8 Spoke Alloy Wheel Colour Change

Around a week after dropping my (new) 8 spoke R500 wheels into the guys at Mint Alloys, I got a call to say they were ready... I asked the guys there to take a few pictures of the process, so you could see what's involved in repainting alloy wheels to a factory standard.

So the process went like this...
I dropped the wheels off and chose a colour... Initially I thought the factory finished anthracite colour from Caterham would give me a good contrast with the orange rim, but once I had the full set I instantly knew they were too light.  So when at Mint alloys I chose a dark grey colour with a bit of a silver metallic flake in, called... well I'll get onto the colour name in a bit...
Here are the wheels with the colour swatch to show the difference in colour that would be achieved.

Caterham R500 8 spoke 13" wheels in factory finish anthracite grey.

Now onto the wheel refurbishment process
The wheel gets chemically stripped for roughly a couple of hours and ends up looking like this:-

Chemically stripped Caterham R500 8 spoke wheel.

After chemical stripping, the wheels are cleaned down and dried, then checked for any kerb damage (as mine were new wheels and weren't damaged this checking part was unnecessary)

Any light kerb damage would be removed using hand tools, but for the larger deeper damage in some instances a weld will be added proud of the wheel rim then the wheel would be re-profiled accordingly.

The wheel then goes into the blast cabinet for media blasting using an ally oxide for cleaning and keying to allow the powder coat to adhere properly.

Wheel after media blasting.

After the media blasting process is complete, the wheels are then blown down using an air line to remove any residual media used in the blasting process.

The wheels then go into the clean room where the guys at mint allows apply a coat of an anti corrosive product to the naked wheel to eliminate potential future corrosion problems.  The wheel is then placed in the oven and runs through a bake known as a de-gas cycle at a temperature of 200c for approximately 20-25 minutes.

My wheels with what looks like a set of 997 turbo wheels in the oven in the 'degassing cycle'

Once the wheels have been de-gassed and whilst they're still warm, a coat of powder coat primer is applied which in my case was black.

Wheels powder coated in black.

The wheel is then placed back in the oven for a green cure which assists with the cross adhesion of the paints later in the process.  Once the wheels have gone through the green cure process the wheels are pulled out of the oven and are allowed to cool slightly where the team at Mint Alloys then apply a wet coat of chosen colour, in my instance this is annoyingly called 'Skoda glitter black' as apposed to 'Jaguar glitter black' which is the same colour... Anyway I now have Skoda on my Caterham R500 which I guess will make the fastest Skoda wheel painted car around?

Wheel painted with Skoda glitter black

Once the wheels have been painted they are allowed to 'flash off' which means the paint is allowed to semi dry.  Once the wheels have cooled sufficiently the guys at Mint Alloys apply a powder lacquer coat (which appears white before baking) and then the wheels are put back in the oven for the final heat cycle for around 20 minutes.

Wheels with Powder Lacquer coat before final baking.

And after the final bake the wheels are is finished. The final picture of the alloys is below, and I am very happy with them.  They are a superb dark grey colour with a small bit of metallic flake in them to bling them up a little.  The only real problem is the 'Skoda' part of the colour name!  I guess from now on I'll refer to the colour as 'Jaguar glitter black'

Having used Mint Alloys a number of times in the past, I was once again left very happy with the end result.  They really do a good job, and with all the equipment they have, they make your wheels like new again.  A link to their site is here http://www.mintalloys.com and it's best to speak with Andy (who loves Caterhams and used to race in the Academy in 2002!) or his business partner Keith.

On the way back from Mint Alloys I dropped the wheels off to Dave at Daytona Coachworx who will be painting the wheel rim over the next three or four weeks.  We discussed where the rim should be masked to and how large the orange rim will be.  After looking at some pictures online we decided to go right around the curved section of the rim and a sample mask was laid onto the wheel.

New wheels with a sample mask laid onto rim.

And the final piece of the puzzle was the get a RAL colour to match the decals on the car.  I didn't have a RAL chart so ordered one off eBay.  It arrived this morning and I offered up the RAL chart to the decals on the bonnet and it looks like RAL 2004 is the colour the rims will be painted in.

Mactac Semi Flourescent orange decals on Caterham R500 match RAL 2004 colour code.

So the next stage will be to let Dave do his work and then collect the wheels from him in three to four weeks.  Then get the AVON ZZR's fitted, paint the tyre wall and this project will be finished.