Subaru wheels

[Guest]

I have a set of Subaru STi wheels coming in for coating - will Cybersolve remove the stock coating or should I plan on having to blast it all of?

I haven't done a set before, should they be outgassed?

I haven't given him a price yet, but $75 ea for single-stage seems like it's in the ballpark.

Anyone have a good shot of SD Fire Engine Red, SD Red, or Blood Red? I found 1 photo of the Fire Engine Red on a set of calipers, but that's it.

Thanks.


Jay

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

The coating on the STi wheels is a real bitch to strip and I sent mine out and had the pro blasted before coating them in flat black. The top coat is not bad to strip but it has a grey primer coat that is hard to get off.

I did outgas mine before coating and was happy with how they turn out.

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

SD wet red

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

Thanks Crimson.

Has anyone shot both the SD Wet Red and the SD Fire Engine Red?

On the PBTP site, the SD Wet Red looks a lot more orange than the FE Red.

Doesn't look very orange in your frame photo though.


Jay

[rbroker]

Re: Subaru wheels

Can these rims be PC'd over the existing finish? Or is it a PC primer, laquer color, and clear PC?

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

Can these rims be PC'd over the existing finish? Or is it a PC primer, laquer color, and clear PC?

That was my next question...

I know we have discussed this before, but what are everyone's feelings about it?

To me, if the coating is such a !#$%^ to get off, I don't see it being a problem to sand it real well and coat it - it's obviously a solid, well adhered finish. If they were being wet painted, 90% of the time that's what you would do.

What would the price be with sanding the wheel instead of stripping?

After blasting the !#$%^& out of it and priming to fill some of the rough texture from aggressive blasting, is it there an advantage?

Has anyone ever had a problem when coating over a strong factory finish on wheels?

Thanks.


Jay

P.S. Thanks for the pix HD. The only one I got in my search was the last one.

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

I'll tell ya this for info purposes, if it's right or wrong who knows.

There's a long time coater north of me that does lots of BMW stuff. He has said that what he does with the wheels that have that nasty primer is to blast off the top coat to get to the primer. Sand the primer smooth and apply your powder over that, says it holds up fine.

Jeff... I'm about to try this on some wheels tonight. The top coat comes off like nothing with the blaster. That bottom primer takes at least twice as long to remove. It's also a shocking little prick, sparks all over the cabinet. I'll try the method you posted and report later...

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

Well the first wheel is off-gassing... we'll see how it turns out with the OEM primer on there.

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

Juan]Well the first wheel is off-gassing... we'll see how it turns out with the OEM primer on there.

Not sure if there's a need to outgas. I've done that before, the primer yellowed a bit. It was still a pain to blast at that point and they went to my commercial blaster.

I out-gassed these because there was a couple of exposed bare metal areas.

I'm not very happy with the results from last night... this could have nothing to do with the primer though. I think it was user error.

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

what happen?

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

what happen?

Well here is my conclusion on blasting the manufacturer's primer or just coating over it.

Do not coat over the OEM primer unless you're able to sand blast the entire wheel without ever going past the primer. This is almost impossible on some wheels because of intricate areas that might require additional blasting time. If you reach bare metal on any point of the wheel then you have pretty much committed to blasting the entire thing down to metal.

I can't seem to blast only the first coat and always end up hitting metal somewhere, so I'm just blasting down to metal.

EDIT: Another couple of reasons why it's very difficult to avoid blasting the primer. Wheel may have some chips that go down to the metal. This requires that you blast that area all the way down, now you might as well blast the entire thing. Also, the primer may not reach the entire wheel (inside and behind the spokes) so you will have a well defined line where the primer stops and starts.

I think the only way to avoid removing the primer is to do a lot of hand sanding to fade the start/stop of the primer into the metal. The only way I see to coat the wheel would be to turn the KV way down and hot flock...

[Guest]

Re: Subaru wheels

maybe use powdercoat primer and sand that down to help fill in spots? haven't done one yet, but rims sure sound like a pain in the arse!