Welcome back to the 6th Gear Garage
Today I’ll show how I restored these old corroded crusty wheels
and turned them into this I painted these right here in my garage
with aerosol spray paint and even used can of paint and a brush for
the accents stay tuned to see how I achieved professional
results with a mix of different products that were never designed to be used together
no compressor or spray gun equipment needed I picked these up on eBay because my Land
Cruiser didn’t come with the OEM wheels and Ohio winters and road salt are not kind
to 3-piece wheels But these came from New York
so they aren’t much better than a set from Ohio this is the result of many winters the aluminum is corroding behind the clear
coat some are worse than others
but they all need stripped down and refinished All my subscribers out in the south west must
be in shock right now like “how does that even happen” Well these are aluminum alloy wheels with
a clear coat from the factory over time the clear wears down from road debris
usually on the edges and that allows road salt mixed with water
to seep in under the clear coat then the aluminum starts to corrode
and it keeps expanding creeping along the surface under the clear coat
and it usually does so in this squiggly line pattern I have no idea why it happens in squiggly
lines but once it starts it doesn’t stop if you look real close at the polished surface
of the wheel, it’s actually a fine machined surface done by a lathe Most people don’t have a lathe in their
garage and that includes me so we’ll be looking at other DIY paint options
to get these looking good again Here the corrosion was so bad that the entire
section of clear coat lifted and flaked off They probably had clamp-on wheel weights there
at one time to get that started It’s so bad I can just scrape the clear
coat off with my fingernail This is why we can’t have nice things
thanks road salt Oh and the back side of the wheels aren’t
any better this is the result of decades of neglect
featuring brake dust and road salt So the first step is cleaning these wheels
and for that I bought this gallon of acid wheel cleaner
and I poured some into this spray bottle very carefully I might add
This stuff is actually acid made to remove the worst of grime
and corrosive if left on for too long and of course toxic to anything living
so follow the instructions But sometimes you need the strong stuff
I’ll put a link for this in the description So here’s one last look at the before directions say to spray with water first If there’s any breeze
make sure you’re not down wind I mean it
you’ll know it shortly after you get any of this on your skin
because it will melt it off nah it just burns for a while
but definitely wear eye protection alright let this set for a couple minutes Time to see what comes off
not as much as I hoped Alright let’s not put any water on this
one first I was just telling you all how dangerous this
stuff is and here I go not following the instructions
This is for science don’t be like me
let me ruin my own wheels so you don’t have to experiment on yours alright I gave this one a couple minutes to
set I see some brown
So it worked but still a long way to go Ok let’s try the wheel acid plus a scrub
brush The acid works great on the outside of the
wheel I literally just sprayed and now rinsed a
minute later Look at that Back to the ones I scrubbed
they’ve been sitting for like 5 minutes not impressed another round of scrubbing
and it’s working just slower than I expected
this is some serious grime I mean about 25 years worth this is also corrosive acid
and you’re not really supposed to be scrubbing with it
I think it’s time for plan B just have them sand blasted
yeah for my health So the acid wheel cleaner worked pretty well
cleaning up the faces but the back of the wheels needed a lot more
elbow grease and then I’d still have to sand them down
to bare aluminum time is money, so I just had them sandblasted
instead well that’s better
Huge shout out to Mike from The Shop Spot for blasting these for me
His fridge is now overstocked with beer Thanks again man
awesome job he hit the insides as well I’ll put a link to his channel The Shop
Spot right up here check it out
You’ll actually see my rusty 89 Toyota in one of his vids
the frame broke in half when we pulled the bed off
good times in Ohio These are dusty from being blasted
it’s a really fine dust I’m gonna give them a bath
with some Dawn that will help remove any wax or oils as well My next step is etching primer, which will
bond well to the surface texture of the sand blasted aluminum, but I have to have them
clean of dust, wax and any oil first. Even touching them with my bare hands can leave
oils on the surface of the aluminum. alright the wheels are all dry and I have
them set up in the garage now on whatever I could find I’m going to spray them with Self Etching
Primer by Duplicolor This is perfect for bare metal
I’lll put a link for this down in the description So when I’m painting
or priming primering?
