Alloy Wheel Refurbishment

[mjking20]

My practical every day VW Passat has alloy wheels that are starting to become very corroded which is leading to a lot of air leaking from the tyres. Now I know I could go and chuck a couple of hundred quid at them to get them blasted and powder coated but that would eat into my Mk1 MR2 project budget. So is there a more PPC way of refurbishing my alloys DIY style thus improving their look, stopping them leaking and saving me important MR2 money along the way? The internet seems to be full of contradicting stories about this but I am sure there are plenty of penny pinchers just like me on here who must have managed this in the past if it is possible.

[Renrut]

You need to seal them up which can only really be done with the tyres off.

You could spend a lot of time with a wire brush, sand paper and some tins of a non-porous paint.

Lots of work though and having done just the painting bit on my midget steel wheels I'd be inclined to just get a replacement set of good second hand alloys.

All IMO of course.

[mjking20]

Thanks for your thoughts. Sounds like patience will be important!

[owelly]

If your tyres are just leaking round the bead, knock the bead off clean up with a wire brush and then paint with tyre sealer. If the rims are leaking through porous alloy, then you'll need to remove the tyre completely, clean back to shiny alloy, and then etch-coat, primer and then top-coat with a good quality enamel. Or bite the bullet and get the rims blasted and powder coated. There's a guy up here who blasts wheels for £8 each and company who powercoat in flat colours for £15/wheel so if you do some ringing around, you should find somewhere local to you. It was costing me more to get the tyres swapped off and on than the wheel refurb so I've just bought a tyre changing machine and a balancer.