Wheel Restoration - Capri Laser Wheels

[Rally Pack 2000]

I have a set of five Capri Laser wheels I was wanting to put on my car with the new tyres I just purchased. I paid an fair amount for these wheels up front and had all the gutter damage repaired etc. Afterwards I had them powder coated and they guy did a really poor job. I would be embarrassed to put them on my car. (Not to mention he powder coated the central hole area that they no longer fit on the rear hubs.)To get the powder coating removed is going to cost min 30 pounds a rim to acid dip them and even then they would have to be polished again.

 

Further to this as mentioned in another thread once the powder coating is off I want to get the spokes painted black but the wheel restoration place near home said I couldnt pay them enough money to mask off the spokes and paint them. I was really put off by this as I thought thats what this business specialises in. I asked the guy at the acid stripping place and he said you will find the right guy for the job when I look in the mirror first thing in the morning. I replied that I have had that guy do work before an its often dodgy LOL. So the deal is do I invest alot more money and attempt to paint these spokes myself or just give up. I have heard some on here mask and paint them themselves, what do you use to fine mask the curved edges etc? I should mention at this point RS and Laser wheels are rare as here in Australia so what many would think why bother with not so valuable Laser wheels there isnt many alternatives for Escorts available.

 

Have some of you just bought replica ones instead? I heard John Brown Wheels made one but the picture on their site looks very stylised rather than the actual wheel. Do they even accept the original RS centre caps? Are their any other brands possibly? This option would be a last resort as the Australian Dollar is so low against the pound at the moment and the cost to ship boost costs even further.

 

Your thoughts and suggestions most welcome.

[Vista]

I masked mine myself and the took them in to be painted. It was enormously time consuming doing all the masking. Probably why your guy doesn't want to do it. I just masked all of the spokes up with full width tape and then went around the whole wheel cutting all the excess out carefully and accurately with a razor blade.

[Rally Pack 2000]

I masked mine myself and the took them in to be painted. It was enormously time consuming doing all the masking. Probably why your guy doesn't want to do it. I just masked all of the spokes up with full width tape and then went around the whole wheel cutting all the excess out carefully and accurately with a razor blade.

 

I had considered masking it this way, but was worried the razor would start cutting into the soft alloy edges?

[Vista]

all down to how careful you are really. I trimmed the edge of the tape by holding the flat face of the razor against the flat face of each spoke and made sure I didn't lift the razor clear of the surface at any point

[colr6]

You can get what they call lining tape used for masking the edge of stripes up it comes in varying widths and is very easy to do corners with and the paint does not 'creep' under the edge so gives a very definite line. I've used this on alloy motorcycle wheels with great success. Would say no longer than hour a wheel at the most. If you don't get it right you can always peel off and start again!

[Rally Pack 2000]

Thanks for the replys so far. I have ordered some lining tape off Ebay to experiment with. These wheels are just proving to be a bottomless pit. I still cant even get a final costs figure to gauge whether to stop or not. If I remove all the powder coating and then have them re-polished then paint them myself someone mentioned that they will no longer be sealed or something and will corrode really easily. Surely they can be sealed after I have painted the spokes? I have a tin of stuff thats supposed to be for the purpose from Auto Glym. Maybe it needs something more permanent and professional applied. Either way everyone I have take then wheels too seem reluctant to give me a definitive answer.

[Vista]

You can have them relaquered over the top of the black paint once you've had that done and the metal bits polished but lacquer is prone to chipping and once that happens and water gets under it, it turns milky.

 

They won't corrode excessively as they are alloy after all but if you don't relacquer them then they do dull / tarnish eventually, it's just a case or repolishing by hand regularly. 

 

I didn't lacquer mine and they're still ok (if a little dull) 10 years on. Initially I would repolish them by hand regularly..................................but soon grew weary of that! 

[Rally Pack 2000]

The Autoglym Alloy wheel sealer may be a good interim product then to reduce the need for full on hand polishing?

 

At one of the Powder Coaters I visited he mentioned that the coating could be removed by paint stripper if I didnt want to take it to an acid dippers. I did a quick test on the back and it did seem to remove it albeit unevenly. It was quite surprising how relatively easy it came off as some dripped around to the front and took off the coating around where the centre cap fits. I think the fact they have never been out in sunlight since having the coating done it hasnt baked as firmly on possibly. That could prove an inexpensive option to get this stuff off but not sure what effect paint stripper would have on the polished rim part?

[stephens_xpack]

As Vista has said, no need to lacquer after painting, and probably even less so for you with the climate you live in.

But you do need to keep them polished regularly, to save time polishing get yourself a very fine polishing/buffing wheel.

You would need to be careful, but will bring them up to a mirror like finish if done correctly.

My wheels are not lacquered and never have been, they don't look great at the moment, but they have been stored for over 10 years without being touched.

But once I get the wheel and some polish on them, they will be nice, they haven't really corroded just gone very dull.

