JDM Wheel Restoration

The Art of Painting Wheels: A Step-by-Step Guide

It's like a cooking show, you know, except we're cooking stuff that's cooler than food. The first step is primer, which sets us up with a nice layer that adheres well to the base material. Then it's base coat, which is the color coat that will sit on top of the primer being an activated two-part paint. A chemical reaction takes place that makes it dry super fast. Our base coat is gold that's been color matched to an original set of these wheels.

The wheels are prepped. The paint's in the gun. It's now time to paint. It's about to get noisy as hell in here. So we're just gonna get into it. Ready? Let's do it. It is possible to do this job with spray cans, but it may take a bit longer and you may not get the same coverage as you will with a gun. The benefit of two-part paint is that it sprays on really smoothly for good coverage and flashes off quickly, meaning you can recoat in a short period of time.

The primers flashed off. We're gonna throw some of these base coat on and then some clear coat. Here we go. Metallic base coats like this often spray on fairly thin so you need to do multiple coats to get good coverage and depth of color. Once the clear coat is on top, by changing the fan on the gun, it allows us to shoot the paint into the tight crevices. We can then open the fan up to paint the face of the wheels. So the wheels have their first coat of color and they're looking freakin' awesome.

I'm not normally a fan of gold, but I think it's just gonna work being that these guys do wheels every day for a living, and mechanical Stig agrees, also. I think gold is the way to go, and I'm slowly coming around. It's gonna be awesome. We'll throw a few more coats on throw some clear on, and we'll be done. The base coat is looking awesome.

Eliot then checks the wheels out in the sunlight to make sure there's no runs or light spots. So all our base coats are on our primer and then our color. Now it's time for clear which protects it and makes it shiny right? Yeah, gives it production from the elements. Protection from UV rays. Yep. Stops paint failing basically. Makes it shiny.

Yeah, you can buff it up - hey, once it like dry for a while? It'll look epic. Same gun touch up gun. Yep, same gun. A touch-up gun is a miniaturized spray gun. That's handy for doing smaller spray jobs like this one. Clear coat can be applied a little less cautiously than the base coat as a run in the paint can be fixed afterwards.

We're still doing multiple coats, so there's a nice thick layer of paint protecting the center. And so the plan from here is we unmask them, Oh, I'm just gonna leave them for a bit. You know, they're gonna dry and there's a few more steps to do next time. So to come back in a couple days start next time. And enough, that's it, right? Yeah, they're done for him.

All right, let's unmask 'em. The wheels are looking amazing compared to when I first got them in a few days' time. We'll come back and finish the process off. So some time has passed, and our wheels are dry. Yeah. Yeah nice and dry ready to go. Ready for the next step. Because I'm it's it looks like I could go put that on my car now.

But there's some stuff missing, right? Yeah, so it needs bolts need to seal needs a valve put in it. Back of it needs to clean up, you know a bit of a brush. Yep, a little finishing touch. There is no valve because when you when you put the new lip on you've got no spot for it, right, correct? Yeah, so what's that involved? I just drilling a hole out to the right size wherever you want pretty much.

Yeah, well, the other ones will match it off that not cool. It try and keep it in the original location so so bolt valve tidy up. Last little buff. Yeah, stick a tire on it. Yeah, stick that back on it. Yeah. Oh man. We're getting close. The bolts on the front are mostly decorative.

