Shooting clear on aluninum

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sabre67

sabre67

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Hi was wondering if shootin clear on aluninum hub caps (dog dish) would give them some protection from going dull ? thanks
 
A friend used XIM clear primer on polished aluminum Mustang wheels and they have looked pretty good for several years. Maybe a slight yellowish over time but still pretty good.
 
jos51700 said:
Use uv- rated clear coat!
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Another expert heard from...............................

What clear coat technology are you recommending, and what UV level do you recommend, and what light stabilizer package would you recommend with that UV package.

I could go on but I`ll wait for the answers to these questions.
 
grimreaper said:
A friend used XIM clear primer on polished aluminum Mustang wheels and they have looked pretty good for several years. Maybe a slight yellowish over time but still pretty good.
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XIM adhesion promoter is like gluing a coating to the substrate, in this case aluminum. The only problem I see is that the XIM will breakdown quickly and lose adhesion. The yellowing you see is the XIM product breaking down. If your buddy got a few years out of that combination he got lucky as it shouldn`t have worked.
 
OEM aluminum parts like wheels are usually anodized, not painted with a clear coat.

All of the clear coats that I'm aware of are intended to be a final coat over paint, so using them over bare metal usually results in adhesion problems. Not saying it's impossible, I clear coated a polished steel motorcycle frame once, but the results were mediocre at best.

And, weren't most of the bare metal dog dish caps stainless steel? At least the OEM ones? I know that all the bare metal dog dish caps that I have are stainless steel. The dog dish caps that weren't stainless were painted.
 
sabre67 said:
Hi was wondering if shootin clear on aluninum hub caps (dog dish) would give them some protection from going dull ? thanks
Click to expand...

I`ll put this in the simplest terms; If you don`t have the ability to (1) pre-treat the hub caps properly prior to paint (2) buy an OEM 2K expoxy urethane wheel clear (3) and have access to bake temps above 425 F, then the next best thing is a low bake (325F) powdered clear coat system, done by a reputable powder coater.

Or........... you can take your chances with a rattle can clear from the auto parts store and hope it maintains some level of adhesion or does not yellow in a short period of time and fall off.
 
sscuda said:
Another expert heard from...............................

What clear coat technology are you recommending, and what UV level do you recommend, and what light stabilizer package would you recommend with that UV package.

I could go on but I`ll wait for the answers to these questions.
Click to expand...

I offered the answer to the op's question, and that's based on empirical evidence. The op can take it or leave it.
 
I have yet to see what UV additive is used in either clear coat or a topcoat labeled on a container. There are three Tinuvins that I am personally familiar with. Usually the name of the product and the amounts are proprietary. How would I know? I MADE the **** for over 12 years. Do I know everything there is to know? Absolutely not, but I have seen a lot of formulas/recipes and a lot of labels, and it looks as though I will be going back to doing that again real soon.
 
jos51700 said:
I offered the answer to the op's question, and that's based on empirical evidence. The op can take it or leave it.
Click to expand...


for the op, we have been clearing bare metals with diffrent products (creacote,armorex,cloverdale) for years, some are better than others, we have found the DTM (direct to metal) cloverdale 4:1 polyurethane one of the better ones...

[ame="http://www.cloverdalepaint.com/info/pdf_tds_in/h40-0045.pdf"]Request Rejected[/ame]
 
I used the clear coat (forgot the marketing name) from POR15 on my HD Sportster's aluminum heads after I polished them up.

After the clear coat, they looked slightly duller than the polished aluminum, but have pretty much stayed the same form 10 years. (unlike the weathered look before I polished them)

http://s957.photobucket.com/user/emsvitil/library/M19 Sportster Rocker Box?sort=4&page=1


The POR15 clearcoat I used was the 2 part stuff, I think they have a 1 part.....


I used a hobby sprayer from Harbor Freight so if I ruined it (i.e. clogged it up) it wouldn't matter as I got it for $5 or so.

Make sure you clean out the sprayer before the clear coat sets.
 
This thread is a good read for sure:happy1:

Oh and a lot of aluminium wheels are clear coated
 
FYI, Factory dog dish caps were either stainless or anodized aluminum.
 
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