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Magnesium wheel finishing options

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by dave80gtsi, Jun 13, 2005.

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  1. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    #1 dave80gtsi, Jun 13, 2005
    I'd be interested to learn what some of you all have done, and more importantly, how pleased you have been with the long term results, in terms of finishing your magnesium wheels. A search of the archives here did not turn up a whole lot of feedback on this, so I thought I'd start a new thread. I've never had very good success with bead blasting, primering, and then painting mine, as after only a year or two I start to see signs of corrosion bubbling beneath the paint, in spite of my best preparation efforts. I've heard of other folks who have used powder coating with good results, but similarly have heard from yet others who claim that all that this does is to trap moisture beneath the powder and that powder coating anything made of magnesium should be avoided. Other than paint and powder, what other good options are there for consideration? Can they be plated w/o the wheel ending up looking all Blinged? What about you folks who live in very humid / salt water coastal climates - what has held up well for you in the past?



    Cheers - DM
     
  2. Mike C

    Mike C F1 Veteran
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    #2 Mike C, Jun 13, 2005
    I was told by my refinisher (Wheel Fix-It) that the finish would hold up much better if the wheels were not bead blasted down to bare metal, but were just sanded lightly and repainted, though of course filled and primered where there's curb rash. They said it was best to take advantage of the factory process of mating the metal with the primer unless you were already having a flaking problem, which I was not.

    I know that doesn't help you now, but I guess he was right -- they've held up pretty much like new for 3+ years since the repaint.
     
  3. TommyA

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    #3 TommyA, Jun 13, 2005
    Dave,
    Powder coating or paint that's your choice. I was about to powder my wheels until a friend in the business turned me away from it. The only think that he had to mention was what will be easier to repair if you get a scrape. You can always touch up paint.
     
  4. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    #4 dave80gtsi, Jun 14, 2005
    Why do you think that your friend would discourage powder coating vs. paint? Is it only the 'fixing the curb rash' scenario, or does it tie back to difficulty in sealing the magnesium so that outgassing won't disturb the powder coating? This last issue is one that I keep hearing about.

    FWIW, I tried powder coating my old set of 14" mag alloys 18 months ago, and while the overall results do seem to be holding up better than some similar painted rims that I did 4 or 5 years ago, I am always on the lookout for something better.

    Cheers - DM
     
  5. Speedmade

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    #5 Speedmade, Jun 14, 2005
    I have worked with magnesium wheels for both motorcycles and cars for 10 years. I have never had a set of wheels I have done bubble. That is because I learned how the aircraft industry refinishes mag.
    If paint, primer, or powder is applied to bare mag it will begin to oxidize below the paint. You can strip mag bare but you must coat it with a chromate conversion before anything else should be applied. The easiest to use is Magnadyne and is available from Aircraft Spruce. Here is the link.
    http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/pfcleaners.php

    If you intend to paint I highly recommend zinc chromate primer. Also available from Spruce. Any paint can be directly applied over this primer, but you can always put automotive primer over chromate also.
    http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/zinc.php

    If you intend to powdercoat you must strip the mag bare. But do not use the primer. Most powdercoaters will treat parts with an iron oxide wash before powder. You must still treat the surface with Magnadyne before any other washes or powder.
    It may seem like a bunch of work but if you follow these instructions you will never have any problems.

    Reed Herman
    http://www.speedmade.com/
     
  6. cgperry

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    #6 cgperry, Jun 14, 2005
    I agree with Herman - proper priming is the most important thing. The wheel shop I used in Atlanta did that, then painted the wheels as he directed. Finally, they do a clear powder coat over the paint. It is holding up well. I wouldn't recommend the shop for other reasons, but that finishing process worked well on the Dymag rims on my Corvette.
     

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  7. f355spider

    f355spider F1 World Champ
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    #7 f355spider, Jun 14, 2005
    Well, good information!! The proper steps to preparing and primering the wheels is not well known, as I have seen several vintage Ferraris with mag wheels that had severely cracked and "alligatored" looking paint on the wheels...
     
  8. Mike C

    Mike C F1 Veteran
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    #8 Mike C, Jun 15, 2005
    Good information, thanks for sharing! That fits with what they told me when my wheels were refinished.
     