But do need to be replaced. The shiny aluminum and gold works really nicely and with a little bit more work. These wheels would be ready to go. You happy with the color yeah looks good. Hey, yeah, it'll sort of sparkle when it's out in the Sun - yeah. It's been a pretty interesting learning process watching Elliott work because I just said to him then that's like,

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enOn this episode of Mighty Car Mods, we're putting mad wheels on the mad MiraWelcome to another episode of Mighty Car Mods. Today's an exciting day because we're going to be learning aboutbackspacing, offset, width, dishPCD all sorts of cool stuff. So what happened is I've got these mad wheels for the Mirawhich we're now calling the nicheWhich is French for nugget, this is probably not someone will tell uswhat French for nugget. There's one major problem with the wheels for the niche, yes. They don't fit.Okay, they're the right PCDwhich is that the diameter he like they fit and they're the right theme andPeriod they're the right period yes for the for the car and they're the right size too because they're super smallYou hook big wheels on these things and it doesn't handle very well and they don't fitWhat size are these. These are 13-inch wheels. Okay with tiny little tires on themYeah, six and a half inches wide they don't fit. YesBecause I don't have the right wheel nuts for them. And even if I did they still wouldn't quite fitSo we're gonna go see some friends of ours13 by six six and a half 13 by six and a half. Is that what you got on the mini?Yeah, I think you have anything sighs something like thatSame tire size anywaySo we're gonna go down and see our Mates at Barrel Brothers and we're gonna go into fix 'em because they do wheelsThat's all they do these kind of great. Let's go. Let's do itYou're on this side Mate what you can drive? Oh you've been in the boot, let's just hold these on our laps, okayCan you get in? If you unlock the door I can.It's gonna be really awkward driving with this wheel, man. Do you want to see a magic trick?Oh, no, I'll put the wheel here. Do you wanna see an awesome magic trick?Yeah, what next time it cuts to the shot of us driving down the highway. I'll be invisible. OhYes, I am crazy excited about finally getting some mad wheels for this mad little carAnyone who's been watching since the key to the city days will remember that this Mira had and has always had sincethese multi-multi stud wheels now they're very practical 'causeyou can go into any auto backs or up garage and buy a set of wheels that will fit pretty much any four stud K-carBut they don't look that cool and they also came with winter tires, which are not much used in Australiaa lot of people who flip between aSet of wheels for winter and a set of wheels for summer and I can only assume that whoever owned this MiraProbably live somewhere snowy and it makes sense that you knowYou would buy a car that not only is turbo and a hatchback and very cheap to run because it's a key car and cheap to registerIt also 4-wheel drive, which is very handy if you do live somewhere snowyThe PCD of this car is 4 by 1-1-0Which is a little bit uncommon 4x100 is common. 4x114.3 is common4x110 you don't see quite as much and for that reason wheels are a bit harder to find I did manageTo find a set of wheels that will fitthose - that stud pattern is common to old MazdasRX3s had that kind of stud pattern on them but the offset's always wrongsoToday the idea is to take these little wheels that I did find take them down the Barrel Brothers get those guys to check it outand see if we can make them fit this mad little MiraBarrel Brothers are a couple of guys with a passion for wheels and a factory full of tools that specialize in restoring classic wheelsThey've got a lot of love for old Datsuns, but we'll put up with my Daihatsu for this projectFans of JDM wheels will spot all the heroes from the last 40-plus years in the showroomBut I've brought my own classics along for today's adventure. The first thing we need to do is work out exactly what I haveWhat size it is and what needs to be done to bring them back to their former glory?Today we're going to talk about offset. Yes. Because you see it all the time. Yes you goI've gotzero offset wheels or+55 if you've got a Subaru or whatever is but there's a lot of confusion as to what it actually is and how that relates towhere the lip and the center and the barrel and all this stuff is so can you tell me everything? Yeah easyIt's pretty simpleOffset is basically the measurement from the center of the wheel to the hubRight. That's all it is. So the center of the wheels there its back down to where the face of that hub. Exactly. Right.It's pretty easy to measure up if you've gotLike a quick way of doing it will get you within a millimeter or soBasically, all you got to do is find a nice flat surface a couple of rulersPut your glasses onSo that's182 let's call it. The overall width of the wheel. Overall width of the wheel. So 182. Get your handy calculatorYep. 