Author Topic: Winter Wheels Project  (Read 5724 times)

Chris_Music

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Winter Wheels Project
« on: October 11, 2019, 11:42:09 AM »
Hey Guys

I thought I would make a separate thread of this project, as it is quite a big one (at least for me).

I decided that I wanted to get some winter wheels for the Jazz, partly to protect the alloy wheels during winter, but also as a nice little project, and a cheap way of having new wheels, without breaking the bank.

I was really lucky to actually find a set of the Honda Jazz Base Model Mk2 15" Steel Wheels that had nearly new Dunlop Winter Response 2 tyres on them. They were a rare find, and exactly what I wanted. I managed to haggle the price down a bit, as I had to drive a 350mile round trip with a total of 8 hours of driving to pick them up.
But I knew I wasn't going to find another set like this any time soon. The Tyres alone are about £70 each, and the chances of finding steel wheels that would fit the Jazz, and that already had good winter tyres on them that were the correct size would be very slim.

So I drove up there last month and picked them up, and they were in decent enough condition, I was going to refurb them anyway, so as long as they weren't rusted to hell, I didn't really care about a bit of rust on the wheels.






I sold the hub caps on eBay, so I made £20 of my money back :).

They were bit dirty, and needed a damn good clean.
I decided to work on 1 wheel at a time, so I could learn and get the technique down and then the rest of the wheels should turn out better, as I would learn from any mistakes with the first wheel.

I carefully cleaned and sanded down the first wheel ready for painting, using 240grit wet and dry and working my way up with 400grit and 600 grit.




I had seen in youtube tutorials people using report cards to easily mask the wheel off, so I bought some cards, and it actually made it pretty easy. I completely deflated the tyre to make it easier to wedge the card under the wheel rim.


For the inside, I just bought some Hammerite Smooth Black spray paint, as I didn't really care about the look or finish for the inside, just so long as any bare metal was covered and protected from rust. But it actually turned out looking quite nice.


For the front of the wheel, I wanted to do something a bit different.
I originally was going to paint the wheels completely White, or completely Black.
But I decided to try and paint just the lip white, and the centre as deep gloss black as I could.
As I always liked two tone wheels. Little did I know just how hard it was going to be to pull that off.

I bought some etch primer, and White and Black wheel paint from Halfords, along with their Bodyshop Lacquer Spray paint.

I masked up the wheel as best I could to avoid any paint on the tyre, or the freshly painted inside.


I did 3 coats of Primer, but I did get some running, which I had to sand back and start again with, so for the next wheel, I will definitely do more but lighter coats of primer to prevent this.


With the primer on, I decided to paint the white lip first. I didn't bother masking off the wheel centre, as I thought the black will easily cover over any of the white that is sprayed on the centre.
The white came out quite nice, but again, I did get some running, so I just need to be more patient and do lighter coats.



For the centre, I used the report cards again to best mask off the area, which made it a lot easier to paint. I used a piece of string attached to the valve stem so I could pull the valve stem back to paint in the gap without accidentally touching the paint with my fingers.


The black came out a lot better with no running at all, probably the better surface area



Then the final reveal


Unfortunately, the masking hadn't gone quite to plan, and it had missed some of the areas and some of the black had gotten onto the white.


I used some rubbing alcohol to clean off the black over spray, and I sprayed some of the black spray paint into the spray cap, and used a very find paint brush to paint the missed areas.

It looks crap if you look up close, but I just kept telling myself they are winter wheels, it doesn't really matter :P.

So I set about doing the last stage, the clear coat, and decided to learn from my mistakes, and do lots of lighter coats of paint, as clear coat is the worst to fix if it runs!

I did 6 coats in total, but I still didn't really get the deep glossy finish I was after.


I'm going to give it two weeks to cure, and then attack it with some polish and see if I can get that deep shine out of it.
The paint doesn't feel smooth at all, it feels quite rough.

