A month or so ago, I picked up a set of JK Pintlers. I would have preferred Bridgers, but I'm not willing to pay that kind of money for a set of wheels. Anyway, I got these wheels cheap, as they had some wheeling rash on them. One of the wheels had a small, 3" crack along the outer lip. I paid 300 bucks for them including two 285/70R17 tires with about 13/32 tread. The tires are General Grabbers AT2's.
Anyway, I started working on them about a week ago, getting them ready to repaint. I don't have a lot of extra pictures from before, but here are a couple.
This is about the best of them.
Here is the worst! I've already started to fill scratches and what not here. The missing area is what was cracked. I broke it out, and took it to my Uncle, who runs a Fab shop.
After welding...
Here are all the wheels, all sanded and major scratches filled. The outer lips still have some rash on them, but I filled the major gouges and rebuilt missing material with JB weld. The minor scratches were either sanded out or filled with Bondo putty (the stuff for pinholes that comes in a tube).
Interesting thing about these wheels (and most alloys, I assume) is that your NOT supposed to powdercoat them. Apparently, it ages the aluminum...so when they are produced new, they are given a powdercoat primer to fill in the minor casting defects, then paint is applied over that. The powdercoating process is actually part of the heat treatment process, so it doesn't age the wheels prematurely. The dark gray spots in my wheels are where the paint was thin and I sanded into the powdercoat. These are about ready to prime. I need to give them a REAL good cleaning.
As far as painting is concerned, I'm going to mix up some Argent paint, starting with Duplicolor's Paintshop line. Its a ready to spray Lacquer. I've had really good results with it in the past on a golf cart I build with my Dad. Picture of said cart, just because I'm as big of a picture whore as the next guy!
I'm starting with their metallic silver and I'll buy some black model paint. Thanks to @techster82 who clued me into the paint code for the Argent color (Chrysler's Mineral Gray PDM). I'll pick up some touch up paint and mix up some batches with different amounts of silver and black. I should be able to get it pretty close.
Anyway, I started working on them about a week ago, getting them ready to repaint. I don't have a lot of extra pictures from before, but here are a couple.
This is about the best of them.
Here is the worst! I've already started to fill scratches and what not here. The missing area is what was cracked. I broke it out, and took it to my Uncle, who runs a Fab shop.
After welding...
Here are all the wheels, all sanded and major scratches filled. The outer lips still have some rash on them, but I filled the major gouges and rebuilt missing material with JB weld. The minor scratches were either sanded out or filled with Bondo putty (the stuff for pinholes that comes in a tube).
Interesting thing about these wheels (and most alloys, I assume) is that your NOT supposed to powdercoat them. Apparently, it ages the aluminum...so when they are produced new, they are given a powdercoat primer to fill in the minor casting defects, then paint is applied over that. The powdercoating process is actually part of the heat treatment process, so it doesn't age the wheels prematurely. The dark gray spots in my wheels are where the paint was thin and I sanded into the powdercoat. These are about ready to prime. I need to give them a REAL good cleaning.
As far as painting is concerned, I'm going to mix up some Argent paint, starting with Duplicolor's Paintshop line. Its a ready to spray Lacquer. I've had really good results with it in the past on a golf cart I build with my Dad. Picture of said cart, just because I'm as big of a picture whore as the next guy!
I'm starting with their metallic silver and I'll buy some black model paint. Thanks to @techster82 who clued me into the paint code for the Argent color (Chrysler's Mineral Gray PDM). I'll pick up some touch up paint and mix up some batches with different amounts of silver and black. I should be able to get it pretty close.