182 divide that by 2Okay. 91 is your center of the wheel. Okay, cool. Alright, so from thereWe took the wheel er the tire off this earlier, by the wayThen you just go through from the center through to here85 ah91-85Equals 6. +6. +6. So is there a way we can do to prove that you're not fibbing, huh?Yes so 13x6.5 +6. So let's, do you have another wheel. Yep, grab another one. I'm excited I want moreWhat's it off? What car is it off?My god, that's enormousThat's a, that's a a a a...Is it mmm a long champ?This is a long champ if you're in if you're... Okay, I'm gonna. See if, you see if your math's workAlright ready. Dude your ruler is not big enough? Turn it over.So whoever owns this wheel, I'll be really gentle with it. I promise now this is one we're gonna have for salesThat's one of yours. Ok, so I'll do the calculation over here for you. All right, it's a nine and a halfOkay, so it's nine and a half inch wheel and I ran like that and then we go put your little ruler onyeah, and we're at two hundred and sixtyseven. 267. Yep. Divide that by twoso halfway point is 133 so around there somewhere. 133.5. So now we go through here. Through there.Then we put your ruler. Straight across the faceSo you try and get your rule as flat as possible, get it right in the middle there.Oh I see and then put this ruler across. Yep. I've got... Go and clamp it with your fingers.167Minus167-33That's really that sticks outand the other thing is I've said also likeIf you've got a +55 wheel is actually further in toward the car actually so negative offsetThis is what they call they negative offset. Is that right? YepSo basic way to think of it, if you've got a positive egg a positive offset, there's the guard of your carYou know positive pushes it further we get more negative pushes it further outrightAnd I guess one of the one of the considerations with that as well is that so Subaru's for example at plus 55So that's in a long waybut that's partly because they're 4 wheel drive and partly because otherwise they can't turn right like that's correct if you got too much offset on thefront you're gonna hit. Collect the guard on the way through. Which is a consideration for our Mira wheelYes, but we widen that too much. Yeah, we might hit stuff. AbsolutelyI'm just gonna I'm just gonna take I'm gonna just borrow this wheel. Thanks mark appreciate it. No worriesSee you mate. Thank you. Bye. Oi!Now I bought them as a set but obviously maybe someone put two pairs together, but they're a different sizeThere are different size. They've got different lip so they are made at different agesSo these are quite a bit older than those. These are probably late 80s, and these are early 80sThese are really old. Oh right? Yeah, and they've got different valves in them. Ah, the valvesthe valves are valves are valves . Yeah. Okay, and so what so we need to check. Oo, these look like they were silver originallySo we need to check the offset difference. Can I use your trick your offset trick?so. Same thing. Overall heightof192or not even. 190190? And then , or 192 it looks likeAnd then we have that. Divided that by 2 ya? 95minusShot that down like that push it down hard and then sort of clamp it together with your thumb. Oh okay, 87Eight. Okay, so they're. Yeah. They're +8+6Looks like they're 2 mil different. Well, I don't have that really makes a difference.They've got a different. This is the older style barrel and lip's pretty much the same. It's a little bit extra there, which is why its a little bit wider. YeahSoThe fact that they center the same makes this a bit easier, right?Because we just end up putting four new lips. We can do for new lips, yepAnd the barrels. We got up to eight inch wide, you know on lipsI don't need 'em that wide. That's ridiculous.The last thing to talk about before I leave you because I understand this, this is a quite lengthy processYou can't just do it in a day as much as that would be niceNo. Because you guys have to get the barrels made upYes, we custom-make all the stuff from scratch. All starts off as a flat sheet of metal and then it gets spun andHardened and machined and you know a whole lot and then polish to within an inch of its lifeAnd yeahSo that process has to take place and then those come to you and you guys pull this apartBasically, we've got to cut through this weld here. This is a sandwich typeSo the centers in the middle barrels welded to the back and the lips welded to the frontSo we've got to cut through that. We'll take the lip off and then we'llTake them right back to back to their undies againAll the paint off it.Sandblast it make them look really beautiful. Then we weld them together paint them uppaint them up you say. Paint them up. SoOne one of my pairs is black and one of my pairs is orangeBlack's not a good idea you were saying but now it can disappearWell the thing is you've got a really great design wheel here. You paint it black you put those two togetherIt's all that lovely detail just disappearsYes true. You know, so yeah these and these ones especially because you've got a nice big lip on itIt's going to be really shiny. They've got these little tiny centers. Yep. You can paint it really pop colors. YeahSo look at the difference here with the orange in the black. I know you guys are into fluroI