53 - 55 wheel cover paint
 

A few months back I posted a thread asking how to apply paint to a highly polished wheel cover. DUB suggested that the areas be masked with vinyl tape and carefully etched using aluminum oxide media in a blast cabinet. Well, I finally got around to trying his suggestion and it worked great!

The masking itself took about 1.5 hours per cover using 1/4 inch tape. After etching with the media, I used SEM self etching primer followed by two coats of single stage polyurethane. The tape pulled off cleanly leaving sharp lines. I couldn't be happier with the results. The photos below show the cover after etching and the final result. Thanks, DUB for your help.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...bdeab73a17.jpg


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...4b4a05204a.jpg

:thumbs::thumbs:

It turned out really nice. Glad to be of some help with my suggestion.

Yeah...and at 1 1/2 hours per hub cap....I have NO DOUBT that is what you spent to get it right. I know some people would have a cow if I priced them to do it for them and they would thing I am crazy. At that point..I would hand them the tape and let them have at it and show me how to do it.

VERY NICE JOB!!!!

DUB

Very Nice!:thumbs:

One of the tools that really helped with the tedious and precise application of the 1/4 inch tape was a set of 2.5x dental magnifying loupes. In fact, because each of the 72(!) ribs were slightly wider than 1/4 inch, I had to use 2 tape strips for each one! Magnification really reduces the tedium. I also had my paint supplier make up aeresol cans of my paint so it was much easier than dragging out my spray equipment.

Great work