Just though I would do write up on the Simmons wheels I have been working on for the past couple weeks. They are Simmons V4's in 15x7 +35 offset, I bought them off of a friend who ran them on his MX5 for a while.
The wheels were quite battered when I got them, The centres were chipped, scuffed, and the powdercoat was peeling off in places. The lips were very gutter bashed, damaged by prior wheel weights, and were in a good need of repairing and polishing. The tyres were in good condition though, and have about 80% left on them.
When I got them.. you cant quite make out the poor condition in the pic.
It was time for me to fix them up, I started by removing the tyres, and pulling the wheels apart in 3 pieces. The powdercoat had to be removed, so I was off to see a local sandblaster. I was informed that powdercoat was very hard to remove with a sandblaster, and that it would take hours to do the wheel faces. I rang around to about 5 different sandblasters and was told the same thing by all of them.
So I decided to try some paint stripper, I used quite alot and let it soak in for about 30min, success!! The powder coat was starting to lift and peel off. Removing the powder coat was very time consuming, as it sticks alot better than paint. It took about 2 hours of work on each face to be totally powder coat free. After that I removed the baked on brake dust, on the rear half of the wheels, using a wire brush drill bit. I also filed out all of the gutter rash and polished the lips up a little, using mothers mag polish.
Wheels pulled apart, and powder coat stripped to reveal alloy cast centre.
After The powder coat was stripped I was ready to move onto the next stage, working out what colour I should make the centres. I was thinking black powder coat, but I decided against it as I would have lost all of the detail in the centre. I finally decided on gold powder coat, which I think looks nice on a white car.
I rang around to about 9 different powder coaters to ask about gold colours, with no luck. I was told that there are only 2 options in gold powder coat, so I went down to have a look and both were not to my liking. The gold's were too dark, and would have looked silly on a white car.
In the end I recommended by one powder coater to get them painted the colour gold I wanted. He gave me the number for Advanced Alloys in Moorabbin, so I gave them a ring to get a quote for getting the centres painted, and a few casting holes repaired. I was quoted $350 to get them done, which I wasnt prepared to pay, as thats more than what I paid for the wheels, with tyres.
I decided to give it a try myself, I have done a few panel repairs before, and know how to paint...why not?
I went and had a look around and found some Gold enamel paint in a spray can. I bought a can and went home to see how it would come out on one of the faces..
With no prep I sprayed one of the centres and mounted it back onto the wheel. I was very pleased with the colour, so I went back and bought some more paint.
Gold enamel, no prep and no clear..
Once I had purchased all the paint I needed, I went to work on the centres, stripping the one I just sprayed, filling all the casting holes, and little imperfections. After a couple days work off and on, they were starting to look pretty good. I then sanded the centres down, and made sure the bits I filled were nice and smooth, and cleaned them up with prepsol.