don't think I can do fluro on this particular car. I mean I get itI totally get it, but I reckon a nice sort of silvery-goldy some kind ofSome kind of that. Which is kind of. Is that? That's a gold right? Yes. This is an originalSSR gold that they used to paint it back in the day. Oh, so it'll be factory color factory color. That's coolYeah, and so you pull it all apartRespray it will clean it up sandblast respray it put it back together. I don't think weldingThat would be much fun. Personally. I don't, I couldn't do it. That's a hectic jobThat's our Mate Elliott with the bead over there is going to do that. NiceAnd so the new valves we'll do all new hardware. Yep all new hardware. So we lose the Bunnings boltsYeah, you're gonna lose the Bunnings bolts. Awesome, man. And so when I come back we will test fit them. Test fit them. CoolThey're gonna poke worse.no, they'reGonna poke better. Nah, man, we got it. We got it. Not for this carI mean if I had your car absolutely because it's made for like crazy JDM wheels, but mine's a little all wheel drive k-car thingSo, it's got to be like mildly sensibleThanks, man. No worries at all. Awesome. I can't wait to see 'em. Right? Can't wait to do 'em.Nice to meet you. No worries, nice to meet you. Maybe I'll be back for some pokey Mini wheels one day.I hope so.ActionNormally when we bring wheels in the first thing we do is spin them all up to make sure they straight and we've done thatWith these and we've got these three wheels and then we've got this one, which is not real flat.Couple of reasons for that.We've got a nice big ding in through thereAnd a nice big ding in through there. So I'd say this has probably come off the car at some stageSo I'll spin it up and you can have a look at itOkay, so you can see the lump there and the lump thereBut here's the bitIt's not roundChoppedNormally, if you are looking at these wheels you'd go for the black ones because they look a bit betterBut the orange ones are a far better will and I'll show you whyHere's the black ones here. If you have a close look at the pitting in here, that's really bad which the orange ones don't haveAlso the fact that one of them's buckled but there's pitting all the way around in these lipsThese are in actually really bad condition but that doesn't worry us because we're just gonna chop 'em off anyway.Next part of the process is we're going to chop the lips offChop lips off all four of them. That's why we weren't weren't too worried about theCorrosion and these guys here because we just get we're gonna put new lips up lips on 'em anywayGo a little bit wider. So yeah, they should stick out of his car a little bit furtherOkay, we're up to the machining bit. We do all our machining on a couple of vintage lathes that we have herethis one's actually an old Simmons lathe from1966. This is a relatively new one 1975. The reason we like these old ones because they don't make stuff like this anymoreWe found a few more problems with the black ones. As you see here, there's quite a bit ofcorrosion underneath the edgeWhere the lip was so that's not real flashy but the bad thing isIf you look here this is corrosion, this is corrosion this is corrosion, butThat is corrosion, soWhy you bring me junk, Martin?We're going to change the wheel nut style on Marty's wheels because shank nuts are frankly a bit of a painThey're pretty hard to deal withSo what we're going to do is we'll drill them outto sudo an acorn style nut with aTapered seat. That means drilling it out using this big drillOn the old Bridgeport that you see right behind me here.You might remember earlier I pointed out that Martin's wheel had a little bit of corrosion. Well it does.I just put it through the blaster andHello thereAs you can see it's come right through the other sideWith the expert prep done it's time for me to come back and be work experience kid.I'm here with Elliot at Barrel Brotherswe haveWell, that's not the whole wheel. No. No, it's just just the lip, just the lip.most Important part. so last time we were here. We drop the wheels off. We had a look at 'em and we measured all the offset and everythingYeah, and you guys are gonna get these made is that right? Yeah. So what's happened is since that day?They've been spun heat-treated twiceAnd then we've got them and they're ready to go for the next step. And so this is the original like we all rightYep, and so these are two-piece wheels. They're kind of it's a bit of a gray area. Ah, because they're welded.Yeah, they're welded, they're a three-piece but they're welded together which kind of technically makes them a one-piece, but. Okay.Today they're almost like two-piece wheels, aren't they? Yeah, we've got that bit in this bitYeah, and what else do we have to do this to end up with a finished wheel?Well with this particular wheel we have to do a bit of repair on the back there. There's a bit of corrosion holeOh, yeah, well and then we're gonna sand polish this lipYeah up to a standard that you know, everyone's happy with. That already looks really polished. It's not too bad but. Not polished enoughYeah, not enough could be a lot better. And then we piece them together. Yeah, then we are