I managed to pick up some BMW Tigerclaw Alloys fairly cheap as they were in rough condition, kerbed rims, damage to the paint and blistering due to corrosion on the inner faces and outers. Other than that the rims were in good underlying condition with no cracks or buckles. (see pics below)
Given the weather of late I thought I would set about a refurb and use these rims for my summer tyres.
I spent some time souring the correct paint code silver, so for anyone who is interested the code I used is BMW 144 Felgensilber, it’s a great match to the OEM, plus good 2k cleracoat.(see pics)
Method I used for anyone thinking about a refurb was:-
Clean of the wheels with acid wheel cleaner to remove day to day debris.
I ground out the worst of the rim damage with my mini grinder with a flap disc attached (240grit)
I also ground out the corrosion on the inner face with same
Initial sand with 320grit, only use this was areas of my wheels were so bad I needed to sand out the flap disc marks and take it back down to base metal.
Wet and dry with 400 grit to smooth out the sanding marks and get the area flat
Wet and dry with 600 grit to get a reasonable flat surface to accept the etch and base primer.
I panel wiped all the surfaces and sprayed on etch primer to the local areas which were down to bare metal, then left for 48 hours.
Panel wiped again and laid on 3 coats of grey 2k primer using my trusty HVLP spray gun. Compared to my days using cellulose 2k is far better and laid down well after the first mist coats.
Left for 4 days and then wet and dry with 600 to 800 grit, to leave a lovely flat matt surface ( and no finger ends left a this stage either !) (see pics)
Finally did two wheels at a time,panel wipe, tac cloth and laid on 3 coats of the silver and as the silver flashed off laid down 2 coats of 2K clear coat. (see pics)
For a home spray job, and £65.00 in materials, I’m delighted with the results, just leaving then for a week of so before taking then to get the rubber on.
Hope the above assists someone in the future.
Next job – fixing PDC (See separate thread)
