Well...talk about a mission......i had decided that the current paint job on the bike has to go...and while that is fairly simple with the spare tank and panles...the wheels are a bit of an issue...so since i needed a new rear tyre anyway i decided to remove the wheel and take a look...the PO had painted the entire hub, the original wheel was polished Ali around the rims and on the "spoke" edges..... So i had the tyre removed...then went at the wheel with paint stripper thinking they had painted over the polished ali.....didn't work at all...so then i used a drill mounted wire wheel and cut away all the paint from the outer section of the rim....then slowly cut away the inner section to the rim "ridge" where the polished area stops... Once i had cut both sides i then started with 120grit wet n dry....around the hub twice...taking out all imperfections and obviously any remains of the paint....then worked my way down the grades...180...once round....280...once round....320....400....finishing with 800..........after doing the first side where i only did the 120 once i worked out that most of the work gets done with the 120...hence twice round on the second side...the rest just makes it smoother and smoother....so 6 hours later.....a finished wheel..well....finished enough to get the tyre on....so the idea is to do the front wheel...once my worn out nails and finger ends have grown back....and then mask them both and paint them black...then polish the bare ali and then clear coat... heres some photos....not sure how well they show the amount of work involved.... http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/pi...ictureid=32922 http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/pi...ictureid=32758 http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/pi...ictureid=32757 http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/pi...ictureid=32754 http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/pi...ictureid=32749
I admire such dedication to the task cmoore! By the way is that ice cream containers of engine oil on the lounge floor? lol
Well done cmoore. They will look very smick when back on the bike
nah...but yeah it was in the dinning room....and the ice cream container was for the water...
Last time I did something like this I used tom Taylors bead blaster, shit loads easier, though not nearly as good a finish as you have there cmoore.
Whilst it was a lot of work...it is one of those very satisfying jobs....but thanks Caseye
that's great work cmoore! but 6 hours... that's a lot of work! if you are after the original finish and don't mind paying a bit you may want to try dip-stripping the other wheel - that removes the need for all that sanding and if that red paint was done on top of the original then by the time you've painted the wheels yet again the paint is going to be quite thick wheras the original finish is only a light coat of paint on the "textured" alu surface. i may be nit picking though. especially considering i had my wheels powdercoated
Nice cmoore- thanks for sharing. Absolute bastard of a job, my heartfelt sympathy to your poor fingers I've only hand stripped mags once, never again. Sooooo... what colour for the bodywork? Anything will go with the wheels now- the rainbow is your oyster so to speak
Thanks Dodgyiti...black is my preference....rattle can probably........
nice....I always wanted a tiled floor in my shed....
well i always wanted a shed on my tiled floor..
on the paint stripping thing....to get that really smooth Ali finish i think you have to sand down to it...there doesn't seem to be any short cuts...
cmoore- the short cut is a 'flapper wheel' for your drill.
+1 on the flapper wheel. I striped my wheels, painted them, flappered the the bits I wanted shiney and then hit them with clear.Then I stripped them and blacked them out
i looked at that but didn't see how i would get the definition in the join between painted and shiny if i didn't do the shiny first?...doing the shiny part means i can mask it and paint the rest...well that's how i saw it...open to ideas though and yeah the flapper wheel is a go i was gona cut a slot in a piece of rod and place strips of wet n dry into it...