I do all the hard to get to areas first because I’ll end up over spraying onto the
easy areas then I’ll be able to spray less on those
areas, or avoid them all together if they have enough If I did it the other way around, it would
be easy to end up with a run or sag on the easy to reach parts and this is just the first coat
so if there’s a light area I’ll get it on the next coat
light coats dry a lot faster than heavy coats get the barrel now this is the easy part there see that’s not even covered on the first
coat but that’s fine more light coats are better than less heavy
coats ok the first coat has had about 10 minutes
to dry now it’s ready for the second coat and again i’m getting into all the recessed
areas and crevices first get in all these little spaces and then the barrel last notice the coverage now
it’s almost solid green a couple thin spots right here so far so good it’s been 10 minutes and it’s dry now now I’m going to rotate the wheel 180 degrees sometimes it’s hard to get paint in the
recessed areas near the bottom when you’re trying to spray upward
there’s just not much room since the nozzle is at the top of the can so now I can get these areas covered so i’ll just spray those light areas for
the third coat and focus on getting those covered and hit any other areas that look a little
thin done
with the back side now it’s time to throw some etching primer
on the fronts and I have these siting on some old gallon
paint cans to keep them off of the floor better mask off the labels so I can read them
after I’m done I sped things up to try to keep this video
short I’m getting the outer edge of the lip where
the tire bead mounts, since I’ll be painting that area as well I don’t want to have the bead mounting area
be bare aluminum since water can get in there between the tire and corrode over time Just like before I painted all the difficult
areas first one light coat to start with Ok second coat of etching primer
and this is pretty much a repeat of the method I used on the backside of the wheels i get all the recessed areas first and you can see as I’m getting in those
I’m also getting paint on the fase of the wheel get this outer edge now I just need a little more on the spokes and get this very outer edge of the lip since
I’ll be painting those too and then make sure this hidden area is covered
because I’ll be painting there too where the tire bead seals Here’s a close up of how it should look
after 2 coats even, smooth
no runs or sags and then a close up of the area where the
bead mounts alright done with self etching primer I’m gonna let these dry for a while they actually look pretty good like this but the next step is going to be filler primer
to fill any minor imperfections and these probably look mint on camera
but if you get in close really close
it’s rough in the inset areas which is normal that’s fine
but any imperfections on the flat area will really pop when I paint these silver
here we go right here
this area was very corroded and there’s a nick or something in the face
I’ve got some imperfections in the inset area as well here Let’s look at my spare wheel
I mentioned the machined finish on the face earlier
I’ve heard this called diamond polished a lot of OEM alloy wheels have this finish
those little lines are done with a lathe and they give the wheel a bright aluminum
finish without being polished and you can see it’s a little bit reflective
but it’s not actually polished like a mirror finish
I’d like to try to replicate that finish but I’ll be doing it with paint
because I don’t have a lathe check out these beauties
These are hand polished civic HX wheels that I did like 15 years ago
these were in rough shape as well but I wet sanded them smooth starting with
220 grit, then worked all the way up to 2000 grit and hand polished them with Mother’s
wheel polish It took forever
and I didn’t put any clear on these because paint isn’t going to bond well to a smooth
polished surface That’s why you usually see clear coated
aluminum wheels with the machined surface Road salt will really corrode a bare aluminum
wheel, and I never ran these in winter I will be using my 80 series wheels year around,
so polished aluminum isn’t an option there. But I wanted to show you a true polished wheel
for comparison I bet I had 8 hrs into each wheel
winter project Let me know in the comments if you’d want
to see a video on how to create a finish like this
maybe I’ll do another set some time But I want to get the closest thing to this
finish as I can using paint and I have a few cans of this back outside
guess I should have put down some newspaper on the floor Here’s a better look at this chrome paint
in the sunlight and if you’ve used this before you know
it’s not chrome like the cap it’s really more of a highly reflective
silver about the same sheen as the silver paper they
