Cleaning and Prep Work

Subject to the alloy makeup, we will choose the best blasting media for the cleaning. The prep work must be carried out to a high standard, leaving the rims clean, free of all paints and contaminants.  It is worth noting that the entire rim is cleaned, not just the surfaces you see.

Safety check, once blasted we look closely at each rim and check for any cracks. This is only a visual check and is normally sufficient. However, there is always a very small chance of micro-cracks that can’t be seen with a visual inspection.

Damaged alloys such as kerb rash can be repaired at extra costs. Badly damaged alloys can be dangerous, and we do not recommend them to be repaired as any micro cracks not picked up or poorly repaired could lead to failure and devastating consequences.

Pre-heating (de-gassing) some lower-cost or corroded alloys can be porous and may have trapped air/gasses within the casting matrix.

Once the cleaning and degassing have been completed, we normally apply an anti-corrosive base powder coat (depending on the final coating). See this link for information. Powder Ccoating Interpon Akzonobel.

The correct curing of the base coat is essential; we deliberately under-cure the primer coat so that when the finish colour coat is applied and fully cured, both coats cross bond, offering a strong, reliable, long-lasting finish.

Steel Rims

The procedure for steel rims is exactly the same as alloys, although without degassing.

In the case of all magnesium rims, we take a completely different approach in how we clean and coat. We will carefully bead blast clean as this is a gentle method. The finish preferred is either a base wet paint & colour coat or an air-cure Ceramic coat.