Bbs speedline refurb

[Orange225]

First off, not sure if this is the right section, but couldn't find anywhere else to post
I've just bought a set of 18" bbs speedlines which are very rough, I'll be doing a full posh refurb of them, will also document the process that I go through as a high end bike painter (powder coater),might give a couple of people an idea of what should be happening when your paying for a decent refurb.
The thing I'm struggling with now is what colour to paint them, at the moment, chrome faces with a polished lip and maybe anodised black ti bolts. Any more ideas (my a3's Akoya silver)

 

[Orange225]

First instalment, stripped the paint from the wheels using an acid dip that's designed specifically for stripping paint from aluminium without damaging the metal

 

[Orange225]

And split

 

[Deleted member 85022]

Plasma blue lips and apple green centres courtesy of orange mountain bikes?

 

[Orange225]

Jeez, didn't think anybody actually looked at this thread, was actually thinking cyan blue barrels with Stirling silver face. Pretty much decided on satin charcoal grey face with gloss black barrel, possibly anodised ti bolts too

 

[Orange225]

Next instalment, (just in case anybody's out there)
After the paint was removed and wheels split, it was time to media blast them, sand out any imperfection of fill with chemical metal

Then it was onto the acid etch to clean off any dirt hiding away, then a 10 minute dip in the anti corrosion fluid tank.
All ready to be masked up and painted

 

[Wu11ie]

Looking forward to seeing these finished. Top job so far.

 

[Orange225]

Thanks, fingers crossed they'll come out perfect, due to be painted tomorrow night I reckon, I've started cleaning all the bolts up to, so they'll look brand new too

 

[Orange225]

Next step, gassed the wheels to prevent any bubbling in the paint, one single coat of forged charcoal grey, 190 degrees for 18 minutes
Powder on

Powder ******

 

[Orange225]

It's been a while since the last instalment, doing these in my spare time at work

Cleaned out all the bolt hole threads with an m7 tap

Lightly greased the surfaces that'll touch when they're together,
A little bit of threadlock on the bolts which I previously cleaned up

Fitted all the bolts and torqued up to correct settings,
All done..... Gooder than new, I wet painted the lips with a very close match grey to the rest of the wheel, very easy to repair if the lips get scratched

Hopefully they'll look good on the car

 

[Deleted member 85022]

They look good chap!

 

[Orange225]

Cheers, hope they look ok on an akoya silver a3

 

[Deleted member 85022]

I'd of thought so! Pictures when you've got them all fitted up will reveal all! Out of interested what orange do you ride?

 

[Orange225]

That's the plan. Usually ride or five or an alpine, the benefits of working for a bike company

 

[Deleted member 85022]

I work in a bike shop so I have a fair few demo bikes I can borrow as well! Makes for a hard life choosing which one though.....

 

[Orange225]

Yeah it's a hard life, quite good that we do a bike for pretty much every discipline

 

[Deleted member 85022]

Ain't it just!

What size tool was it you used to split these down? Looking to get mine re done fairly soon...

 

[Orange225]

M7 spline bit. Bought a set from halfrauds

 

[Wondering Soul]

Absolutely stunning work dude!

 

[Orange225]

Thankyou, they will be on the car soon, promise, can't decide on tyre size now though

 

[Wondering Soul]

Looking forward to seeing what they look like once on! Looking for any stretch in tyres at all?

 

[Orange225]

Me too, not really wanting any stretch as i think it look a bit odd unless I lower it

 

[TomL83]

They look lovely. I need some speedlines for my A3 Sportback

 

[Wondering Soul]

Me too, not really wanting any stretch as i think it look a bit odd unless I lower it

Good point, what tyres were you thinking of?

 

[Orange225]

Bridgestone potenza's are winning at the moment 225 40 18. Toyo proxes are also on the list, both around £70 a tyre.
Thank toml83

 

[Wondering Soul]

Have had a set of Bridgestone Potenza's on a previous car. Thought they were pretty good as an all rounder but they didn't cope well with the 375bhp the car had, wore quickly under 'normal' driving and road noise was quite noticeable in the cabin. Then again, others have said they love them and get huge mileage from them! The joy of reading reviews!

Had Toyo T1 Sports on my A1 and loved everything about them. Gave great response in the wet, went through two sets before changing to something else!

Try visiting http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk for some advice on your choices!

 

[Orange225]

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely have a gander at that, got continentals on at the moment which are a bit gash in the wet with the enormous power of my 170 bhp diesel

 

[Wondering Soul]

I still have a set of Conti Sport Contact 5's on my S3 currently. Got delivered with the same tyres, when it came to it I stuck four of the same on again. Quite enjoy them to be honest, although I do agree about wet performance. Not great at all.

Will be looking to change when they need doing early next year, probably going for a full set of Pirelli P Zero's as they were recommended by my tyre guy last time but he didn't have the stock for a few days so stuck with the Conti's.

 

[Adam Russell]

hello mate, i have a set of these that I'm in the process of refurb. do you know what are the torque setting ? also dont suppose you know how to extract a few bolts as some of mine the splines on the bolt broke so nothing for the spline tool to grip ?
Thanks

 

[Orange225]

From what I remember, I think it was around 20, I stripped a couple of mine when torquing up, but I just helicoiled them to make em good as new, luckily for me, I managed to remove them all without stripping any. You could try to tighten a couple of bolts either side to relieve the pressure on the damaged on, possibly hammer a torx bit in that's slightly larger to give it something to grip, failing that, it's a drill and bolt extractor job

 

[Orange225]

Also, when I put the bolts back in, I tightened them in a star pattern to even the load and make sure the centres go in straight

 

[Adam Russell]

do you know if you can use normal nitromorse (house hold paint stripper) to remove the existing paint?

 

[Orange225]

Yes that shouldn't be a problem, will takes ages though as the over the counter stuff isn't very strong