Well wouldn't you know - It was beautiful pleasant mild sunny day.
Perfect conditions for a little outdoor wheel rash repair and final paint.


I was foolish to think that I could have all the wheels re-iron decontamination, cleaned and prepped for paint all in 1ne day.
I was only able to get the rears done.

Unfortunate as it were; Having new tires placed on the rims...I discovered new gouges to my previous repairs. I knew it would happen.*sigh*....Back to step #1


My tools ladies & gentlemen. Wheel upon a lazy Susan on top of a 3gal bucket.

After a couple of hours of spot repairs, priming, sanding, re-cleaning and paint prep; I was back on schedule. Everything was going smoothly.The WURTH paint was laying down beautifully - Until...


...the nozzle began to have a seizure and spattered dark globs all over the fresh paint.


I switched out the offending nozzle for one from a different can of spray paint (original nozzle laying beside the can).


Thankfully the WURTH was quick drying and was able to superfine sand out the mess it had made and resume painting my 3rd and final layer.



I even managed to find time to Ospho, paint and bake my lug-bolts..


Final refurbished, painted, clear coated 2) rear 18.5y/o S-Lites.

I'll put the rear wheels back on the Mini tomorrow morning.
I probably won't get to the front wheels until next weekend. With the wheels off the car, while the paint is curing; I'll use that time to R&R the outer ball joints as well.

 

Can you explain the process of painting and baking the lug nuts? Did you use a specific paint?

 

Well there is nothing really to it; other than having a metal piece that is painted that is small enough to fit in a conventional oven.
Properly prep and paint the (metal, heat resistant) subject/piece. Let cure for 30-40min then place it in an oven set @ 150° - 200° F for 20-30min. Turn off the oven and leave the object in until cool to the touch. Subsequently, clear coat if you wish, @ room temp.

My theory is that baking will facilitate faster curing and dissipate slow evaporating solvents in the paint.
It is my belief that - With the advent of re-formulated paints to meet VOC environmentally "friendly" conditions these days.- Gone are the days where paints formulated simply with unadulterated, quick flashing solvents/carriers (i.e.: true lacquer thinner, acetone, mek, naphtha etc..), have all but been substituted with slower drying petroleum solvents (i.e.: mineral spirits). Not only will the heat induced environment cause an acceleration in the curing/drying time but the actual "paint" may shrink making for better adhesion to the object...(if not even more durable..?).

I find the aforementioned especially in the recent formulations (past 3 decades), of rattle can primers: denoted as "sandable". Generally most of these off the self primers take days to really fully cure and are not quickly dry sandable!
Personally; I bake primed pieces just to be certain I will be able to properly sand them.
My apologies for the last few sentences. I wasn't my intention to turn this into a rant.

 

All makes perfect sense. I'll just have to wait till my wife is out of the house for a couple hours so I can use the oven improperly. Lol

 

Oh - and I'm sorry I neglected to answer your question regarding the paint = Nothing really special painted on the lug bolts. I had some VHT gloss black "roll bar" paint laying around (from Advance Auto crap).

 

 

We managed to break a belt tensioner on the back straight at Sebring and destroy the new 2%ATI pulley resulting a U haul truck and dolly rental for the ride home. Fun day none the less.

 

Sebring is noted for breaking things...

The TC America MINIs were there over the weekend for 2 races. LAP Motors had 5 MINIs in the 1st race. They did really well the last few outings, but seemed to have issues this outing at Sebring. Something about overheating, but one still managed a podium (I think).

Sebring is a track I’d like to try, but that would be a really long hike for me... It is 3 days of on-track fun for me at Watkins Glen at the end of the week... Just took a break from prepping the car for that trip.

 

Replaced the three lower rubber trim pieces below the rear windows and the hatch glass. Man, was it grungy underneath!



Replaced the stock lugs with titanium ones. Did this for 1) looks - don't ever have to worry about them being any color than the silver that they are (not the ugly 'heat treated' blue gross nonsense); 2) because I am buying new wheels soon and would have bought a new set of lugs anyhow because mine were rusting and making all sorts of ugly oxidation on my wheels; 3) since I would be shelling out 70 bucks for a stock oem set of lugs anyhow, the extra 90 bucks for the set from ECS was easier to swallow considering 1) and 2) above. 4) any meager weight savings this would afford in combination with the 29 lbs I expect to save with the new wheels and tires. Actually, this change out brought me up to (or down to, rather) 150 lbs under stock weight according to my spreadsheet. Yep, I keep track of each part replaced and the weight gain or loss. And I have a complete, restored interior as well.


Ti.


Fe.

Look so much better. NM the 12 years of curbing on my R112's.

 

Used Duplicolor Wet Look. Worked out well. A little orange peel if you look close but it looks pretty good overall. Better than straight Plastic Dip.
It is a bit more work as it's a 2 step application and you have to double up on the masking.
Spray the release agent first and remove one layer of the masking while it's still wet and then spray the color.

 

So I get home from work this evening to find this large plastic envelope (26"L x 15"W), sitting at my doorstep. Totally bewildered, I'm wondering "What could this be?".