But even without the final polish, it doesn't look half bad:



I did a test fit on the car to see how it looked, and I'm pretty happy with it. Though the 15" wheels do look a bit on the small side compared to the 16" Si Wheels.


Also bought one of those tyre pens, and I had a mess around with colouring in the words on the tyre. I might do it for the final wheel, I haven't decided yet.



Now that I have done one wheel, I think on the next one, I am going to try painting the black centre first then painting the white, I think that might make the paint job come out better. And I will do more lighter coats and see how that comes out. Hopefully I will actually have these wheels finished for winter :P!


I've also been looking at getting some centre caps to try and cover the centre of the wheel hub.

I bought some that fitted the wheel perfectly, but when I test fitted the wheel, the wheel hub centre on the rear was further out than the centre of the wheel, so it just pushed out the centre cap, so I have bought some centre caps that have a raised centre, which should sort out this problem, I am just waiting for them to arrive from China, which might take a while.

I will update this thread with my progress with the rest of the wheels.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2020, 12:53:40 AM by Chris_Music »

Jocko

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2019, 12:46:48 PM »
I run around all the time now with the trims off. I find it makes the wheels easier to clean.



As for lettering the tyres. I used to do that on the Dunlop Denovos I had on my old FIAT 126.



Great thread. Keep us posted as to how it goes.

peteo48

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2019, 12:47:54 PM »
I'll look forward to future updates and how they perform in the winter. Good work so far.

culzean

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2019, 02:16:40 PM »
Well its certainly different not quite white wall tyres but close - what age are the tyres ? As you know the rubber hardens as it ages and will limit the ultimate grip when too old. 
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

Chris_Music

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2019, 04:14:04 PM »
I run around all the time now with the trims off. I find it makes the wheels easier to clean.

As for lettering the tyres. I used to do that on the Dunlop Denovos I had on my old FIAT 126.

Great thread. Keep us posted as to how it goes.

Have you painted yours or are they stock? They look so shiny! Mine had a Matte/Satin finish, which is why I ask.
I like the look of stock steel wheels when they are a nice black with a deep shine. I almost did that with mine, but when do I ever do anything that easy :P

I'm liking the white lettering on the red and silver wheels, looked good!


I'll look forward to future updates and how they perform in the winter. Good work so far.

Thanks, I will be sure to post the performance once I've finally finished the project and actually get them on the car!  ;D

Well its certainly different not quite white wall tyres but close - what age are the tyres ? As you know the rubber hardens as it ages and will limit the ultimate grip when too old.

The tyre manufacturer date is August 2017, which is a lot newer than the Bridgestone tyres currently on the car, which is January 2015, but theres still a decent amount of tread in them.

Chris_Music

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2019, 04:42:36 PM »
Finished the second wheel, which went much better than the first.
I learned from my mistakes and honed my technique.


This time around, I made sure to do light coats to avoid running, and I also left the can of paint in warm water for 20mins prior to spraying, which also helped.


I decided this time to spray the black paint first, then the white, and take my time with the prep, which turned out much better.

I forgot to take a picture of the black after painting, but here is the masking I did, which took over an hour to do, using small pieces of card cut and taped with masking tape into the gap, but all the hard work really paid off.



Sanded down the black paint, and applied primer



3 good coats of white on the lip:


The final result after pulling off the inner masking tape, a much better blend:



I did get a few hairs and particles stuck in the clear coat, but I'm not really going to worry about that, you can only notice up close:


The final result:


The white lettering got a bit worn during the washing and sanding, so I reapplied it, and I quite like the look of it, so I think I will be doing it for all 4 wheels:




Something else I wanted to do was have centre caps for the wheels, as I didnt want to see the inner wheel hub, and I didn't want it to rust faster due to it being open to the elements.

So it took me quite a long time to find centre caps that fitted.

I originally bought a set of these:


But after I test fitted them on the car, I noticed the centre of the wheel hub on the rear stuck out further than centre of the wheels, so the cap just popped off.

