The horrible corrosion on the newer 18″ GS450S rear wheel prompted me to get both wheels sandblasted. Technically, they were blasted with coal slag media, but in reality there’s little effective difference. A couple of weeks ago, I had them both blasted for $75 —plus about $16 in gas to shuttle them to the shop about 35 miles away.
I considered leaving them as they were, leaving them raw but polishing the outer rim, OE style. A several people dissuaded me, suggesting it would be a ton of work to successfully get the look I’m after. The shop where I got them blasted does powder coating, but the price was unjustifiable given my budget.
Once we got an afternoon that was warm, sunny, and low enough humidity to get a coat of etching primer on the stripped wheels.
By the way, motorcycle wheels are evidently prime real estate among arthropods. I wiped the wheels down with a microfiber cloth, then set them on the tarp in direct sunlight for about 20 minutes to warm them up. In that 20 minutes, a spider managed to make a fairly complex web between the spokes of the front wheel. Dude — seriously? Worse yet, when I casually tried to brush it away with my hand, all the strands of web went everywhere and clung to the wheel in hard-to-find places. Fortunately, the primer is pretty forgiving and when the paint would highlight a little thread, I could just wipe the area and hit it again. Coverage ended up on the thin side in the nooks and crannies, but better to do two coats than make a globby mess of it.
My initial plan was:
- Two coats of self-etch green primer,
- A coat of gray body primer,
- A light, all-over knock back with white Scotch-Brite,
- Wipe down with acetone,
- Final coat of matte gold.
After a second coat of green etch primer about a week later, I decided to forego the gray primer and go straight to the gold. It laid on nicely enough that I went ahead and gave it a full coverage coat, rather than just a guide coat. I will definitely need to sand the machined surfaces smooth, but the pebble-grain cast surfaces are already as good as they need to be now.
The Seymour Hi-Tech paint was highly recommended, and I can confirm that it’s really nice stuff. Any deficiencies in the final product will due to my prep and application, not the paint. The gold looks exactly as I’d hoped. It has perfect amount of metallic sheen — not so matte it looks like mustard, and not so glossy as to mimic gaudy gold leaf.
Also, I always assumed that spray-can pistol grip triggers were little more than a gimmick. I have to admit that it makes extended spraying much more comfortable, and gave a more positive on/off that made it easier to put paint where I wanted it.
I’ll give these a few days or a week to get good and hard, then I’ll sand, de-grease, and hit ’em again. They’ll be more than good enough for what they’re for.