[anglia58]

i polished my rs wheels myself and painted the spokes with a bruss, not with a paintgun, after that i put some clear lacquer over the wheel

with a paintgun, they will stay nice for about 5 years, after that you will get some rust under the clear coat.

for painting the spokes, just use the 2k paint and harderen, no thinner, and a bruss with hard hairs, the paint will just flow together,

you can't see afterwarts that it's painted with a bruss, save's a lot of time,

cheers marcel

[Rally Pack 2000]

Well rather than spend 150 pounds to have the powder coating removed I decided to follow up the tip I got to try use paint stripper to get the coating off. Practising on the spare (which was the one I selected in the worse condition due it its bad powder coating job). I can report to those interested that it did indeed work. It certainly isnt a easy or quick process. You have to strip it multiple times using steel wool to scrape the gunk and residue off the wheel. Its quite messy but some thinners to wipe off the fine cloudy residue when you have removed the bulk of the coating. It didnt affect or etch the polished outer rim, in fact it came up shinier as the clear powder coating on the rim was dulling the shine.

 

Attached a comparison photo which is hard to tell but at least you can see the wheel wasnt ruined. The wheel with the RS cap is still powder coated silver in the centre and clear on the rim.

 

 

Since no wheel restorer was helping I took it too a metal polisher that had polished a water pump for me recently (yes I know but a Pinto engine can look so bland and industrial so I wanted to add a bit of bling) and he i willing to polish the spokes and rim and leave me to paint the inner spokes black myself. He suggested not clear coating and mentioned if i get a chip then thats where moisture starts gettin under the coating and that I should just periodically just polish the thing from time to time and it will stay presentable. Its going to cost 35 pounds a rim for the polishing. Not sure if that is good or bad.

 

 

[Rally Pack 2000]

I masked mine myself and the took them in to be painted. It was enormously time consuming doing all the masking. Probably why your guy doesn't want to do it. I just masked all of the spokes up with full width tape and then went around the whole wheel cutting all the excess out carefully and accurately with a razor blade.

 

Did you go Gloss or Matt Black for your spokes?

[Vista]

Did you go Gloss or Matt Black for your spokes?

 

 

Gloss

[Danish]

I masked mine myself and the took them in to be painted. It was enormously time consuming doing all the masking. 

 

I didn't mask mine - I had the wheels blasted and powder-coated silver, then we used artists brushes and hand-painted the black rims. It still took a while, but they turned out nice. 

[Rally Pack 2000]

Just back from the polishers.

 

 

Now the masking and paining myself. Its going to take ages.

[robert maguire]

I hand painted mine about 20 years ago ,in red, and its still good ,although they have sat in garage about  10 years now.Polish the edges once or twice and year and it will be fine.Polished edges actually look retro !!

[Brenda1978]

Rubbed mine down with wet and dry . Sprayed with strato silver. Then using carbon fibre vinyl wrap I hand cut some infills and stuck them in with a bit heat

[NudgerSS]

Here's a pic of mine going through the stages. As it was, primed, gold paint then black and lacquered

 

 

And here all finished...

 

[Rally Pack 2000]

Interesting I havent seen anyone go with gold before.

[robert maguire]

My Dad had set on mk2 Capri ,porobably around  1980 in Gold similar to above but light/pale shade of Gold is good ,not too dark. Hand paint the spokes in black works fine also

[katana]

In lieu of a razor blade get down to a hobbycraft or modellers shop and pick up a scalpel and some blades - soooooo much easier to work with - over mask and cutting shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes

[Rally Pack 2000]

In lieu of a razor blade get down to a hobbycraft or modellers shop and pick up a scalpel and some blades - soooooo much easier to work with - over mask and cutting shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes

 

You must have me under surveillance or something? I just spend an hour yesterday going around to shops trying to get that very thing. Most just looked at me strangely. Will try a hardware stores next. There are never any of them in the centre of town for some reason so you have to drive a bit to get to one.

 

I have used some bendy tape around the outside section to be masked just as a sample to see if its effective or not but still needs the cut out method for the rest of it as the bendy tape wont turn as sharply as needed.

[Rally Pack 2000]

In lieu of a razor blade get down to a hobbycraft or modellers shop and pick up a scalpel and some blades - soooooo much easier to work with - over mask and cutting shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes

 

Having just attempted my first wheel, masking and painting all I can say is that if you can do that in 15 mins your some kind of rainman wheel masking savant! You could charge a 100 pound an hour and we'll all queue up. If I wasnt in Australia I would already be on your doorstep with a box of chocolates and flowers begging you to take the job on .

 

Anyways here is my first attempt. I would call it adequate but nowhere near a professional job. Key thing I learned from my practise run was that when you masking it up dont double over the tape before you cut it. The razor doesnt glide through the tape if it has to do so with double thickness. So too when your twisting the blade to cur around corners one layer just crinkles up rather than cuts messing things up.

 

[katana]

Ah Ha.........that's why surgeons use scalpels not razor blades, they are dextrous, double sharp and not flimsy.

 

At £100 / hour what's the point - that's a whole set / hour - what do I do for the rest of the day ! LOL

[stephens_xpack]

Having just attempted my first wheel, masking and painting all I can say is that if you can do that in 15 mins your some kind of rainman wheel masking savant! You could charge a 100 pound an hour and we'll all queue up. If I wasnt in Australia I would already be on your doorstep with a box of chocolates and flowers begging you to take the job on .

 

Anyways here is my first attempt. I would call it adequate but nowhere near a professional job. Key thing I learned from my practise run was that when you masking it up dont double over the tape before you cut it. The razor doesnt glide through the tape if it has to do so with double thickness. So too when your twisting the blade to cur around corners one layer just crinkles up rather than cuts messing things up.

 

WheelMasked1.JPG

That has come out really good, how did you paint the inserts, spray or brush?  Wheel looks great.