Wheel Restoration

Well, I was doing my daily facebook marketplace browse and found a set of wheels from a 2004 Tundra DC for sale.

I scooped em up for $50. They have some pitting/corrosion and are missing paint in areas. I guess I’m going to try my hand at refinishing them.




The corrosion certainly looks terrible in photos, but it’s not too far gone quite yet (I think).

Right now I think I’m going to go with Duplicolor’s Graphite wheel paint for the color.

I’ll update tomorrow with a closer inspection and maybe try to clean them up a little.

 

You may find inspiration in Project Double Gnar, whose shoes looked very similar in nature.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/project-double-gnar-new-shoes.96581/

 

That’s certainly reassuring. While talking with another group and telling them my plans, they called me absolutely crazy and said they’re too far gone. We’ll see how she goes.

 

I have those exact wheels in my basement from when I bought new ones last year. Saved my OEM just in case and I can’t sell them for what I want to get. Mine have some peeling but no where near as bad as these. Curious to see how it comes out, for $50 it’s worth a try! Good luck!

 

Media-blasting would do wonders, but may also leave you with some pitting. Maybe some high build primer would help smooth it out a bit. Good luck!

 

+1 on High Build primer. I used that when I wire wheeled my wheels last year. They came out very well for rattle can paint. I used gloss clearcoat for wheels as a final coat.

 

Those are pretty gnarly. I would have them media blasted and powder coated at a local shop. I want to say they charge ~$50 per wheel but obviously that depends on your shop. Powder coating would last a lifetime too and you can pick a new color.

 

This ^^

Just know you'll need to paint your plastic center caps to match - may be better to have them color-match the original coating color if it's important to you.

 

There was place in Santa Ana So Cal that was doing some really high-end ceramic coating . . . it wasn't cera-coat like you see so often, this stuff was industrial strength. I was having some welding done next door and poked my head in their shop . . . they had some samples of various items, and a couple wheels they painted/coated . . . it was impressive to say the least . . . I'll try to get more info, if nothing else just for curiosity.

 

For a $50 set of wheels, I'd go the least expensive route...
1) clean/blast/sand/wire brush/whatever it takes to remove the corrosion/oxidation to make sure you have clean metal
2) treat with something to stop corrosion (does POR15 work on aluminum/alloy? Or is there a specific product?) or just make sure none is left
3) then fill in with bondo (if really deep) or polyester putty (thinner than bondo) and sand smooth
4) coat with hi-build primer (if still needed) and sand smooth (again)
5) then paint with finish color of choice
6) and then if you want to go the extra mile, clear coat

But I'm the cheap bastard that never takes anything to a shop to have it done for me!

I have one wheel in that needs refinishing (not quite that bad), but don't want to do all four to ensure color match... so it's probably going to stay as it is.

 

I did powder coat on my current wheels (see spoiler at bottom), and had the center caps painted to match. I paid $360ish for all four wheels blasted/Powdercoat, and for the center caps I paid a buddy nearly $350 to paint them (long story, was supposed to only be 150 at first, but the color that matched the wheels was an expensive one, and I had to have two of the caps repainted because I damaged them accidentally on the trip home. I might go that route again, but I'm not sure. I don't exactly have a need to pay that much for a new set of wheels, especially when I just got the bronze wheels (With new rubber too).

This whole ordeal was just supposed to be a "fun" project, but after spending a few hours sanding (and I'm nowhere near done either) a single wheel, I may have mistaken the size of this job.

I used rustoleum aircraft remover (paint stripper), but I guess I didn't apply enough, so it didn't strip all the paint.


I bought a new 1/2" Kobalt 24v impact the other day, and Lowes had a buy one get one free deal going on, and one of the tools was the cordless die grinder. It saved me a ton of time on this job, though it would have been much better had the tool been a right angle tool.



There's still some paint between the spokes that the aircraft remover/I missed. I may or may not try to use the remover on it again. At this point, I'm contemplating just having them sandblasted. We'll see.

Spoiler: current wheels

 

Keep at it... they're looking better already..

Just don't Quitman..... See what I did there???

 

i saw hand mans bulit thread the other day where heather used duplicolor aluminum wheel paint and clear gloss over that. looks fn brand new oem for about $36 worht of paint.

 

The paint is the cheap part lol. I'm already into the materials for $70 before paint. Paint stripper, Acetone, roloc adapter, roloc wheels etc. I don't think I'll have enough stripper or die grinder wheels either. I'll have to go get more.

 

Maybe I am lazy. But when you can buy new ones (refurbished) for 800.00. The new are worth it to me.

Compared to maybe them not looking as good. And time, cost of the wheels and supplies.

 

As was mentioned I just redid a set of these and they turned out 'OK'. Think your move with the paint stripper would have done my set some good as the finished project has some lines where the paint transitions to bare metal, as I used a few wire wheels and sandpaper. The high build primer didn't even it out as much as I'd hoped even after several coats. Didn't need them to be perfect, but would have liked them a bit smoother than I got after all the effort. I'd use the same primer, color and clear though; starting with a cleaner base using the stripper you'll probably get better results.

 

I think a Dremel with their flapwheel would really do the job nicely here. Easier than roloc discs to get in nooks and crannies. Or maybe combo of both.

 

I was really stingey with the stripper because of how much it costs. I used about a third of the quart on my one wheel. I guess I’ll have to suck it up and buy more.

I thought about that. I just didn’t want to spend any more money than I already have.

 

I haven't read all the comments but try putting your wheels in a garbage bag or something similar to keep the stripper from drying out. I did some wheels on my 3rd gen 4runner and was given that tip and it helped out a lot. Citrus stripper from Home Depot, a cheap paint brush and a few garbage bags had my wheels down to raw aluminum over night. Good luck!

 

This video doesn't really deal with the situation you have, but I imagine after a good media blast, you could diy it if you wanted.

https://youtu.be/9WQiqYlpxoY

 

Small update today. I decided to get the wheels sandblasted and powder coated. I'm looking at $35 a wheel for sandblasting and $? a wheel for powder coat. I decided after doing a cost analysis that it's cheaper and more time-effective than sanding everything myself and trying to paint them. SBing will be a few weeks out, but I'll update once that's done.

 

I am excited to see how you will give life to these decaying wheels. The pattern of this OEM wheel reminds me of the products that I see on shops like 4WheelOnline. Good luck.

 

Here's an after photo for you. Just picked the wheels up from the powdercoater.

 

They look great but what did they run you after sand blasting and powder coating?

 

Sandblast and Powdercoat was $280, but I supplied the powder, which ran me $91.23 for 3 lbs of color and 2 lbs of clearcoat (had the wheels double coated for durability).

 

So $400...not terrible, assuming you got them cheap, cheaper than getting retfurbs. Still pretty happy with how mine came out for less than $100, if they looked perfect like yours they wouldn't fit the truck haha

 

$50 for all 4. Still gotta buy some center caps though...

 

Nice, but was that they factory color? If not you'll need to figure on getting the center caps redone too (I needed one and it came bright silver)

 

Looks great. My wife curb rashed 2 wheels on our Camry, so thinking of getting them cleaned up and powder coated, so thanks for sharing.

 

No, not at all. The powdercoat matches Magnetic Grey Metallic 1G3. The original color was silver.



I've got a buddy who has all the equipment and supplies to paint center caps for me (He did them for my bronze wheels), so I'll have him do them again.

Spoiler: Bronze wheels and center caps