  9. docweed

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    #9 docweed, Jul 4, 2005
    I have read several threads on refinishing the mag wheels on 308's. Some feel that you should not strip or bead blast the wheels at all. The reason being that the factory paint doesn't peal and this is because they know how to marry the primer to the metal. A slight roughening of the surface after cleaning with soap and water preps it for paint. A quik wipe with NAPA
    tec/clean Surface cleaner 6384 may be a good idea too. This makes sense to me so if you were to use this approach to prep the wheels could you coat the rimes with zinc chromate next before the final coat of paint? Any suggestion to this plan of attach? Any suggestion as to what kind of paint?
     
  10. robertgarven

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    #10 robertgarven, Jul 5, 2005
  11. pcelenta

    pcelenta Karting

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    #11 pcelenta, Jul 5, 2005
    Any suggestions on repairing a hair line crack in one of these rims...I just discovered one when I was putting air in my tires (I have not driven the car since)...It looks like one of those vain like corrosion bubbles just split and was leaking out air. Is it worth repairing? I have been told that these magnesium rims are very porus. Does anyone think that a product like POR-15 would seal them and act as a go primer?
     
  12. tomoshea

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    #12 tomoshea, Jul 8, 2005
  13. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    #13 dave80gtsi, Nov 20, 2009
    Having a hard time finding Magnadyne today.

    Aircraft Spruce does not seem to have it any more (link above does not show it, does not turn up on a search of their website), and a Google search turns up this:

    http://www.polyfiber.com/products/e2390magnadynemagnesiumconversioncoating.htm

    A cut and pasted quote from the above link:

    "E-2390 MAGNA-DYNE MAGNESIUM CONVERSION COATING REF: Mil M-3171 Class Vl

    UPDATE:

    This product has been discontinued and is no longer manufactured by PolyFiber. There is no known substitute for this product. PolyFiber makes no guarantees as to how suitable any replacement is for your application. It is your responsibility to verify that a replacement product will work for your application."

    So ... does anyone know of a supplier, or else a substitute?

    Thanks - DM
     
  14. BigTex

    BigTex Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    #14 BigTex, Nov 20, 2009
    We should really get Napolis to share what he is doing with his new raw casting replicas of his P3/4 wheels and also Dino Competizione....

    This comes up a lot in Vintage and 308 Section and it seems there's been a real shift in what's available..

    Tom S. has posted the Factory Tech Bulletin several times and we keep 'losing it' on the various threads on the subject.


    IMO.....
     
  15. saw1998

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    #15 saw1998, Nov 20, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2009
  16. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    #16 dave80gtsi, Nov 20, 2009
    Thanks for this link.

    Very curious - the above airsuppliers.com link references Polyfiber as the manufacturer, but the excerpt from the link that I posted earlier is a direct quote from Polyfiber's website, claiming that it's NLA.

    I'm guessing that this will end up being a dead end, but I'll nevertheless chase this one down and report back here with what I find out.

    Thanks - DM
     
  17. saw1998

    saw1998 F1 Veteran

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    #17 saw1998, Nov 20, 2009
    Dave:

    They may still have some in stock. When you use the site, it gives you "your instant Internet price". It lists it as in stock. Best of luck.
     
  18. dave80gtsi

    dave80gtsi Formula 3
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    #18 dave80gtsi, Nov 23, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2009
    Called airsuppliers.com this a.m. asking about this.

    The sweet young thing on the other end of the line (gotta love Texas accents) said this had been discountinued some time ago, and they had no more in stock, didn't know anyone who might.

    So, back to Square One.

    Does anyone have some ideas?

    This material in question is a "pre-rinse" metal stabilizer that is to be used on bare magnesium wheels prior to painting with a zinc chromate primer, which in turn is then topped with the finish coat.

    Help! - DM
     
  19. spiderseeker

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    #19 spiderseeker, Nov 23, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    I refinished mine 4 years ago and they're still perfect. I used Griot's wheel refinishing kit and it included the special "zinc" primer for mag wheels. I did a light sand (320-400 grit) on the chips, primed them with the zinc primer and had a paint shop mix the correct factory color(didn't use griots silver, it didn't match the original) I used a touch up gun to spray them and they turned out great.
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