mock it out double checkIt's straight true and welding together. Oh, weld that to this. Yeah, then it's ready for paint and bolt them onYeah, but the bolts don't actually do much if they're welded on, do they?Decorative at best. And then paint the center's? YepYep, then seal it put a valve in it put a tire on it and enjoy. That's exciting. So, all right. Well, let's goI'm work experience kid. Just give me pleb jobs and I'll do 'emYeah, too easy. Let's go over to the lathe.A lathe is kind of like a giant drill mounted sidewaysThat's really useful for things that are roundWe need to mount our newly pressed wheel lip into the lathe so we can start the polishing processGlove PPE so stylish fashionable and isolating. We're going to be sanding. So some hand protection is also necessarySo Elliot, the idea is here like standing anything right start course get fine. Yep, and we use some of this. YepYeah, just be the soapy water. Cool. Just bit of soap help keep it lubricated. Yep. So the paper doesn't burn out real quick. YepYeah, we'll get started. and then polishing it with? A bunch of mops. Variety compounds like a hard compound. YepWe'll do that on a different machine. CoolWith some machinery fanboying out of the way. It's time to get to work on our lip.This set of four lipsIt's probably about six hours laborSanding and polishing. Yeah alone. Plus drilling, plus welding. Yeah, all the repairs and painting 'em, right?Yeah, and painting.You can feel it biting into the metalIt's kind of hypnotizing actually watching it. YeahSometimes you will walk away a bit of a head spin. Yeah, dizzy. That's about five minutes worth of polishing. Yep on 180Yeah, and sort of once you're seeing like a once you seeing like an even. Yes. sort of dulled out finish. YeahConsistent even finish across the whole thing any kind of any discrepancies on the surface that kind of tells you you haven't sanded enoughYeah, there's get more sandingYepand then we move on to the next paper and just do the same thing and it getsFiner and finally a little bit smoother a little bit smoother each time until. And the purpose of this is to get it like mirror?Finish, right? Yeah. Because you could do a brushed aluminium look and it would look something like thatYeah brushed aluminium a maybe. Yeah, you probably got a couple more grades higher and then just leave it at that. DoneBut we're goin' mirror. Yeah. Alright, let's get our mirror happening. Mirror on the Mira. Next gradeSanding finished. It looks good. Like it's um, it's shiny. I like obviously shinier than startedIt's already got a little bit of a luster goingYeah. Basically next step's polishing. And polishing is basically flattening out even that gray. Yeah. What grit were you at, at the end there?Twelve hundred. Yeah, okay. And now we probably got to polish it out twelve hundred lines. YeahYeah, so obviously the idea of the sanding is started with something really aggressive to knock all the imperfections downyeah, and then each pa- greater paper just knocks those imperfections finer and finer and finer until you can in polish those to aReflective surface. Mirror wheels.So you've got different buffing pads. Are they all the same? They're all for the most partThey're all the same kind of construction with different diameters for different wheels different widths depending on the applicationYep, you know some wheels you're only polishing a small area. So it'sBig wide mops are a waste of timeSureSo and we work various grades compound. That's a kindOf course one finer one for later on. And you add that into the buffing wheel. Yeah, yeah, yeahTools and especially power tools have the ability to seriously hurt you PPE or personal protective equipmentCan often be overlooked because it can take time to put on and slow down your flowBut it can also save you from a trip to the hospitalFrom something like your face being smashed by a stray flying piece of aluminiumAs it is, as it's spinning like that, for example. It'll grab it?It''ll grab that edge and just pull it away.OwwallllIt's certainly a lot harder then polishing with your power ball at homeCertainly is man, but look at the result. Like that's amazing. Yeah looking so good. Significant differenceImma, let you do it so it doesn't bite meMany hours of experience on this tool means Elliott can complete the task without too many flyawaysthat doesn't mean he hasn't experienced them and the protection equipment has saved his bacon more than once.With that our lip polishing is complete. It's amazing. Just how shiny you can make what used to be just a run-of-the-mill piece of aluminiumThat looks incredible. Yeah. Yeah. It's got a really good luster goin. This bits done now, right? YeahYeah, that stage is done for now. And so that's the same metal. Like that's how it came raw out of a machineYeah, and that's what we've turned it into. Exactly. That's amazing. Yeah, it's literally like a mirrorYeah. Cool so we can leave that aside for now. And yeah now we just get started on this one. Yeah focus on repairing thatCorrosion, get rid of all the crud. Yep, and then just fill it with weldYep, grind it back. Weld it up grind it back machine it