Otherwise, do this in addition to what I recommend. Aluminum etch prime contains phosphates that differ from iron/steel etch prime. While spray cans claim universally applicable to aluminum and ferrous metal, and we do paint small airplane parts with these cans, its out of convenience when we do.
Much like concrete paint prep, such as garage floors, the metal must be covered with acid. this is liquid sandpaper if you will on such a fine scale its not obtained through sanding. Wash the parts first to strip of all grease/wax. I recommend soap and water [dawn is best to break grease]. You are done with this step when you see no water beading off too soon from oil spots! Lather, rinse, repeat here! Then use wax and grease remover from your local automotivie paint store. After that, I used ALUMIPREP 33 for the acid. I got it from Aircraft Spruce, though it was once in hardware stores. Ace probably doesn't have it.
Next, and after the fizzing, its rinsed with water in accordance with directions. Then ALODINE is used. I used Alodine 1001. Rinse with water. The wheels are now ready for clear after drying. Because I painted indy wheels which has paint in some areas, I then started with acid-etch primer, the green stuff. Duplicolor wants you to wait 30min. Others like TEMPO want 24h... I haven't found a best spray etch prime can yet.
get it all over the rubber tire - it won't matter.
Of course I would never use a spray can clear at this point. Clear is prone to yellowing, so I used PPG urethane as with the rest of the cars color. You have spray enamel [typical found spray can], acrylic enamel [better enamel], laquer [harder to find spray cans], and urethanes top the list in paint chronological progression.
I layed tape over the clear parts of the wheel carefully, and not too hard, to paint the green inserts before the clear. remove tape and cleared the entire thing. It worked and I'm happy.
Corrosion was remediated by gray/maroon scotch brite before Dawn-soap washing. Different color means different grade. this way, I helped maintain the machine swirl. We got most corrosion off, and I'm happy with it. Its as good as new to me, but to the discerner, they could want more corrosion out, and I preferred to keep the original machine swirl, and I did which would have been lost in sand blasting.
welp! thats my recent venture!
Andy
Lemon 3800 rock solid still going <---PPG paint 1998
INDY restor....ing <---Sea Foam, the only newly-painted indy?
89gt daily driver <----Krylon vs. House paint! finding out that house paint is pourous, though both equally defend against elements.
perhaps this post could go in the wheels section... IDK feel free to move it moderator.
IF YOU ARE THINKING OF PAINTING CLEAR OVER BARE ALUMINUM, THIS POST IS FOR YOU.
I called a body shop to see what they would do. There is this stuff called Bulldog, that is an adhesion promoter, for plastic bumpers... it churns up the plastic [unable to see with eye] and makes it real sticky and paint adheres right over it. its not a flex agent. its a layer to put on when a new black bumper is purchased. THEN goes on the primer. This was recommended to me for aluminum wheels. Based on what I just told you, I had doubts. So I went the way of airplane paint methods since airplanes are made of aluminum and do not tolerate the mako-type paint jobs, although its perfectly legal to do so on airplanes, its generally not found due to stereotypical care of airplane owners.
Brian/Dante recently forced me to buy/rescue an indy feb 2015, so I've been working on it. it basically needed a full paint job and light tlc. I've been an aircraft mechanic for 15years. Certification is coming this year if I can help it. there is a lot of apprentice time!
Aluminum is non-ferrous and lends itself to rejecting primer stick quite vigorously. We can use an ALUMINUM ETCH PRIME, army green in color, but thats not good if we want bare aluminum to be cleared. Otherwise, do this in addition to what I recommend. Aluminum etch prime contains phosphates that differ from iron/steel etch prime. While spray cans claim universally applicable to aluminum and ferrous metal, and we do paint small airplane parts with these cans, its out of convenience when we do.
Much like concrete paint prep, such as garage floors, the metal must be covered with acid. this is liquid sandpaper if you will on such a fine scale its not obtained through sanding. Wash the parts first to strip of all grease/wax. I recommend soap and water [dawn is best to break grease]. You are done with this step when you see no water beading off too soon from oil spots! Lather, rinse, repeat here! Then use wax and grease remover from your local automotivie paint store. After that, I used ALUMIPREP 33 for the acid. I got it from Aircraft Spruce, though it was once in hardware stores. Ace probably doesn't have it.
Next, and after the fizzing, its rinsed with water in accordance with directions. Then ALODINE is used. I used Alodine 1001. Rinse with water. The wheels are now ready for clear after drying. Because I painted indy wheels which has paint in some areas, I then started with acid-etch primer, the green stuff. Duplicolor wants you to wait 30min. Others like TEMPO want 24h... I haven't found a best spray etch prime can yet.
get it all over the rubber tire - it won't matter.
Of course I would never use a spray can clear at this point. Clear is prone to yellowing, so I used PPG urethane as with the rest of the cars color. You have spray enamel [typical found spray can], acrylic enamel [better enamel], laquer [harder to find spray cans], and urethanes top the list in paint chronological progression.
I layed tape over the clear parts of the wheel carefully, and not too hard, to paint the green inserts before the clear. remove tape and cleared the entire thing. It worked and I'm happy.
Corrosion was remediated by gray/maroon scotch brite before Dawn-soap washing. Different color means different grade. this way, I helped maintain the machine swirl. We got most corrosion off, and I'm happy with it. Its as good as new to me, but to the discerner, they could want more corrosion out, and I preferred to keep the original machine swirl, and I did which would have been lost in sand blasting.
welp! thats my recent venture!
Andy
Lemon 3800 rock solid still going <---PPG paint 1998
INDY restor....ing <---Sea Foam, the only newly-painted indy?
89gt daily driver <----Krylon vs. House paint! finding out that house paint is pourous, though both equally defend against elements.