Cleaning and Detailing

I got a set of 15" bundts recently, and they need to be refinished.

They appear to have a clear-coat over the silver, which is cracked and crazed.

Is that typical?

I'm thinking of soda-blasting to remove the finish back to bare [?]aluminum, then a grey powder coat finish of the right shade.

I've also got a set of 14x6.5 bundts I bought about a year ago. (Seller thought they were 15" because that was the outside diameter of the rim...) Got 'em cheap, and want to dress them up a bit for a quick sale. Someone here (I think) posted about using some Rustoleum, or some such commercially available paint to revive a set of tired (not tyred) bundts. Would appreciate information in that area - I don't want to go to the trouble of fixing these up to the same level as those for the 6.9 - just want them to look nice to garner a quick sale.

W. Brian Fogarty

'92 300SE (W140)
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

I shot a set in brilliant silver and clear coated them. They came out pretty decent. For the quick dress up. Duplicolor sells paint in cans that can also be clear coated. I used this one and all i had to do is scuff the wheel and shoot it. The Duplicolor paint is high build so it filled a lot of the scratches out.

It came out well enough that someone traded me my 14 inch bundts for a set of 16 inch Lorinsers.

With best regards

Al
1971 Mercedes Benz 250CE (RHD in the UK)
1971 Mercedes Benz 300SEL 6.3
1973 Mercedes Benz 280CE 4 speed
1973 Mercedes Benz 350SE 4 speed
1977 Mercedes Benz 350SLC
1979 Mercedes Benz 450SEL 6.9
1979 Mercedes Benz 450SLC 5.0
1980 Mercedes Benz 500SLC
1980 Mercedes Benz 500SLC
1997 Mercedes Benz E420
1973 GMC LWB Pickup
2006 Adidas Samba

I Use regular paint stripper to remove the paint (sometimes these wheels have had numerous coats of paint) then I simply wash them and go over the bumps with 180 wet'n dry to smooth them out.
The best thing i have ever seen for cleaning alloy is Wet blasting. it brings the alloy up in a satin shine without the hassles of micro dents you get with other forms of blasting.
i then coat the wheels with an etch primer with high build characteristics then sand them with 800 . a couple of coats of Astral Silver base followed by two coats of clear 2k and you have wheels that look new. The hardest part is getting the old paint off.

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12-14-2004, 11:49 PM #8
Tom Hanson
MBCA Member

What the heck, try to stuff a MB 6.9 liter V8 in it. What a machine that would be..
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Tom Hanson
Orange County Section

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