flat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah make it as seamless as possibleSo we've ground the weld, the repair back using a really sort of fine flap diskAnd, yeah, you can you can hardly tell except for the change in colorIt looks pretty goodPrepared man, yeah, that's good that look at amazing. I couldn't tell you we're on there it wasYeah, that's the point. That's awesome. Yep, make it as seamless as possible. YepAnd what's next? Next we'll be putting that lip on, that we just polished. YeahWeld 'er on. Weld 'er on. Let's go.As with all welding preparation of the surface can have a huge effect on the finish qualityAluminium in particular needs to be clean of any substances like oil that will contaminate the weld poolBut before we can weld we need to preheat the wheelIf this was just welding a lip and a barrel together without the center in the middle.We wouldn't need to do this.Ah, because that acts as a heat sink, does it?Yeah, just suck all the heat, takes a long time to heat it up.Next Elliot AC tig welds the whole way around the wheel. Joining the lip and the barrel togetherIt's looking good Elliot, so that's welded. Yeah, and it's cool down it's no longer gonna burn our hands offYeah still slightly toasty but that's kind of nice because it just got cold here. YeahWe masking it? Yeah.In theory it might make sense to paint the center's first, but being at they're welded into the rest of the wheelThere's a good chance. The paint would be affected by the heat of the welding processBecause of that we need to go old-school and start masking up the wheel so we can paint the center'sThis process isn't any different to our video a few years back on wheel painting and just like weldingPreparation is keyNice! Look at that.That's the crisp clean edge. Love itBenny! Look who it is!Hey mates.He's everywhere!One minute 240 zed. Benny there. Next minute Mira wheels.What do you think? You like my finished wheels?I like itNice and plain?I like the, yellow dish.Just kidding we're gonna paint him he talked me into itHe knows wheels. Like he owns this joint.Why'd you do this to a Datsun Owner?Don't hate on the Datsuns. Be careful.Masking is all done on all four wheels, but you all had the same treatment as the one we did todayAnd they're almost- including the backs. So the mounting surface that goes on the actual hub. That's all like masked upSo it doesn't get paint on it, and the rest of itHe's freaking out 'cause I'm damaging my own wheelsAnd the rest of it will be painted the same color, which is gonna look awesomeSo we take into the paint booth and we paint 'em.We'll preps all 'em first. Preps all? And then, yeah, we'll take 'em out.Preps all is the generic name often given to cleaning solutions that are used to clean materials before painting.That way you don't end up With foreign objects under your paintor any contaminants that may prevent your paint from sticking properlyAfter a thorough clean we can get our wheels into the booth and then mix up our paintSo the next step is painting these awesome wheelsWe're gonna paint them inGold. It's actually the original color. We spoke about the last time we're hereI believe I'm not allowed to paint them in black, which is what I would normally do, but it makes it all disappearIt looks crap in these guys who do wheels every single day said noso I'm gonna go with it and weNegotiated and said they might let me put cap screws in the wheels instead of the old-school boltsBut only if I paint it not blackThis is like a cooking show, you knowExcept we're cooking stuff that's cooler than foodThe first step is primer, which sets us up with a nice layer that adheres well to the base materialThen it's base coatwhich is the color coat which will sit on top of the primer being an activated two-part paint aChemical reaction takes place that makes it dry superfast.Our base coat is gold that's been color matched to an original set of these wheelsThe wheels are prepped. The paint's in the gun. It's now time to paint. It's about to get noisy as hell in hereSo we're just gonna get into it. Ready? Let's do itIt is possible to do this job with spray cansBut it may take a bit longer and you may not get the same coverage as you will with a gunThe benefit of two-part paint is that it sprays on really smoothly for good coverage and flashes off quicklyMeaning you can recoat in a short period of timeThe primers flashed offWe're gonna throw some of these base coat on and then some clear coat. Here we goMetallic base coats like this often spray on fairly thin so you need to do multiple coats to get good coverage and depth of colorOnce the clear coat is on topBy changing the fan on the gun. It allows us to shoot the paint into the tight crevicesWe can then open the fan up to paint the face of the wheelsSo the wheels have their first coat of color and they're looking freakin awesomeI'm not normally a fan of goldBut I think it's just gonna work being that these guys do wheels every day for a livingAnd mechanical Stig agrees, alsoI think gold is the way to go and I'm slowly coming aroundIt's gonna be awesome. We'll throw a few more coats on throw some clear on and we'll be doneThe base coat is looking