Reconditioning LR steel wheels - what finish should be applied?

[Troll Hunter]

Hi, All,

I'm planning to give my 25 year old wheels a make-over involving sand blasting and then "painting". But what "paint" system should I use? Should I consider galving - hot dip or cold spray-on, powder coating, a two pack epoxy, Hammerite, POR15, or something else? I'm hoping to end up with Ivory White, but I'm not looking for good as new or bling, just to preserve them for another 20+ years.

All thoughts, ideas and recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Mike

[SPendrey]

I've used Hammerite, the brush-on paint was rubbish (perhaps I did it too thick?) and chipped really easily, but the spray was good with many coats (I did 6).

[Jocklandjohn]

I've wire brushed off loose rust, overcoated with rust converter and then used Rustoleum black paint, which I've found to be way better than Hammerite. Hammerite gets brittle and flaky and falls off. I've had far suprerior results with Rusto - it seems tougher and more flexible in use. Crucially its a pretty cheap option.

PS I'm in the north at 56/57 degrees, lots of salt and grit on roads and it seems to withstand that pretty well.

[Aragorn]

I painted my winter steel wheels for the BMW using normal car paint.

Used a zinc rich epoxy primer, basecoat (Landrover Nara Bronze in my case) then 2k clear.

No idea how it'll last for 20+ years though.

Powdercoating is easy and fairly cheap if you can find an industrial place, but its not as robust as many folk seem to think, and once damaged the water tends to get in under it and turns bad really quickly. After having a few sets powdercoated over the years, i'm sticking to paint from now on.

What did landrover use originally? I presume they were just painted by the factory using their normal paint system of the time?

[Troll Hunter]

Thanks for giving me the benefit of your experiences. Rustoleum sounds good to me, especially as it's relatively cheap. I've no idea what the original LR paint was.

Mike

[mel]

I've painted many (LR) wheels over the years as i worked in a large vehicle manufacturers Wheel Plant at Dagenham, and well, it was easy and free and seemed rude not to but I don't know if the same process is available anywhere commercially.

I used to shot blasted the wheels first to remove rust and old paint and then put them through the paint system which firstly chemically washed them, sprayed them with phosphate which was an etch primer process and then they were electro coated satin black in a dip tank before finally being cured in the oven.

The whole process took 1hr 10 ins i.i.r.c.

The black was actually only an undercoat and could be painted if you wanted (I didn't) as many years ago they used to also be sprayed silver until it dawned on someone that they then fitted full wheel trims and so that stage was removed at a great saving.

The painted wheels were obviously tested which Inc being scored and having salt water sprayed at them under pressure and they had to last something like 360 hrs which was to simulate more than a lifetimes use.

If you could find somewhere where they had these facilities you'd never have any problems with them but i'm not sure it'd be cost effective or even available but possibly somewhere that paints outside fabrications used in harsh environments although i'm thinking they may be galvanised.

Anyway, sorry for waffling on but thought it worth mentioning how manufacturer's paint their steel wheels.

Mark.