So I had to go back to the drawing board and find ones that had a raised center to accommodate for the wheel hub. I found these for £8 from china, 56mm inner diameter:


I test fitted them on the car, and the inner clips were just a fraction too long for it to fit, so I trimmed them down like 5mm, and it fitted perfectly:


I also bought some black wheel nut caps, but I'm not sure what to do about the locking wheel nut, I might just paint it black to match:


Now that I knew the centre caps fitted perfectly, it was time to paint them to match the wheels.
I wet sanded them down with 400 grit paper and primed them:



I then applied a couple of coats of black:


I ordered some custom Honda Centre cap vinyl decals to fit the centre of the wheel caps, and stuck them on, then applied 3 coats of clear lacquer after sticking them to give that extra protection:



I've started on the 3rd wheel now, so I'm more than half way. I just hope winter doesn't come and go before I've actually finished them  :P

More updates to follow.

If anyone wants to order the centre caps for their steel wheels, they can be purchased from here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333230108175
Took about two weeks to arrive :)

Jocko

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2019, 05:05:42 PM »
Have you painted yours or are they stock? They look so shiny! Mine had a Matte/Satin finish, which is why I ask.
I like the look of stock steel wheels when they are a nice black with a deep shine.
Mine are just bog standard 13 year old wheels,
The red and gold wheels were when I was going through my Hammerite phase. I used every available colour somewhere on the car.
I like the Honda wheel centres. I did something similar when I had my Volvo wheels restored.


olduser1

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2019, 06:41:01 PM »
I like the dual tone steels, but I would leave off with the white pen on the tyre       - draws  too much attention.
Neat deal though.

Chris_Music

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2019, 10:54:21 AM »
It's been a month and the wheels are finally finished and on the car!

I won't post pictures of the last two wheels painting, as it's just more of the same.

It has been quite the project, and I learnt a lot from it!
There's probably a few things I would have done differently, but that's always going to be the case.

Probably if I was doing it again, I would pay to have the tyres removed, and probably would have had them professionally painted or powder coated!

Although I really like the Black and White dual tone, I think I would have probably had it just painted all black.
As it's horrible seeing the wheels I spent two months and many many hours painting just get so filthy dirty in this weather! I think somewhere along the way I forgot these wheels were winter wheels  :P

Here are the finished wheels, all sanded and polished.
They aren't the best job, but from a distance, you can't really tell.




And fitted to the car:






The wheels have caused a slight problem which I didn't realise was a thing.
My 2015 Jazz has the annoying TPMS sensors in the wheels, and because the winter wheels don't have that stupid sensor, the tyre pressure light is on all the time on the dash. Aparently it's an MOT failure to have the light on, even if the pressures are fine. But luckily, my MOT isn't due until summer, so the wheels would be back to stock then anyway, so it's not a big deal.

The grand total cost including buying the wheels, the paint/materials, centre caps and having the wheels balanced came to £266. Not bad really for freshly painted steel wheels with 4 basically new Dunlop winter tyres!

The tyres seem slightly quieter than the previous 16" Bridgestones which is good. And the ride feels slightly softer.

Not going to lie, I feel a bit boy racery with these wheels on the car :P, but I do like them.

EDIT: This after barely a week of driving  :(

I don't know why I bother!  :P
« Last Edit: November 29, 2019, 11:24:54 AM by Chris_Music »

Jocko

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2019, 11:22:18 AM »
I priced powder coating mine and it was cheaper to buy new wheels.
Job looks the dog's. Very boyracerish.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2019, 06:15:12 PM by Jocko »

olduser1

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2019, 02:57:54 PM »
On your Jazz Si even with the white lettering new wheels look great.

bill ericay

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2019, 04:53:24 PM »
Agree with the above-the wheels look brilliant and set the car off nicely.
Top marks !!!!!

Tdk80

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Re: Winter Wheels Project
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2020, 12:40:33 PM »
These look awesome

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