awesomeEliot then checks the wheels out in the sunlight to make sure there's no runs or light spotsso all our base coats are on our primer and then our color and nowIt's time for clear which protects it and makes it shiny right yes gives it production from the elementsProtection from UV rays. Yep. Stops paint failing basically. Makes it shinyYeah, you can buff it up - hey, once it like dry for a while? It'll look epic. Same gun touch up gunYep, same gun.A touch up gun is a miniaturized spray gun. That's handy for doing smaller spray jobs like this oneClear coat can be applied a little less cautiously than the base coat as a run in the paint can be fixed afterwards.We're still doing multiple coatsSo there's a nice thick layer of paint protecting the center's and so the plan from here is we unmaskOh, I'm just gonna leave them for a bit. You know, they're gonna dry and there's a few more steps to do next timeSo to come back in a couple days start next timeAnd enough, that's it, right? Yeah, they're done for him. All right, let's unmask 'emThe wheels are looking amazing compared to when I first got them in a few days time, we'll come back and finish the process offSo some time has passed and our wheels are dry. Yeah. Yeah nice and dry ready to go. Ready for the next stepSo what is the next step because I'm it's it looks like I could go put that on my car nowBut there's some stuff missing, right? Yeah, so it needs bolts need to seal needs a valve put in itBack of it needs to clean up, you know a bit of a brush. Yep, a little finishing touchThere is no valve because when you when you put the new lip on you've got no spot for it, right, correct?Yeah, so what's that involved? I just drilling a hole out to the right size wherever you want pretty much. YeahWell, the other ones will match it off that not cool it try and keep it in the original location so so bolt valvetidy upLast little buff. Yeah, stick a tire on it. Yeah, stick that back on it. Yeah. Oh manWe're getting close the bolts on the front are mostly decorativeBut do need to be replaced the shiny aluminium and gold works really nicely and with a little bit more workThese wheels would be ready to goYou happy with the color yeah looks good. Hey, yeah, it'll sort of sparkle when it's out in the Sun - yeahIt's been a pretty interesting learning processWatching Elliott works because I just said to him then that's like, \"oh, look there's some wheel weight glue things on the backI'm like no one will ever see it you guys still gonna do itBut just because you mean to do it, you gotta do it right. It's pretty coolTry it's a process that you you try and apply in your life as much as possible, but don't always have the timePerfect! Done! Look at it. Now it's perfect! Gettin thereQuick polish and then brush you're getting to the point end. Cool manElliot gives the lips one final touch up on the polisher wheel of deathand then can get to work cleaning up the rest of the wheel using scotch brite padThis gives the wheel weight a clean surface to stick toLooks nice and clean and prepares the welded area for sealantSo Elliot these wheels originallyHad bolts that look like that, right? So is that that's sort of what they come with from the factory?Yeah, like a just a kind of standard m8 bolt with a flange mount on the frontYep. Pretty standard. Stainless steel I'm guessing?The original ones are zinc. We use stainless steel just as a bit of a neater finishYep. last bit longerYeah, the other option is these. Yeah, and last time we were hereI think we spoke about using cap screws instead just for a slightly different look because I kind ofwhen I first got these wheels and I saw the the nuts on the end of 'em, it feels like it'sI don't know. It feels like an adjustment that you shouldn't have because it they're sort of decorative aren't they at this point? YeahYeah, they they do add to the integrity. But it without the bolts there. They're strong enough on their own without the bolts anywaySo really they are decorativeAnd I'm thinking also like because the car will be like a black color with the black cap screws shiny wheels goldI think this is gonna be like it's all gonna tie together nicely ties all the color. And customizes it slightly as wellSo yeah, I think that's we're gonna go for. That's got some kind of washer on it too, right?Yeah. It's got these aluminiumMachined kind of like a washer. Again period-correct. A lot of wheels from this period have 'em. AwesomeYeah, just a little bit of detail something different. Looks great. Let's throw them in there. Very coolThis is a valve we're putting in. This one's metal, which is pretty cool. A lot of the time, you knowYou'll see them with a little black plastic caps and like a little rubber sort of valveThat's gonna be a bit more durable. Is that the idea of using these ones? Yeah. Yeah.They're a bit more durableThey last longer and I just little bit better.And it's period-correct for this wheel. We just have have metal valve stemsYeah. Yeah. Awesome. And so you got a mark there for it. Yep. Throw a hole in itYeah, we'll just finish marking it out and away we goYou know, you got a sharp drill bit when you get schwarf it