Explorer wheels :-) and :-(

buggman

buggman

Do not touch the trim!
After nearly 2 years of wanting, I finally got my hands on a set of expo teardrop alloy wheels.

Got the old tires pulled off at WallyWorld (for free :thumbsup: ) and got 'em home & washed some of the crud off them.
I was hoping they'd just need a good cleaning, but I think they're gonna need to be completely sanded to remove some scrapes & scratches that go through the clear coat.

Pics later tonight hopefully...

Should I first go the route of stripping the finish off them before I start sanding or will the finish not affect the sandpaper too badly?

I had planned to just paint the inside teardrops black or dark charcoal gray for a little contrast, but if I can't get them polished back to look presentable, I may have to paint everything... maybe a silver/gray high temp paint if I can find anything... if not how would solid gloss black look?

This is basically what they look like now:
ALY03186U.jpg


This is my first idea:
img6158n.jpg


If anyone has any photoshop skills, is there any way to do the main rim in black & leave the teardrops gray?

The best I can come up with is a negative version...:thumbdown:
blackexpo.jpg
 
Got a few pics tonight while working on them...

Before.
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After.
IMG_2406.jpg


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So far I have the back side of 2 wheels completely sanded, smoothed & painted as well as the front rim on 2 sanded & ground down flat.

The first one took forever... sanded everything by hand. I got smart on the 2nd one and used a brass wire wheel on the drill & did some final sanding once the bulk of the gunk was removed.

The only black flat paint I could get to was some Rustoleum rust prohibitive paint that I was gonna use under the truck... figured this was a better use. A couple coats covered everything completely one the back side & hopefully will make cleaning them later on a little easier.

Probably isn't any real good reason to clean the back/inside of the wheels, but I figure it's better to do it while they don't have tires on them than to try to do it later on.

There was a ton of rubber build up inside the rims, so I've been scraping & sanding all that down smooth too.

Not sure how fine of a grit of sandpaper I'll need to go down to on the front sides, but I used 100g on the backs & it actually was pretty smooth.
Once I get to work on the fronts, I'll probably sand down to 400 or so.

I picked up a new buffing wheel today & I'm going to try my hand at buffing the aluminum back to a semi-professional looking finish before I jump right into painting them.

Found some center caps & 4 lug nuts too. The caps are in pretty good shape, but I believe I'm going to have to cut out a hole in the center for my auto hubs to poke through... my current front caps have the big hole in them, so I'm guessing the Expo hubs were built differently.

In the unlikely event that my aluminum buffing skills are up to par, should I spray any clear over them or would I be just as well to keep a can of aluminum polish handy instead?
 
You need to remove all that paint you just slapped on there. You need a special self etching primer for ANY kind of paint to stick to aluminum.
 
Another tip for painting aluminum is pickling the aluminum, it involves cleaning the aluminum with vinegar and water, This will leave a milky haze on the aluminum when it is fully clean. Can be primered or painted over at that point, but I too would go with the etching primer on wheels since they see so much crud from road use.

As for the two choices on paint for me I would do the second idea(the negative) just because it is different from what everyone else would most likely do.
 
I'm not too worried about that paint on the back, if it doesn't stay it's no great loss. Just wanted to throw something on there to make 'em look nice for now.
That rustoleum stuck pretty well though, I can't scratch it off with my fingernails. Has a thick texture almost like bedliner.

When/if I paint the front sides, I'm gonna grab a couple cans of self etching primer to make it stick as well as possible.

I've had my eye on every ranger I see around here & I've only seen a couple with the tear drop wheels & they've all been the stock silver/gray.
I'm gonna test the black tear drops hopefully today to see how they look.

If I'm able go get them buffed out, will any good clear spray work? Like rustoleum or Krylon or do they make an engine/wheel spray clear?
I've used the cheap clear before & it turns yellow after it's in the sun for a while.
 
Did a little testing today and I might actually be able to buff them to a polished finish... if I can fix all the nicks & scratches in the fronts.
Never really wanted polished wheels but if it works, what the heck?!
 
I personally like polished wheels better than matte. But theyre your rims lol. Do what ya want with em and if someone says they dont like em, tell em to quit looking at them lol
 
What a day!

Just got in from the garage at 3am after working on these wheels most of the day.
Grabbed a couple cans of self etching primer & just sprayed 2 coats on 1 wheels' teardrops & I kinda like this stuff. Sprays smooth, covers really well... smells like a skunk fart.

I have the front of one wheel sanded down to 600g and buffed and it doesn't look half bad. Tomorrow when the primer has cured for a few more hours, I'm gonna spray some black gloss on those teardrops & see how it looks.
Nobody around here had any of the gloss black wheel paint, everything was flat... so I grabbed a couple cans of engine high temp paint. Hopefully that will hold up.

I did get a couple cans of wheel clear gloss, but I may just leave the polished aluminum alone.

My next dilemma is........ should I buff the chrome center caps or should I paint them black?
 
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