Do we know what the composition of the ghetto golds coating is? From reading it looks like it'* some type of high metalic content, powder coating over a cast alloy body..

I want to change my wife'* golds to silver or metallic appearance. There are some amazing tech products out there to do it, but which to choose depends on the composition of the gold coating.

I'm trying to bypass removing the coating, oven baking, powder coating etc. All of which are incredibly time consuming or expensive. I'm working on getting something that I can apply which will meet durability and appearance requirements.

Or I can trade you my already silver crosslace for your gold.

j/k

I used to think that a decent paint and clearcoat would hold up fine. They do make "wheel paint" as well.

Wheel epoxy coating is incredibly strong and durable. I just painted my steelies for my slicks. Including clearcoat.

I would think that all you'd need to do is a chemical etch before repainting.

Some testing I'm doing doesn't bode well in the long term for store bought paint/coatings.

I have samples of epoxy primer and paint coming from Steel-It. And the POR-15 product line has some possiblities. It would actually be an easier decision if I was just working with fresh metal.

Willl, can I ask what product line you used?

the coating on the GG'* are STRONG

i believe that Curt Martin tryed to remove the gold off his wheels when he painted his wheels and was unsuccessful

you can paint over the Gold....you must prep the surface very well to make sure that the paint sticks

Curt was unsuccessful only in the fact that media blasting could not take it off. He had to chemically strip and sand by hand all the coating off. Same with having to refinish one of my aerolites...aircraft stripper did an excellent job of taking that finish off. But what a pain.

Yeah, I caught that post. Ii tried it on my test wheel. Curt must have the patience of a saint and the hand strength strength of a jackhammer. It looked great when he was done, but I think it took him 1+ day to do one wheel. I want to avoid that, if I can.

Pending somemore input and somemore fooling around , right now I considering the POR-15 product line. Not for it'* rust capability, but because of its surface binding and durability up through the topcoat and clearcoat. But there has to be enough metallic content in the gold for the chemical bonding to take place.

FWIW.

I'm going to use a moisture cured urethane on the golds. POR-15'* Stirling Silver. It is actually a topcoat, but I found out that in industrial painting, if they can't clear a metallic surface (rust, paint, oxidation) they slap on an MCU as a primer.

The MCU doesn't bond mechanically as much as the isocyanate rust paints (ie POR-15 and Eastwood). Those drive deep down into bare and oxidized metall. They sound great for rust (and fresh metal) as they actually suck out any moisture from the rust as they cure. They would be great for wheels, except they don't like paint. The golds are high metallic coated, but there is still some "paint".

I'm also going to do my '95 5 slots with Steel-It primer and epoxy. they will be challenge because they are a combination of painted surface and polished alloy. Interesting thing about epoxies. You have to be careful which one you use. Some soften at 160-170* even after a full curing and can take on particulates from the road. Or cloud up the clearcoat, if it was applied.

I'll take pics as i go. See how the products do, and look.