looks like thatVery cool.We're getting close. Holes drilled. Valve stems gonna go inSeal it. Silicon, right? Yep. And then that's it. Put a tire on it. Yeah. Oh man. We're close. Yeah, let's do itOne of the final steps is to seal the welded area with silicon sealant it's done this way on the wheels from the factorySo to stay as close to the factory spec as possible. We'll be doing the sameTape is applied either side of the joint while sealing to keep it neatOnce the silicon has been applied its tooled down as flat as possibleThe tape can then be removed the wheel left to dry and we're ready to install our brand new valve stemsLook at that.DoneThank you so much Elliot. No problem. That's amazing. Like I'm so impressed with the detailAnd how cruddy they used to look. Yeah. And now like that could be a brand new wheel. Yeah, it's like and day. Yeah. YeahIt's as close to new as you can just about get. And you do this every single day. Yeah. And you love itYeah. That's awesome, man. Thanks heaps man. See you later. AnytimeMira owner. What a legendThe Mira wheels are finished and they look freakin awesomeI'm so happy with how they turned out and I'm so impressed that the the craftsmanship andYeah, thanks Barrel Bothers for letting me come and work experience kid and be part of itAnd look right at the camera for a sec and just stay there. Don't move. I'm going to do a slow-motion reenactmentDude that's like I never knew that like polishing stuff like that would actually be dangerous.Like without that mask on you'd have two noses by now.Power tools man. They're so full on. I'm so glad I was wearing that gear cuz I wasn't hurt. I was like shockedYes? Because I just had this thing coming right at my face, but it fully saved me. I would've been in the hospitalWell the time that I drilled through my wrist with a 10 mil bit dirty scar thereIf I was wearing gloves that, like, went down there like leather gloves I probably would have been alright, but insteadI'm getting like a hand reconstruction and pulling drill bits out of my armAnyway, Martin anyway, good job on that that was freaking epic.Mira wheels they look unreal. Was that had a couple of months? all up?Weeks weeks and weeks probably two months actuallyThat's Crazy.First dropped it off to come back with each process takes a while other things have to get made from scratch.That's a big job man.It's pretty big. Question is, do they fit the car? Well, yes, and no no, no, sorry. Yes and noI mean, yes, and no, so yeahIt actually no. So I'd kind of hoped that this episode be like look at they're on the-They'd they fit like the right PCD and stuff, but they don't fit. But it's time to call in double-oh-seven, isn't it Martin?You know what I mean by that? The James Bond effect. See the OG MCM'ers will know what that means.No we're getting into that- don't even show 'em man.Don't even show 'em. The old schoolers know. They know? Yeah that we're callin it the, yeah.We're calling it the James Bond effect. You know what that means? If not go watch the 180sx videosSo between now and the next episode is when we're gonna do itSo hopefully it works cuz if it doesn't then there's no episode or there will be and you'll be coming with usYes, either way, it's gonna look right. It's gonna be like a mad littleJDM nugget and I think that's everything MartinWe've got a couple of things here, of course, lots of people servicing their own carsso we're doing like a little service back here with Mighty Car Mods service labelsA chopped key tag to pimp your car keys and our mad Mighty Car Mods gloves. Speaking of PPE.These also save you because when that thing hit my face the next thing it was my hands and it got me right hereBut it just sort of glanced off it. YeahI'm so they yeah, they saved me from a bit of-You can get all that stuff from MightyCarMods.comAnd help support the show. And of course! Chopped hats! You've asked for 'emwe've got them in again there they arePut that on your head and be a boss. Shipped to anywhere in the world where shipping can goReally good shipping prices considering how far Australia is from the rest of the worldBut get on it. Amazing! Alright, thank you very much everybody. See you next timewhere it's gonna be Mira James Bond editionI know you're gonna say mac and cheese. I'm gonna pump that cream into the seams of each tube of pastaIs that what you're talking about? I was gonna get wishbone mac and cheese. Is that where we're going? That's what I mean, a wishbone mac and cheese.Yeah, I'm keenHey, what's this car? This car is the biggest nugget we've ever bought, mate. Sounds really-This is how you know, it's a nugget listen to thisWhoa!Alright, mac and cheeseLet's go man.Epic so when you spend your time with some guys who are really into wheels andYou bring super gramps, and then they see the condition of your wheels. The wheels didn't stay on there for very longAnd so they tidied up the lips of these which now look amazingThey're really a little bit messy when I got them and I'm sure I've done some gutter work on the ones as wellBut they came up really good. They've all been polishedI give it a mad clean when I get back and put them back on the car\n"