used for the label which is still pretty impressive for an aerosol
can I’ll put a link to this in the description I think that color will flow nice with the
aluminum running boards and the front brush guard
sort of tie it all in together notice any imperfections in the reflective
surface really stand out like all these wrinkles in the label I need a perfectly smooth surface on my wheel
for that paint to look good and filler primer will make that happen
it’s a high build formula that can be sanded smooth
and that’s going to take care of that pitting we saw earlier like these little guys right here
perfect candidate for some filler primer now I already have etching primer over the
bare metal, so I only need to spray this in the areas that need it. which are where there could be any imperfections the paint will bond to either of the primers
so I don’t need to bother with the inset areas really just focusing on the faces to fill
in any imperfections and this can be sanded down perfectly smooth, which is important
on a highly reflective finish here’s a close up
it goes on pretty thick for an aerosol and I’ll be doing multiple coats as well if you look in the right light you can see
the surface is like textured with these ridges from where the wheel was machined
not the real fine lines those came out in sand blasting
but wider bigger grooves if I can see it now, I’ll definitely see
it after the chrome paint alright first coat has had time to dry
you might have noticed the floor was wet on that last coat
I’m keeping the floor wet on these so that the overspray doesn’t stick to the concrete
and I don’t end up with more paint rings on the floor
these have had plenty of time to dry this curb mark and these tire machine marks
here are a little to deep to fill with the filler primer but light pitting like this here is perfect
for filler primer it might take a few coats but they will disappear.
I’ll put links to all these paints in the description. second coat after the first coat all the imperfections
really pop so you can see what areas need more filler
primer like I’m going heavy on that pitted corrosion and filling those ridges on the face of the
spokes this stuff is meant to be built up so you
can sand it down smooth so I’m laying it down heavy Then I sprayed a third coat I’m all done with filler primer
this is actually what the label looks like now, that other can I used was super old
I let these sit in the hot garage for a day so they’re all cured Now that I’ve built up the surface with
the filler primer the next step is to go back and sand it down
smooth when I’m sanding the filler primer smooth
I’ll be knocking down the high areas first and that will make them level with the lower
areas over the pits and nicks that aren’t as high the final result should be a smooth flat surface
and that’s a must for a highly reflective chrome paint
or really any paint will look better over a smooth surface
I made a video probably about 5 years ago
where I painted a set of wheels on my truck On two of them I just used etching primer
and silver paint and on the other two I did what I’m doing
here with the filler primer and sanding and the final result was much better so after that experiment, I always use filler
primer if the wheels are beat up. I’ll put a link to that video in the description. For sanding, do yourself a favor and use a
workbench or table so you’re not hunched over working on the floor I’ve got a temporary work area set up here
I’ll use this later when I’m painting the wheels too you can see what an uneven reflective surface
looks like on the label where there’s wrinkles so when I’m sanding out those grooves
if I just push down with my fingers on this sand paper my fingers aren’t flat
so I might end up making more low areas that look wavy after paint that’s where a sanding block comes in handy
the bigger ones are for large areas like body work this smaller one is a good size for the wheel
but it’s a little too stiff this one is more of a sanding sponge
it’s more flexible and it’s perfect I’m gonna start with some 220 grit Just wrap it around the sponge and I’m sanding against those grooves to
knock them down flush with the rest of the surface just watch around the edges
it’s easy to sand through corners 220 cuts fast
It doesn’t take much to knock down the filler primer take a close look
see those lighter lines kind of like rings on a tree
the lighter areas are where the sanding sponge contacted the surface
you can’t see on camera but this already feels more smooth than it
did a minute ago a sponge or block really works down those
high points so I’m sanding these grooves until all the
high points are knocked down and I’ll know I’m there when the whole
area is the lighter grey from being sanded alright this is looking pretty good
