Refinishing 85 GTS wheel centers [salvaged frm old forum]

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Red
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Refinishing 85 GTS wheel centers [salvaged frm old forum]

Postby Red » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:12 pm

[Grabbed from the wayback machine, and still needs to be cleaned up]

85 Pizza Cutter center caps -- perfectly refinished! 9:21 AM 12/4/2009 Reply Edit
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Image
[picture after refinishing, before logo blacked in]

I'd been looking for a way to refinish the center covers on my wheels for a long time but no one could figure out what the right silver color was. After throwing one cover (sloppy alignment guy) and finally getting it replaced (with a number of generous offers from forum members before the shop finally found one)...I decided it was time to bring the wheel covers up to snuff.

Toyota thinks they still have them available brand new for $84 each, even if you can get 20% off that would be $268 plus tax, damn near the price of a new "G" series wheel.

So first, all four went off to a local "Media Blasting" aka "bead Blasting" shop for soda blasting. Not sand blasting, but baking soda, which doesn't chew into the plastic like sand would. The guy was a gear head and feeling charitable, so he did all four for $20 cash. The "nude" pictures show you what they looked like with all the original silver paint and green primer blasted off, no extra sanding done.

Then I ran a 320-grit 3M sanding sponge over the flat square, to polish it up a bit, and left the rest all "as is", the texture, any knicks, whatever it was. Degreaded and sprayed with 3 light dustings of DUPLICOLOR ADHESION PROMOTER, which is the correct primer to use when applying their TVS paints over plastic.

Followed the instructions, let it dry between coats and after, and then applied three light coats of TSV "#178 Silver (M)". That's the magic number, it is a silver paint that is possibly a perfect match for the original factory alloy wheels.

Judge for yourself--the color shifts a bit depending on the angle you look at, but then again, so does the wheel. And it looks a whole lot better than raggy green edges where too many grease monkeys banged 'em on the concrete.

Three coats turns into more like six, in order to dust the sides and work in confined spaces, and the rear got one coat each of primer and color just on principle.

Then three coats of CLEAR TOP COAT over everything. And again, just one on the rear.

The Duplicolor "Truck, Van & SUV" paints come in 11 oz cans, not the same as the smaller car paints, and while I've got some primer and clear coat left over, the one can of silver just did the job for all four wheel covers. Total about $18 for the paint, under $40 for the whole job.

And baby looks good with new shoes! Or at least, good-as-new center covers on them. It looks like there is a defect in the design of the center caps, the plastic on all of them deveops cracks where the spring rings grip them. So while I was at it, I ran crazy glue into all the cracks, to try slowing down that decay. If the cracks go far enough--bye bye wheel cover could happen.

I've never seen a "car" series silver paint that looked like as good a match, and Duplicolor politely refused my request to send them a wheel cover so they could tell me their best match. But if anyone else has been wondering...Take a look at the Shutterfly page, take a look at the one pic of the refinished center cover, taken on a bright overcast day with my (sorry) cell phone camera.

From now on--I'll make Real Damn Sure that I pull the center caps myself before any tire guy touches the car again. Paint-wait-paint-wait-paint-wait....this can be almost a full day long job, painting and waiting and building up light coats. But it sure does shine!

Folks with sharp eyes will notice the "TOYOTA" logo was originally dark gray. Mine's now the same silver as the center caps. One of these days, I'll spend a day carefully masking and hand painting all four to bring those logos back to gray again--maybe. But properly masked and hand painted, that part of the job would take longer than all the rest did!

Using Duplicolor "Adhesion Promoter" plastic primer, then T178 Silver (M) and Clear Top Coat, all from their "Truck Van 7 SUV" line of products not their car paints, it is possible to bring old wheel cover centers back damn close to the OEM silver color.


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--Original owner, '85 Corolla GTS. Will trade for a Cadillac-Gage V150, or a Ford GT, in similar condition.




Jeonsah
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» 9:08 AM 12/11/2010 Reply Edit

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looks good. mabe for the "TOYOTA" part you could use some grey paint and a small brush?


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WTB AE86 Best Motoring International Vol. 42. Pm if you have it!

Red




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Re: (Jeonsah) » 9:53 AM 12/11/2010 Reply Edit

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Eventually got around to that. A paint brush would have taken forever, you can't just paint the bottom without hitting the sides, you can't paint the sides without having to spend lots of time where they meet the top.
So I filled them in, the same way you'd fill engraving on a bowling bowl or trophy, which allowed me to use a straightedge and just level off the top flush with the top surface.

I intentionally misused a "fabric paint" that I've worked with before, sold in small bottles in craft stores and Walmart. It is actually a plastic "puffy paint" that kids use to make designs on t-shirts and the like. It doesn't shrink as it dires, so the engraving stayed full. I figured that if it can withstand repeated trips through the wash--and it does that very well--that it can probably withstand being on my wheel covers.

Mixed black with glitter-silver, so the result is a slightly sparkly dark charcoal gray for the TOYOTA part. Something like the BMW dark anthracite gray that Toyota should have offered back in '85, instead of the nebbish gray they shipped these cars in.<G>






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--Original owner, '85 Corolla GTS. Will trade for a Cadillac-Gage V150, or a Ford GT, in similar condition.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S