Bringing long beaches back to life

I have a set of long beach VW wheels on my MK4 and two of them have some weird coating on them that's causing them to have a dirty look to them I'v cleaned and cleaned and they will not look clean. Imagine a smokers teeth who drinks coffee all day for 30 years look. My other two look amazing though. So iv looked into the hyper silver kit and it seems ok I'v also looked into the plastidip metallizer but I'd like to see anyone who has these wheels and what they've done. I like the stock VW wheels and I do really like the long beaches just want to freshen them up. Any ideas???

Sounds almost like someones sprayed clear coat over them. To truly restore them, you'll have to have the rubber dismounted. Sand em down and take them to a shop to have them painted. Least thats how I've restored rims.

Not what I wanted to hear as it's my daily driver lol. Did you have yours powder coated or painted? Oh and as to your turbo post 17/22 or bust!!!

Haha yeah well my BRM intake showed up today! Going to order the turbo after I get taxes back.

As for the rims, I had them painted at a shop. Held up great until I got rid of the car that had them on it.

the powdercoat tends to flake off as with any other powdercoated item
horrible alternative to paint, that

should be a local-ish abrasive blasting place that'll do wheels for a fixed price, swap your spare on and have them dismounted one at a time so you can have them blasted
you can polish them or paint them after the flaky crap is off

And what's the cost of that usually? Because I know I'm gonna be paying a shop 30 bucks for a remount and balance right off the bat. I really am curious with a cheap paint alternative. Especially if the paint looks close enough to my 2 wheels that look good.

I have seen some wheels coated with a plasti-dip product that seems to look nice. The ones I saw were online and they went from silver to a darker colour like charcoal. I am sure you can find tons of info on a suitable product on Google.

I mention this because it looks like something you can do without dismounting the tires.

I used Duplicolor on a set of Montereys that came out pretty nice. Finish seems fairly durable - survived tire mount/balance and install without any marking.

I used a Scotchbrite pad followed by a couple passes of 2 grits of wet-dry sandpaper (I want to say 150 and 400 but memory could be wrong on that). Then:

Duplicolor self-etching primer - ~ 3 coats (2 cans)
Duplicolor Silver Wheel Coating ~ 3 coats (2 cans)
Duplicolor Clear Wheel Coating ~ 3 coats (2 cans)

You might need more paint since mine were 15s and yours will be 17s.

I don't have pics but they came out pretty good in my opinion. Probably not 100% as OEM but definitely would look better than the discoloured ones. Key is to be patient on the application. I also got one of the handles that attach to the tops of the spray cans which I think helped make it easier to apply evenly.

If you are looking for a cheap way to get them looking decent I would just paint them yourself. Either find a paint match or just paint all four.

Sand everything down, then you can break the top bead of the tire, wedge what you have on hand in the drop center to keep tire away from lip of the rim. Protect the tire. Finish sanding the lip, clean and spray them.

By far not the most preferred way but I have done it when all I wanted to pay for was paint. If you take time in prep, no reason it can’t last a long time.

For DIY, the correct paint to match OE specs for most MkIV wheels (including LB) is either Wurth German Wheel Paint, or Einszett Silber. Both companies make the clear lacquer, along with primer, and Wurth formerly had a German Wheel Refinishing Kit available for about $65 (now hard to find). The paint is not cheap, but it's generally cheaper than paying a shop, especially if you have more than surface curb rash. You'll need paint, primer, lacquer, sanding pads, masking/painting tape, metal filler (where applicable) and either sand by hand or also by using power tools. You'll need all the little extras, degreaser, cleaners, cardboard, microfiber cloths, and a ventilated and appropriate place to paint. There's some good how-to's online. You can mask off the tire from the wheel in a pinch, but if you're going to pay for the right paint, you might as well do pay a little extra to do it "right," and remove the tire. The grease that lies between the tire and wheel at the bead can discolor and impact the paint along that area. In a pinch, you could put your spare on and do one at a time, but the painting will be impacted by temp, humidity, wind, and you may see differences between wheels painted under different conditions. Plus, it's all in the prep work, and it's easier to prep the wheels all at once, partially because you'll have everything ready at the same time.

https://www.autogeek.net/wurth-silver-paint.html

https://www.autogeek.net/1z-einszett-silver-wheel-paint.html

Yeah I don't mind painting all 4 just curious if anyone had had luck with the hyper silver that is the way I'm leaning. I love my car but it is a commuter. So I don't need anything crazy if I can get em painted on a nice Saturday put em back on Sunday done deal just wondering what different paints guys have used to refurbish their own wheels. I do like the wurth stuff it looks nice but is a little pricey

Post pics mounted when you are done. I love long beaches on MK4s (I plan on rocking a similar setup)

I have some rims laying around was thinking about fixing the curb rash and painting em and watched a few vids on youtube read some comments and I found this comment relevant and noted it.

Please do not use acrylic and enamel based paints for fixing your wheels. Trust me, I did one time before and I will never do it again. The clearcoat will fade badly after a year. Here is what I recommend for DIYers:

2K Spray Primer Paint Aerosol
1K Wheel Spray (color of choice)
2k High Gloss Clearcoat Aerosol

Eastwood or USC are fine. You will notice that these paints are 2-3x more expensive than duplicrap, but they are infinitely better. I used their clearcoat for my headlights 2 years ago and they still look fantastic. Do not use isopropyl alcohol to clean between layers. It will contaminate the surface with moisture due to the water in isopropyl alcohol and cause fisheyes. Instead, use the strongest thinner you can get away with without pulling paint off. With 2k paints, you can use lacquer thinner and be fine.

This requires all the same amount of work and can be easier/forgiving due to how much better 2k paints are.

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Well I'm still learning the posting thing lol can't figure the picture posting out. So what is the hyper silver kit? And I'v heard the plastidip stuff if you hate it you can just peel it off is this true?

Powerstroke9773 said:

Well I'm still learning the posting thing lol can't figure the picture posting out. So what is the hyper silver kit? And I'v heard the plastidip stuff if you hate it you can just peel it off is this true?

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indeed. i have used plastidip as a substitute to primer in the past.
it self-evens, you can paint and clear over it.
let the paint cure and it would take implied force to remove it.
this way we would change wheel color easily depending on mood.
i've grown up since but it still works.

Plasti-dip is spray-on rubber coating. Definitely an option, but not really similar to properly refinishing your wheels, which (if done right), will last another decade. The Wurth stuff is pricey, but it's an OEM match, and yields good results if you prep correctly. 1Z is less expensive, and also high quality. I'm not familiar with Hypersilver as a product, only as a process, so I can't offer any comparison.

Here's the standard vortex how-to, filling in gouges and using non-OEM paint:

https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3156862-DIY-REFINISHING-WHEEL-REPAIR-