it’s all in the prep and attention to detail when it comes to paint
I’m normally not OCD at all until it comes to this stuff here you can see I sanded through the filler
primer on the edge just a little bit
as soon as I saw the green self etching primer starting to show I stopped
so I didn’t sand all the way back down to bare metal
like I mentioned before it’s really easy to sand through on edges
so watch out for that next I sanded the rest of the spokes and flat
surfaces of the wheel with the sanding sponge until they were all perfectly smooth let me show you this
here this is an example of an imperfection that
was a little deeper I still have a good amount of filler primer
in this area because I did some thick coats so maybe I can sand this all the way out notice how I’m changing directions
doing a cross hatch pattern I’ve gotta watch I don’t sand the edge
too much its barely starting to show the etching primer
underneath there’s that nick
it’s almost gone now and that’s the magic of filler primer and nap time’s over hey bud alright that nick is pretty much non existent
at this point I’m happy with that next I sanded the entire surface more with
the 200 grit knocking down the high points of the filler
primer for a perfectly level surface notice I haven’t sanded any of the inset
areas that have the rougher cast surface I have another plan for those that we’ll
see later in the video time to clean up this dust This is feeling pretty good
notice I did sand through on this edge as well
as soon as you see the color beneath the filler primer
stop don’t sand any more there same with here here now this could use a little more sanding
the slightly darker areas are slightly lower where the surface hasn’t been knocked down
level yet and this here looks like piece of dust or
small hair that was on the surface and it got covered with filler primer knock that down real quick it’s gone now here it is right here now it’s time to move on to some 400 grit
and this will remove the deeper scratches left from the 200 grit The sanding process with the 400 grit paper
is the exact same thing as the 200 grit except that it goes a lot faster because I’m not
really trying to remove more material, the surface is already level. I just need to sand
down the rougher scratches from the 200 grit. The finer scratches from the 400 grit are
small enough to be filled in when I paint. I’m making sure to avoid those edges where
I sanded all the way down to the etching primer. Alright this wheel is ready for paint now I just have to do this four more times [sigh] After I sanded all 5 wheels, I took them out
in the driveway and gave them a bath to remove all the dust from sanding them down smooth Then I used dish soap and a sponge to wash
each the face and inset area of each wheel in addition to any leftover dust, the dish
soap and sponge also remove any oils left on the surface from touching the wheels and then I did the same thing for the inside
of each wheel from now on when I move the wheels, I’ll
only hold them by the outside of the barrel so I don’t contaminate any of the painting
surfaces Alright it’s been about 3 hours
wheels are all dry now kids are in bed
I wanna show you where I goofed I must have been daydreaming and sanded all
the way through the etching primer all the way down to the bare aluminum it happened in some other places too this wheel is really beat up compared to the
other four but just grab the self etching primer and
touch up any of those areas where bare metal is showing through there we go
just a light coat looks like someone beat the shit out of this
wheel with a hammer there’s all kinds of high points that I
sanded through where the edges are deformed this will be the spare this edge is ok
no metal showing through Now I want a uniform surface for my color
coat and that’s where Primer Sealer is useful
this is especially needed for painting a color coat over body work where there might be different
colors of primer that could cause the color coat to look splotchy
Not sure if that’s going to be an issue with silver paint
but why take the chance I’ll put a link to all these primers in
the description you can see the grey is a little darker than
the filler primer so I might as well do the whole thing well
I’ll just do the face of the wheel I’m painting the insets black and the inside
of the barrels don’t really matter here I saw a hint of green in some areas
so I’m hitting those with another light coat of primer sealer that’s good
nice uniform surface and all 5 wheels are ready for paint
finally hey this is the full how-to
I’m showing all the steps might seem like overkill but the final result
will speak for itself so when I paint these faces there will be
overspray and it’s going to fall down through these
holes and end up drying on the inside of the wheel
