RESTORING CONTESSA MAGS - Submitted by 'Bromley'
This is was the condition of the rims when I got them. Very grubby with traces of pink paint. The tyre shop down the road removed the tyres for me free of charge.
I tried a wire wheel attatchment on my drill and sandpaper to clean them up. I am fairly imaptient when it comes to these sort of jobs so decided to get them sandblasted. ($10/Rim)
(Be warned - If sandblasting make sure they don't do the highly polished surrounds. This happened to me
)
Another option is to use a paint stripper and a degreaser to clean the wheels. Sandblasting gives you a very tidy canvas to work with.
Because I got my surrounds sandblasted I used a wire wheel to bring back a bit of shine and it actually came up with a unique effect. Cover the parts you don't want painted with masking tape ($1.90)
Then I used a pressure pack etch primer ($13). I gave the rims two coats all over and allowed time to dry.
Next step was the application of the colour. I chose a standard silver in a pressure pack ($6.95). I used two of these because I gave the wheels about 6 coats. As per directions more thin coats are better than one or two thick ones.
(Keep dogs away or else you will be picking bit of hair off your job all day
)
Last job was a couple of coats of gloss enamel that really made the colour glisten. One pressure pack (about $4 at BigW) was enough for this job. There is a one hour wait time between coats.
The Finished Product
This photo does not do justice to the finished product. By the time the last coat of enamel dried it was dark and I had to take these photos inside with the flash. But they have come up really nice.
Total Cost = Just under $60