Repainting SSIIIs

[85 Supremeliner]

So what's up everyone.

This is my first thread [edit: other than the intro] on Gbody and thought I share my process for restoring so to speak a set of Olds SSIIIs 14" I got off Craigslist......for $75!!!!! So here's the pic of them with one partially taped because I thought to do the thread after I started. Here's one of the back side of one of the rims. All of them looked like this. Here is a close up of the partially taped wheel.

The next picture shows what they look like after being sodablasted for about 5 minutes. I have a siphon blaster that I use with a 60 gal upright compressor with a 160lb regulator/filter dialed in at 120lbs. I use straight Arm and Hammer baking soda from Sam's Club. It's like roughly $6 for 13.5 lbs. I get 54 lbs for under $30. No need to buy that expensive soda with an additive to keep it from clumping because of the water in the line for me. I filter all my air and when I do see signs of water I drain my filter and keep it moving.
Remember that baking soda will only remove light rust. It removed some of the surface rust as you can see in the picture. I did this to see what condition the chrome was in without damaging it. I later taped the chrome on the back side for protection from abrasive blasting and overspray.

Okay so I taped the wheels up with 3M tape I think I had 1" tape that I used a razor to cut down to about 1/2" for ease of use for the outline. As seen above the wheels were in good shape on the front side but the back side was rough. After taping the outline for painting, I moved on to tape the rest of the front side of the rim to protect from overspray. I used 3M 2" tape for this. In all wheels that followed the first one, I used 2" and 3" to cover more ground. More to come.

 

[85 Supremeliner]

Continuing on, I used two different types of media to remove the old paint in the lug well areas. I used baking soda in the left lug well. I used Black Diamond and I think it's 40 grit in the right lug well.(Tractor Supply $8/ 50lbs) Notice the difference? I thought it was a good comparison to share. Baking soda is not a reusable media BTW. It is completely useless after being used as the impact destroys it's structure. It's an environmentally friendly media for all you "GO Green" folks and I like the results. Next up I used the Black Diamond to cut the rust from the back side of the wheel. Before and after pics with only about 5-7 minutes of blasting with Black Diamond.

Before:

After:

I finished it off with some coal slag I had remaining in the shed (finer grit and completely cut all the rust off the wheel. Rust isn't your friend so remove all you can. Took me about another 10 mins of blasting and inspecting, blasting and inspecting to ensure I had a good finished product. Sorry no pic of the finished blasted product.

Next up I used Duplicolor self-etching primer to score the lug wells. I wanted a good adhesion to the metal. I used it on the back side of the wheel as well.


I put down 3 coats of primer. Probably didn't need but 2 but whatever. I let it dry overnight, (time to go to bed at the time). And will have paint pics next post.

 

[Bowiemontecarlo86]

Looking good so far bro nice job .I wish i had a sandblasting setup cause i'm gonna be doing this on my old SS Monte wheels . I thought they where bare metal rims but turned out they got gray paint and clear coat . But my cousin found a place to sandblast them for 40Bucks . Question will they be ready for paint right after sandblasting and clean up or will i still have to sand them down ? I'm gonna go two tone on my rims maroon and black still trying to find a maroon that almost match's my car lol .

 

[L92 OLDS]

Looks good. I used a mix of aluminum oxide and glass bead on an extra pair of 15" 442 rims I wanted to use with drag radials. Baking soda just doens't cut it for me.

 

[85 Supremeliner]

Next up I taped up the chrome on the backside of the wheel and shot it with Rustoluem Semi-gloss black. That's all I was looking for right now. Haven't decided on the car paint color yet and it will be next year before the paint is put on the Cutty anyway so black is fine right now.

Fast forwarding a bit, I shot the wheels with 4 coats of paint, let them dry and removed went through the process of removing all tape and we have the finished product. A few pics were taken with my phone. Oh and before anyone starts tripping, I'm putting raised white letters on when they go on the car.

The entire process of taping was down to about 30 minutes per wheel by the time I got to the 4th wheel. 2 cans of paint and 1 1/2 cans of primer later I was done with all of them. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

 

[85 Supremeliner]

Looks good. I used a mix of aluminum oxide and glass bead on an extra pair of 15" 442 rims I wanted to use with drag radials. Baking soda just doens't cut it for me.

Thanks. Yeah baking soda isn't cutting any deep rust at all. I use it for cutting paint only. Just wanted to show anyone considering it what it will and won't do.

 

[Bowiemontecarlo86]

The wheels came out nice bro looks really good .

 

[85 Supremeliner]

... Question will they be ready for paint right after sandblasting and clean up or will i still have to sand them down ?

Ready when blasting is done and clean up. I personally didn't sand anything and came out with a smooth finish.