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Refinishing Draco Alloy Wheels/Paint Match

Matching silver wheel paint is hell, I've tried. You also want a high performance paint with a high solvent content to get a good bite, and you'll have a hell of a time matching the finish with a spray bomb working around the spokes. You've of course checked all the Dupli-Colors, etc. at CdnTire.

For dressing mine up the other year (I did eight 940 10-spoke alloys), after a couple of failed attempts matching test paint, I opted to clean off every spec of road tar using a scrubby and solvent, even if it meant using a small brass wire wheel (the finish can take it if you don't get carried away). I got out or at least majorly reduced all the surface scratches. For deep scratches, nicks and trashed rim edges, what I did was use a thin artist brush and silver Tremclad (it's thick enough to use as a filler if you keep it stirred and dip to the bottom to pick up the aluminum powder), let it set up for a bit and wipe it off level and polish with a rag before it dries, repeat a couple of times if needed. Bit of a good rub with car wax polish to make it shine and not hold tar and I was really impressed. The rim and edge damage is still there, but most of it's really not noticeable from a distance and the surface nicks and scratches are no longer noticeable against the rest of the shiny wheel. Still looks excellent. Even improves with age as the Tremclad silver oxidizes a bit and the wheel slowly gets dirty again.

Are you taking the tires off? I was getting tired of increasing tire leaks from all the old bead sealer grunge and tire tool damage of the bead areas that's allowed a bit of aluminum corrosion. Prior to a new set of tires, I spent forever cleaning up the bead areas with a wire wheel, even using a knotted wire wheel on a couple of damaged spots with corrosion. I had to sand down to metal in a fair few areas to get it smooth. I used the best grey primer and the closest silver grey high quality wheel paint I could find. I sprayed the bead area inside the rims thick enough and without runs to get a gloss. I painted right out to the scuffed edge of the rim where needed, just not the face side of the edge. I then baked them under heat lamps and left them in the greenhouse on the bench to cure for a day in roaring hot sun, turning them a few times (so hot I needed gloves to handle them). The paint was now rock hard, able to take on tire irons and none of the tires needed topping up with air when the snows come off the next spring. Another option people have tried is baking in an oven, but it will take forever and reek up the house so bad that you'll never be forgiven.

I think it may be the 5-spoke Dracos that have been known to develop pin hole leaks at the spoke welds. On a previous car, my fix for such leaks was to paint the spoke area inside the rim with contact cement and let tire pressure keep it force out it into the pin holes, which should last almost forever. Tire shop taught me that trick 50+ years ago with the steel wheel weld leaks in my 122S sport rims.

While the alloys were off I also trued them up from pot hole damage and straightened bent edges close to the bead. A couple were visibly out of round and have always caused balancing problems. The local alloy straighteners are no longer in business after the race track closed and it would have been expensive to ship them to the nearest ones with a decent reputation. It's not for the faint of heart and you can't get carried away (lest you crack your rims), but with a piece of 2x4 and a hand sledge I was slowly able to get most of the rim damage out and the bead seat running true within the tolerance spec using a dial mic except for two. I did the worst two figuring I had nothing to lose, but they turned out so well I did the rest. Took me 10 days to do eight wheels from tire off to tire on and the tire jockeys were totally impressed with what I brought back, asking where I got the new alloys and how much I paid.

At the same time I also indexed the rims so they could mount the indexed tires to match (not all tires have an index mark). Two wheels needed no balance weights (I initially took them back and said they'd forgotten to do them). The worst four came back vibrating at sweet spots on the highway when on the fronts, so I had them properly load balanced (I will now always do that, you just need to find shops with a "Road Force" balancer). Two of those failed and couldn't be load balanced, so sent back under warranty (with the Road Force printout proving it was the tires) as out of round manufacture (all too common). I was told by a good tire store manager that even when okay from the manufacturer, tires can take on a permanent set and go out of round when cinched down in a tall stack for rail car shipping and if they sit like that cinched in a warehouse for any length of time the bottom ones of the stack should be avoided. He always tries to make good friends with his tire distributors so he can ask them for tires off the top of the stack in the warehouse. Said it saves him a lot of warranty work that he doesn't get paid for.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now






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