Given our recent conversation about wheel painting...I thought I'd post my latest project as a guide to the process. First up, the subject (to faint applause) a set of Tethys wheels that will be put on my 242. I've seen a lot of wheels in my car life and I like these ones a lot. They look great on 240 cars, and I scored this set for a reasonable price off of Calgary's wonderful Kijiji.

The good: They are pretty and will look great on my car. They are 17's and original Volvo quality.

The bad: The previous owner managed to curb every wheel. Yup, that's right folks, every wheel (still no clue how you do every wheel). They also came with a fine coating of tar on the back sides and looked like they had experienced too much driving on gravel roads (slight sandblasting everywhere).


The Process:
They aren't that old as the date stamps indicate 2006


To start with all areas of damage was ground/cleaned with my trusty Dremel (after 2 hours of cleaning in the kitchen sink...do while wife is out - trust me). Then they are filled with JB weld. This only applies to minor damage to wheels that are still straight and true.


Note wear mark from clip on weights...who uses clip on weights on aluminum wheels - barbaric.


The spokes were not spared the wrath of the previous owner.

These wheels, if they are actually 2006 MFG were only on a car for a year as the guy I bought them for had them sitting all of last year. Amazing what a year of driving can do to a nice set of wheels.

JB weld should be ready to apply as it's been sitting for 15 minutes to thicken up a bit. It's going to fill in the imperfections around the lips only. Regular body filler will be used on the little gashes on the spokes. I'll update as I go.

Curb rash on every wheel doesn't surprise me. We see it all the time, yes volvo owners are that bad of drivers.

soccer moms and lead feet

or the people who think that awd and all seasons are a good thing

After an hour or so of letting the JB Weld sit on the wheels, I went back over it again and tooled the epoxy. It's way easier to form the proper shape once the epoxy has begun to set up a little. This way I will only have to fill the curbage once.



The former passenger side rims got almost a full bead of JB.



Close up of the finished epoxy. It's setting up pretty smooth and shouldn't take that much sanding to get it looking as good as new.

Then for a shot of primer and a fresh coat of paint (will have to wait until the new year).

Damn, I always park a long way from the curb and freak out when Deirdre gets too close (around a foot). I've never hit a curb (well, so far anyway). I never thought about all wheel drive and soccer Mom's.

we need legislation like quebec that makes winter tires manditory, i hate all seasons, and the morons who think they are adequate for this type of weather

Hey, I've got all seasons on my car...but then in Lethbridge we can get away with that. Sometimes it's the idiot behind the wheel as much as the tire.

Absolutely. I've hit my share of curbs and rarely do I hit the rim. A quick twist of the wheel away from the curb you're about to hit usually means the trailing edge of the tire catches it first...

What happens to the visitors to the province then? If everyone in the province has snow tires, everyone in the province can (and some will) sudenly drive faster and stop a whole lot quicker than they could if they had all seasons. Someone with all seasons comes visiting, whammo! Winter tires aren't going to solve the problem of traffic either - people are driving 40 kph on a dry 60 kph road because 1 or 2 people are afraid and hold up the whole works, not because it's slippery. Give them snow tires, it probably won't reduce their fear. At least, not ALL of them. Force the people who wear baseball caps to equip their cars with snow tires and they'll suddenly become Sebastian Loeb, and get well over their head, making the roads more dangerous for everyone.

Furthermore, my buddy just bought a set of snows & wheels for his Passat from the Tire Rack because the local shops quoted him $3500 for the kit. Apparently wheels are tough to come by for that car, not to mention the added cost of snow tires now that Quebec has snapped them all up.

There are various legislations that I bristle at: daytime running lights, for one. Not only has DRL legislation not worked at reducing accidents, it's made cars without DRLs (that were previously safe) dangerous because you're counting on other motorists to look for the "dark spot" to see your car.

+1 You can't legislate common sense. One of my colleagues for example still puts snow tires only on the rear of his truck. I've tried to explain the error of his ways (it may help you speed up, but how's that working for you when you have to stop and all the weight has shifted to half-bald all seasons?). He doesn't care, this is what his daddy did back in the 50's at "it's all you need". Silly, not even mentioning the handling effects of having completely different tires front and rear

Agreed with Matt. Regardless, they haven't plowed and the snow is too deep for a 240 on my street. It could definitely get going, but I don't want to break anything and can wait until it is plowed before going anywhere. For that matter, I also would prefer if the panels on my 240 don't get readjusted by someone else.

The wheels are looking good. Shame that they can't be powder coated in a way, but paint works well and is much nicer to work with and repair.

totally agree, i agree with you too matt, it dosent necessarily mean we have safer drivers, we just now have vehicles that are better equipped to handle the weather, snow tires don't fix everything, since they are only part of the package, proper driver education is also just as important. people should learn how to properly equip their cars to deal with the weather as well as drive in it, that "good enough" attitude is what sets up the conditions for an accident when they can be easily avoided, i think that beater racing clip has a bit about driver education in Sweden, man if i only learn t that in my driving class instead of on the Bragg Creek back roads

as for the price of tires tell me about it, my mom had to park her highlander because of the tire shortage. try getting 19's for cheap. let alone 15.s

p.s. everyone in Quebec drives like its the f***in indy anyways, at least they have a chance of slowing down now. (not like you learn to when theres a 4 way stop at every crosswalk and intersection.)

Quick update on this thread. I spent a couple of weekends doing other repairs to the house and didn't get a lot of time to attend to the wheel project. I snuck in some time in the past week and got the JB-Weld sanded out and managed to get the powder coat on the wheels scuffed up for painting.

Here's the finished product. JB-Weld is not particularly easy to sand, but it worked out well enough. No more signs of curb rash.





Then it was on to my wet sanding tank. This process can't be done with a wife in the house, but it involves moving from 220 through to 400 grit wet sand paper until the entire surface is finished...took about an hour of sanding per wheel - there are a lot of spokes.



Also visible in this photo are the 3M surface prep pads that I used, the burgundy one is for general finishing and the grey one is finer and used for finishing once wet sanding is complete. They can be used wet or dry.

On to the priming. If you want paint to stick, better give it a good base. This also ensures even coverage when you go from the JB to the sanded powder coat. I left this photo blurry because I know Matt loves it when my pictures are crap (the other ones are far too clear):lol:.



On to painting after I buff the primer.

all i see in the pic is my wife flipping out.
i made that mistake once and only once.

and you posted this!!!! you are so busted.