Inside; I find buried in air cushion, a small 3.5" x 3.5" item encased in bubble wrap...




Today I replaced a broken turn signal on the Right side fender .

I discovered it broken a month ago after someone had parked next to me at the grocery store.
I had forgotten that I had ordered a replacement last week.

Maybe I should've ordered it in amber. My Left side signal lens is white/clear. I don't know if it's sun bleached or is it that I can't remember if they were originally amber when I bought the car new...???

 

FYI - my son just passed CA Smog with a catch-can on his '88 MR2

 

That is awesome!
For the life of me I could never fathom the rumor that CA would fail a vehicle for something like that. After all they made me install one. Or fail.

 

From my limited experience, the S's have clear lenses, and the Justa's are amber.

 

Yup!

I actually bought a set of the clear for our Base Cooper as the amber clashed with the Indi Blue car paint...

 

Added some new tail lights. Changed from pre facelift to new post facelift led tail lights. Moved the reverse light from the bumper to the tall lights. And the fog lights to the bumper.

 

While I consider myself a "new traditionalist", the new style tail lights may not be for me...
I have to admit your *** end does look pretty nice with that new updated took.
Very nice looking MINI

 

Although my day/weekend did't go completely as planned - I managed to de-iron, clean, prep and paint my front S-Lite rims yesterday. I learned quite a bit refinishing them from when I completed the rears last weekend.
In lieu of @dmath's preferred/better setup vs my lazy-susan method. The front rims turned out just as beautiful as the rears.


Front S-Lite(s) refurbished


BTW: Is it just me or...How is it everytime I start to lay down paint, outdoors, I seem to attract every fly and gnat from the tri county area?? [sarcasm]
Luckily, I haven't had a single bug land/embedded in my fresh paint.



Front wheels refinished, bolted back on, Mini washed and polished once again.
All 4, 18.5 y/o S-Lites finally de-curb rashed and looking like new!

The 2nd part for my planned weekend:
I had ordered and intended on replacing my outer ball joints and drop links while the wheels were off the car and curing for the day. As if fate would have it; both Amazon & UPS committed the most heinous acts a shipping company could ever do to their patrons awaiting delivery = They both bunted my order to be delivered by USPS! As we all have come to know; USPS continues to demonstrate in it's failing ability to preform even the simpest task they've been doing for the last millenium. Case in point: USPS tracking notification alerts me that my packages were delivered in the parcel locker Friday, 9.30.22 @7:17pm. Of course no key was to be found in my mailbox to retreive my delvery from "said" parcel locker.

Tune in next week.

 

Holy crap, those look amazing!! Nice shiny wheels make a huge difference to the overall look of a car. Really well done. I wish I had your painting skills.

My wheel station came about only because I'm a packrat. I was still hanging on to shop items from my woodworking days -- haven't done that since about 2008. It was dumb luck that a few of those items could be used for wheels. If I ever get back to woodworking, the wheel station will probably be repurposed as a planer feed stand.

 

Thanks!
Painting isn't really my forte' but I've been an artist/practical fx artist for more than half my life. I also had the benefit of working with and learning from some extremely talented people from all disciplines in the entertainment industry.
Having once been one myself - There is much to be said about being a packrat . Your improvised solution by re-purposing the feed roller was a clever revelation. It most certainly would have been the best (if not easiest), way to paint rims.

 

Any movies or shows you can share that we might have seen some of your work in?

Being into models most of my life, one thing that really bugs me about the interior are the huge seams on the down tubes and door pulls. One of the many projects on my list is to eliminate the seams and re-paint them.

 

Honestly; it has been so long since I was last active in that industry (2014?). I couldn't list by name.
I worked mostly in SFX/practical effects shops designing and fabricating props and scenic elements for a few movies, commercials (mostly), and television. The only films I was actually present during filming were a Ben 10 movie and Jeepers Creepers(#1), where I fabricated some of the Creeper's weaponry (which were never used/cut). The majority of my career was in design, sculpture and fabrication for theme attractions, museums, and family entertainment venues. I worked extensively for Walt Disney World, a designer for Universal, Paramount, MTV Networks, and Nickelodeon as a designer, modeler and toy sculptor. Needless to say; I've worked in everything sticky, gooey, slimy, smelly, doughy, dusty, toxic stuff you can ever imagine. I loved every moment of it.
Everything has gone digital now. The little work that I get now and used to do by hand, I now do/create in 3D programs (Zbrush). Then sent off to be printed, milled, or CNC'd.

 

That sounds like a really cool industry to have been a part of. I remember one of my favorite places to visit in So Cal as a kid was Movie World and seeing all of the props and models.

 

Very cool!
After moving out to L.A. in the mid - late 80s', I once recall driving around the N Hollywood area and happened to pass by the George Barris museum.
Barris was a huge inspiration to me as a kid and later when I first started tinkering with cars. I regret never going back to visit the museum/ showroom before leaving CA 2wo years later. If I recall correctly; The museum has since been relocated to TN (?)....
I'll have to look that up again.

 

Very nice!