and make some rougher areas on the surface I never paint the backs last because that
overspray will come though and dry on the face of the wheel, where you’ll see it So I always paint the insides of wheels first and then the faces last since you see the faces
and not the backs when they’re on a vehicle that’s really important Ok it’s the next day and I’m going to
be painting the inside of this wheel with this DupliColor Silver wheel paint It’s not as shiny as the chrome but I don’t
really care how the inside of the wheel looks I just want to protect it from the elements So I like to focus on all of the recessed
areas first since they’re tougher to cover then I’ll spray the barrel
and the edge These are old cans by the way
the labels are different now I’ll put a link in the description
Im trying to use up all my old paint I do the harder recessed areas first
because as I get in those I usually get paint on the easy to spray areas around them if I did those easy areas first I’d have
too much paint on them after I did the recessed parts I want light coats
no runs or sags on this first color coat
I’m not even going to cover the primer completely and that’s fine
I’d rather have more light coats than less heavy coats except for the wet coat
I’ll get to that in a bit now the outer edge and that’s a good first coat don’t forget to do the bead area too
this is where the tire seals so it should be primed and painted too
not just bare aluminum I let that dry about 10 minutes and rotated
the wheel 180 degrees now I can get the rest of the bead area
and then I’ll do another coat on the back of the wheel, just like the first one other thing about rotating the wheel 180
is that it helps to spray in places where there’s not room for the can
like this when that part is facing up
you can hold the can in the wheel and reach that spot better
this third coat is the wet coat so I’m laying it down a little heavier than
the first two but not enough to have it run or sag
the back side of the wheel is a good spot to test the limit on how heavy you can go
because you won’t see it but doing a little heavier on the wet coat
helps to fill in any of the lighter overspray areas from the first two coats and make a
more smooth surface alright I have 3 coats of silver down now its time for some clear coat to protect
the back of the wheel there isn’t a ball in the clear because
there’s no pigment to mix this is WHP103 gloss clear by Duplicolor
and I’l have a link in the description Notice the instructions say 2 light coats
followed by one medium wet coat apply all coats within an hour
10 minutes between coats for additional coats after one hour, you have
to wait 7 days this is an enamel paint
lacquer paint has no recoat window enamels do
enamels are resistant to chemicals like oils and gas whereas lacquers are not
this paint is also formulated to withstand more heat than a lacquer
up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit you shouldn’t use lacquer on top of enamels
because that can make the paint lift and wrinkle up
then you get to start all over same as last time with the color coat
I’m getting all the hard to reach areas first finger’s starting to get tired then I’ll cover the easy areas and then the barrel then the very outer edge and don’t forget the bead area and I’ll rotate it 180 in about 10 minutes that coat dried and I just rotated the wheel
and now it’s time for the second coat of clear I busted out this hand trigger nozzle
it snaps onto the can give my finger a break this is a lot easier its a little harder to aim into these recessed
parts but my pointer finger has called it quits
for the day and the barrels it’s hard to get these perfectly even with
a spray can it’s just a lot of surface area
so just doing the best I can a paint gun would be awesome
but not everyone has a paint gun and compressor in their garage
so I’m keeping this tutorial simple maybe I’ll do another wheel video with a
paint gun some time let me know if you want to see that ah crap
I just hit the wheel with the can touch that up
good thing it’s on the back side and the bead area get a little extra on there the nozzle does make the can a little bulkier
to use in tight areas like a wheel
but I’m happy with this so far I like to let the cans sit in the sun for
a while to warm em up
and when these get warm they have more pressure inside
so they spray out a little better third and final coat of clear
alright that wraps up the wet coat for the gloss clear
lets go test some paints for the front of the wheel
while I let these cure for 7 days so first I painted the entire panel with the
chrome paint by Duplicolor now I want the inset areas of the wheel to
be darker this is Duplicolor’s graphite wheel paint
The same thing I used for the inset areas of the polished Civic HX wheels
