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Hi all,

I was unlucky enough that a stanley blade went through my, almost-new, back tyre a few days back on the road. I know because I found the blade in the tyre when I removed the tyre from the rim haha! I could barely believe it myself.

Anyway now that I am waiting on new tyres I took a good look at my rims and think that they could really do with a paint. It's been in the back of my mind for a while now anyway.

That begs the question, do I stay standard and paint them black again? Do I go with silver to match the frame? Do I go with a pale shade of gold to match the brake calipers?

At this point in time the pale gold sounds appealing. Seeing as I'll be doing the work myself, I'd be happy enough to try it, see how it looks and then get it done professionally whenever I could save some money for that.

The thing is, I've no idea what colour-code/name etc the front brake calipers are. I've a feeling they might close to Ford Champagne Gold which I can get hold of easily here. Any ideas? Indeed any pics of gold or silver wheels and tips on the job would be great.

Thanks :)

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A long time ago, I had the unfortunate luck of choosing a tire place with a ham-fisted YTS student doing the tire changes. He managed to scrape half an edge of enamel off my then nearly new back wheel before I told him to stop!
Anyways, the shop paid for my wheels to be re-painted - and I chose Silver at the time... which in hindsight was a good choice in colour. But you get a lot of over-spray effect from painting wheels with lots of spokes, because of the way paint will settle on surfaces....They came out beautiful in the end though...

What I did also learn from this - is that over time, through tyre changes, etc. paint doesn't stick to rims as well as enamel.

So this year I'll be doing a front end conversion to mine and when I'm done, these wheels are going to a powder coating place to be re-done.

Stripping off the wheels, sanding, etc. you won't get a great finish. So why not save yourself the hassle. Take them somewhere & get them powder coated. You can use a step ladder to hold the front of the bike up whilst it's off the road for a couple of weeks with the wheels away. :)

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Step ladder is a good idea!

The reason why I'm not bringing them to a powdercoating place right now is simply the price. It costs about €80 per wheel over here in Cork, Ireland. In dollar terms I think we're talking $200 for the pair of wheels. Seeing as I've had to change the tyres it's money I don't have. You're right though, in saying that powdercoating would last longer!

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I'm one for having it professionally powder coated too, I've had at least two sets of wheels powder coated and the results are top notch, at least from the place I went to. The cost was ~$130.00/set here but there's always cheaper places if you look for them, just have to be careful where you go.

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Just rang two of the, er, only two places that do this work in the locality and converted the quote I got to dollars.

$245 for the pair from one of the companies and $273 from another (that's €180 and €200 per set).

That's feckin madness.

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Just rang two of the, er, only two places that do this work in the locality and converted the quote I got to dollars.

$245 for the pair from one of the companies and $273 from another (that's €180 and €200 per set).

That's feckin madness.

I'll have to agree with you as one of the 8 spoke wheels I bought cost less than higher priced cost you got quoted and only $5 more than the lower cost. Well, if you decide to DIY, good prep work on the wheels is key to good results. Good luck with whichever way yo go.

Cheers

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For my wife's 5th Gen we're stripping the wheels down to bare metal and will be clear coating them. Another cheap option to consider.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

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I'm getting ready to powder coat my wheels locally, but one advantage to painting them is that you can evaluate the color you want to use in your powder coat. I painted mine a few years ago with Duplicolor wheel paint and learned that I want give the paint time to age and harden before I re-install tires. I was in a hurry and ended up with chipped paint. As with all painting, the quality of the job is directly related to the prep effort and patience in applying the paint with several light coats rather than one heavy coat.

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Powdercoating would require you to knock out the front wheel bearings and install some new ones as well. Not much more money, but still another $30-40 probably. If you paint, you don't need to do that.

I paid $100 locally to have both of mine powdercoated. I have since found another place that does them for $80 a pair.

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I personally would save my money and just plasti dip them. You can have a different color every day of the week if you would like!

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Word to the wise, don't P-dip anything that comes in contact with petroleum based products or solvents. It's not pretty.

I ended up with flat black rattle can on the lower fork legs after a recent fork oil flush and seal replacement.

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Word to the wise, don't P-dip anything that comes in contact with petroleum based products or solvents. It's not pretty.

I ended up with flat black rattle can on the lower fork legs after a recent fork oil flush and seal replacement.

LOL yep, wax and grease remover melts that stuff very quick also. At least its easy to remove but not a choice for me.

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Step ladder is a good idea!

The reason why I'm not bringing them to a powdercoating place right now is simply the price. It costs about €80 per wheel over here in Cork, Ireland. In dollar terms I think we're talking $200 for the pair of wheels. Seeing as I've had to change the tyres it's money I don't have. You're right though, in saying that powdercoating would last longer!

that's NUTS! I can have a set done here for 150 and that's outrageous. I use to be able to have a pair done at the shop I worked at for $75usd. I do agree though, it is worth it to just do the powdercoating

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Powdercoating would require you to knock out the front wheel bearings and install some new ones as well. Not much more money, but still another $30-40 probably. If you paint, you don't need to do that.

I paid $100 locally to have both of mine powdercoated. I have since found another place that does them for $80 a pair.

I've had it done with them in with no ill effects

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If you do go for powder coating, then make sure they don't overly sand blast the areas where your disc carrier faces attach. If that happens it can make the discs not run true afterwards.

Any powder coating place worth it's salt should know this anyways, but just be sure.

I'd save the money and do the job right. stripping down and clear coating is likely to end up with corrosion under the clear coat later. Paint chips easily. Just do it right first time. You'll save yourself a lot of wasted time, money & hassle that way.

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If you do go for powder coating, then make sure they don't overly sand blast the areas where your disc carrier faces attach. If that happens it can make the discs not run true afterwards.

Any powder coating place worth it's salt should know this anyways, but just be sure.

I'd save the money and do the job right. stripping down and clear coating is likely to end up with corrosion under the clear coat later. Paint chips easily. Just do it right first time. You'll save yourself a lot of wasted time, money & hassle that way.

that's a good point. Make sure the shop KNOWS not to powder coat where the rotors lay. i've had to smack the shop that does mine. Even after telling them and taping them off, I've had to remove material because they don't listen. Good thing they are SO very close and do good work

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You could just strip the stock paint and this is what you wind up with. The rims will have a chromed look and the spokes will be a flatter aluminum color. This was my 4th gen and I had no further polishing, pitting, or other issues for the next 5-ish years I owned the bike. I had a lot of other people asking how I did the wheels and most everyone agreed that they looked much better than the original black. All it took was a can of paint stripper and a weekend with nothing else to do - only about $15! and a few beers...

100_0490_0061_061_0001.jpg

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Whatever I end up doing this weekend I'll make sure to post it up here anyway!

What goes on In Cork

Shows up on VFRD :goofy:

I was in Cork in 1985, good thing there was no youtube or mobile phone cameras.......... :wacko:

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Well I promised I'd keep you all up to date!

I gave it all my best shot but after many coats of paint stripper and a lot of scraping and sanding I still have paint on the wheel. I even went as far as priming one wheel but you can still see the older bits of paint underneath that I could not remove. Tiny specks. It may be that I'll have to bite the extortionate bullet and pay for powdercoating...

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