there’s what that looks like then I have some Rustoleum gloss black
these are all enamel paints so they should work together
Masking takes forever so for the first time I’m going to try brushing on the inset areas
and if you look here you can see the graphite is kind of thin and streaky
it’s really meant to be sprayed on so I’m going with the rustoleum gloss black
it’s a lot thicker and it self levels pretty nice I used this on the bucket when I restored
my son’s vintage Tonka front end loader I got him for his birthday
and was surprised how smooth and glossy it turned out for just brushing it on and of course I’ll be covering it all with
the Duplicolor gloss clear however, there’s a slight issue I just discovered
you can see the chrome paint’s reflective here in the middle like I expected
but then when I sprayed the clear coat on top of it
it completely clouded up it’s not really reflective any more look there’s the chrome paint
pretty impressive right and then this happens when I put the clear
over it it looses almost all of the reflection
it just looks like plain old silver paint now so I found another option
look at this I’m really surprised this came from an aerosol
can this is the closest thing I’ve seen to an
actual chrome finish from a spray can this is VHT plate finish let’s do a comparison
that’s the Duplicolor chrome, without the clear coat
and here’s the VHT plate finish impressive huh
I’ll put a link to this in the description I’m going to let this dry for a couple more
minutes and see how it does with the clear coat cmon Lindor
how are you not impressed with that ONE WEEK LATER Iwell
unfortunately well first I labeled this to make it easier
to see here’s the Duplicolor clear that made the
chrome cloudy and it also did the same thing to the half
that I painted with the VHT plate finish it’s instant fail
here watch this there’s the clear coat
and look at that It immediately ruins the reflective finish I even let the VHT plate cure for 7 days before
I just cleared it a minute ago and the exact same thing still happens This plate finish scratches really easy too I need clear coat on these wheels for protection
especially in the winter so time to find a plan B I have a few cans of this old VHT caliper
paint in my cabinet cast aluminum color
and it’s a pretty bright silver here’s the Duplicolor silver
it’s a little darker a little more grey so I think I like this it’s nothing reflective like the plate finish but I can put clear over it so it’s a winner This is why you always do a test spay I would not be a happy camper if I learned
about the clear coat clouding the chrome paint after it was on the wheel alright it’s time to get these faces painted
now these were sitting in the garage so there is some dust on them
um a lot of this actually looks like silver overspray that came through the holes when
I painted the backs and that’s why I paint the backs first and
the faces last so I have a tack cloth here
and just ball it up and it will remove dust from the surface
because it’s a little sticky get in these inset areas too
and around the lugs real quick any dust in there could become airborne and
land on the face once I start spraying and don’t forget about the outer bead area
I’ll be painting that as well then I like to use compressed air to get off
any remaining dust ok first coat with the VHT silver this is just going to be a light coat
remember the first coat doesn’t even need to cover all of the primer shit the nozzle keeps clogging that’s not good ok I cleaned the nozzle with some Duplicolor
prep spray let’s try this again I don’t know what’s going on
the nozzle keeps getting clogged this is really old paint let’s try the nozzle from the can of Prep
Spray wow this works
it’s a lot faster I’m moving as fast as I can and it’s covering
the whole surface the opening on the old nozzle was smaller
now it’s just hosing out paint it’s almost splotchy in some areas
it comes out so fast I’m not concerned with the inset areas
mainly just want the faces to look good well I’m already started
might as well keep going I do like how bright the silver is it’ll be a nice contrast with the black
rustoleum over there I’ll let this dry for ten minutes alright time for coat two here look at this
see how much comes out if I paint it like a normal can? all the flake is just running so be quick being further away definitely helps outer edge
that’s plenty I’m a little light there for the second
coat that’s better Here’s a can of Prep Spray I grabbed the
nozzle from and some caliper cleaner notice the hole is bigger on the prep spray
tip than the silver VHT one then look at the caliper cleaner
it’s huge that would just squirt the wheel with paint time for color coat three
the wet coat get the bead area again you don’t want that to be bare aluminum,
especially with road salt because it can corrode around the bead and
cause the tire to lose air pressure. now I’m getting the very outer edge of the
lip and now the spokes
I can’t go any lighter and get the whole area and the outer edge of the face that’s a pretty good wet coat I’m a little light around the center of
the wheel that’s better
nice gloss smooth
I better quit while I’m ahead no runs Now for the experimental part I’ve never used this over aerosols before
but it worked in the test it’s all enamel paints It’s been about five or so minutes since
I did the wet coat and it’s a little tacky
but I should get started in case this takes a while
the warm weather makes it dry faster just like that
kind of dabbing it on nice and thick So this took a little bit longer than expected
I was using a pretty fine brush for the area I was painting
a slightly larger brush would have sped things up
I had to go slow and be careful around the edges
but I think it was still better than waiting 7 days for the silver to cure, then masking
off all the faces on 5 wheels, and then spraying 3 coats on the inset areas, and then slowly
peeling off the tape, hoping that all my edges were masked well and none of the silver peeled
off in the process. alright I have one done
it’s really glossy and thick too
see how it self levels? I did get a little sloppy around the edges
in a few spots but that won’t be too obvious when they’re
on the 80 and I’m not 8 inches from the wheel
this one was my warm up now it’s time to do 4 more
and then 20 more after that but I’m glad to have found a new way to
do something what do you think, would you rather use a
brush or mask off the face and spray the insets? alright one wheel is done
well I still need clear coat but here’s how it looks
it’s a little rougher than I hoped once the paint completely leveled
It looks like a rough cast surface underneath but it’s actually build up of overspray
that went through the holes when I painted the back of the wheel some are worse than others but that’s nit picking close up there was a spot where I went too far with
the brush and got black paint on the face of the spoke it was
right here you can barely see where it was I just took my finger and wiped it back away
from the face and it was all good and I wiped it as soon as it happened
before it had any time to dry when I dip the brush in the paint
I hold it over my hand just in case it drips over the face
that would be devastating but yeah
no bad accidents time for the clear coat
before my hour recoat window expires and I have to wait 7 days for this to cure I’ve got the clear cans out in the sun
beside the Legend clear coat repair video coming soon on that right now it’s time to clear this wheel this is the old label, they don’t look like
this anymore so I’m getting the bead area first
because some of this overspray is bound to land on the face
and I want that to happen before I paint the face with the clear it’s nice to use a regular speed nozzle
again now I’ll use the new cans for the face
just in case that old can of clear is a slightly different formula or a little yellow from
age never had it happen with these but better
safe than sorry always a good idea to read the instructions
yep it has the same recoat window so it is an enamel ohh that’s a nice spray pattern Just like before
I’m trying to get in here and spray all the hard to reach areas first
starting with the center of the wheel because I’ll get some paint on the face
as well then the inset areas are next it’s just the first coat
so I’m keeping it light I know clear looks so good when you lay it
on thick, but save that for the wet coat right now I’m just building up the clear
with light coats start off heavy and it’s more likely you’ll
get a run or a sag and that’s a good first coat It’s been 10 minutes
and I’m using the old can on the bead area it has a more narrow spray pattern compared
to the new cans so it’s perfect for this Then I did another light coat of clear on
the face of the wheel The third coat of clear was the wet coated
I layed it down heavy alright one wheel is complete it was a pretty heavy wet coat I could have used a little less orange peel when it’s hot out like this the paint can
atomize in the air and start to dry before it gets the chance to level on the surface
and that gives it that rough texture but it’s not terrible but I think it will look good on the vehicle I’m being picky right now because I’m
only a few inches away I put it out in the sun
and it looks really good you might see a few sort of hazy or cloudy
areas that’s from a really thick clear coat and
that will go away as the clear dries there’s a better look at the hazy areas but that’s nothing to worry about now that this is dry
I’m a little unhappy with how rough the texture is in these inset areas
feels like sand paper in some parts looking at the wheels I haven’t finished
yet it’s silver overspray from the back side so I’m scraping it off with a scuff pad
and that feels better yeah look at this difference I’m going to do this to the other four wheels
and that should give a more smooth finish in those inset areas On the next wheel I perfected the brushing
technique for the inset areas making the top outer edge the last thing I
painted also instead of dabbing the paint on
I loaded up the brush and painted along with the edge for a much smoother line
I had a total of 25 of these holes to paint, so I was pretty efficient by the time I got
to the last wheel i just finished another wheel and check out
how smooth the inset areas are on this one getting that rough overspray off makes all
the difference let me show you an easy and effective way
to clean the brush for an enamel paint like rustoleum
you need paint thinner for oil based paints with mineral spirits get a cap from one of the spray cans
these Duplicolor ones are perfect because they have these 4 little dividers inside get some of the thinner into each divider
and some on the middle clean the brush in one of the dividers then the next one and next each one is less contaminated because the
brush is cleaner then after the last outside divider give the brush a good wipe down then one more dip in the clean thinner in
the middle and another wipe one more dip in the clean thiner and that’s nice and clean and it didn’t even use a lot of the thinner
to clean it up Hey guys
I’m down in the parts warehouse the wheels have had almost 2 weeks to cure
now I’m loving how they turned out there were a few oops that happened like right here I hit the wheel with the bottom
of the can when I was painting it there’s a little bit of corrosion that I
missed when I was doing the filler primer here’s that one wheel that looked like someone
beat it with a hammer right here i also hit it with the bottom edge
of the can when I was painting I gotta be more careful the nozzle was slowly leaking and a drop of
silver paint dripped right here but I’m happy overall
they’re looking good and I want to keep them looking good with a coat of wax Just some old school yellow carnauba wax like
you’d use on a car’s paint any time I put a new set of wheels on a vehicle or after I take the time to detail wheels I always apply a coat of wax this will help seal the surface and not only
make them a lot easier to clean, but also help protect them from tar or grease and most
importantly road salt For the face I just wax on and wipe off, just
like waxing a car I’m doing the bead area just like I did
the face of the wheel now for the inside of the wheel that won’t
really be visible I apply the wax but instead of wiping it off,
I just leave it on for an extra layer of protection against brake dust, tar and salt. Hey I just got back from getting these mounted
and there were some issues the tire shop’s machine did some damage
to the paint I expected a couple small nicks around the
edges there’s a scratch this is bad
it scraped the paint part way off big scratch up front this one had a pretty big chip on the edge first I need to clean the surface of any wax
or grease just spraying a paper towel with some prep
spray I need to wipe all these down
look at that I sprayed a little of the VHT silver into
the cap and now with a small brush just dab some paint on the chip
like that coming back for a second coat
and look at that can barely tell it was chipped Thanks for watching how to refinish wheels
with professional results from aerosol paint that anyone can spray in their garage I made sure to leave all the bloopers in because
mistakes are the best way to learn so here’s how they look on the 80
what do you think? I always liked how the LX450’s had painted
insets so I thought I’d try it on these and my goal was for the black on the wheels
to match all the black trim on the body and before you ask
yes I did get oem center caps they’re in pretty rough shape as well
some of the steps are different for plastic caps compared to aluminum wheels
and I’ll be showing how to restore those in an upcoming video I finally have larger spare to match the rest
of my tires it fits no problem on the oem JDM tire carrier There’s my old spare with the factory tire
size So there’s one more thing crossed off the
list on restoring the cheapest imported 80 series land cruiser in the US subscribe if you’re not already cause there’s
more to come thanks for watching The acid cleaner worked great on the corroded
wheels that came on my 80 These may be in a future restoration video I thought they were 3-piece wheels no manufacturer markings anywhere but upon closer inspection after cleaning
them they’re actually a 2-piece wheel the barrel is one piece and the face is separate if anybody has a guess as to who made these
wheels, I’d love to know
