What did you do to your V today?
I painted my wheels. Liking how the emblems turned out. Also painted the calipers black with a silver V, but don't have a pic of that.
Attachment 427886
Attachment 427887
Attachment 427886
Attachment 427887
also how did you get those center caps?
Staging Lane
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Yeah, DIY. The OE wheels have a very thick base coat of grey paint with a thin layer of silver and clear on top. I wet sanded out most of the blemishes because only the worst curb rash went down deeper than the base coat. The rash that did go down to the metal I filled with bondo and re-sanded. Then I rattle-canned primer coats, color coats, and clear coats. Of course, plenty of cleaning and masking along the way. The color is Dupli-Color Graphite Wheel Coating. I'm considering spraying down some clear plastidip on top of the clearcoat for some added protection.
The center caps were DIY too. The OE caps have a clear plastic (I'm guessing acrylic) cap essentially glued to the bottom retainer. The crest is set into the back of the acrylic. The cap and retainer can be pried apart and cleaned. I'm sure a lot of guys have had them delaminate along the same plane like a couple of mine had. The adhesive layer bonding the two acts more like weatherstripping than glue. The crest itself is set into the acrylic, so sanding and cleaning the backside leaves the crest unchanged. You just have to be careful when prying the pieces apart because the chrome making up the crest can be pulled off if you get too eager pulling the adhesive layer away. Then it's a matter of painting the back of the acrylic the color of the wheels and then applying epoxy to bond the pieces back together. I'm hoping the paint bonds well enough to the acrylic to hold the pieces together; it is the weak link in the bond.
It's kind of tricky to explain, so if that's hard to visualize and you want to see how it's done, I have yet to do my full size spare. I can document with some more pictures if you'd like.
The center caps were DIY too. The OE caps have a clear plastic (I'm guessing acrylic) cap essentially glued to the bottom retainer. The crest is set into the back of the acrylic. The cap and retainer can be pried apart and cleaned. I'm sure a lot of guys have had them delaminate along the same plane like a couple of mine had. The adhesive layer bonding the two acts more like weatherstripping than glue. The crest itself is set into the acrylic, so sanding and cleaning the backside leaves the crest unchanged. You just have to be careful when prying the pieces apart because the chrome making up the crest can be pulled off if you get too eager pulling the adhesive layer away. Then it's a matter of painting the back of the acrylic the color of the wheels and then applying epoxy to bond the pieces back together. I'm hoping the paint bonds well enough to the acrylic to hold the pieces together; it is the weak link in the bond.
It's kind of tricky to explain, so if that's hard to visualize and you want to see how it's done, I have yet to do my full size spare. I can document with some more pictures if you'd like.
Staging Lane
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Alrighty. Start out by popping the center cap out from the back of the wheel. You then have this:
Notice the border between the acrylic on the top and the black plastic beneath. Stick a flat-head screwdriver into this border and gently twist, separating the two layers.
Do that slowly, working your way around. Don't try to pop it off all from one spot. Be gentle. The acrylic will come away slowly or it may kind of pop off.
You can see the inset of the design, which from the front side, looks silver. The adhesive should be left on the retainer along with most of the silver paint that served as the background for the crest before you pried them apart.
Notice the bubble in the middle. That is where the adhesive was attached to the inset design of the crest. If you are too vigorous, that bubbled adhesive can pull the silver of the crest away. You can always place it back with the adhesive it's attached to, but it doesn't look quite as good, even if you line it up perfectly. Now, start peeling the adhesive off of the retainer. You don't have to be gentle here.
Now, the acrylic will most likely have some of the background silver still on it, like this:
I sanded it off with 1000 grit, which made it pretty cloudy, but then some 3000 grit cleared it up.
The scratches on the front are solved with some sanding as well. Then, clean the back and paint.
Then the front will look like this:
Then all that remains is to epoxy the acrylic piece back onto the retainer.
There are two big places where you could go wrong. The first is pulling the chrome off with the adhesive. The second is not cleaning the acrylic enough before painting.
Notice the border between the acrylic on the top and the black plastic beneath. Stick a flat-head screwdriver into this border and gently twist, separating the two layers.
Do that slowly, working your way around. Don't try to pop it off all from one spot. Be gentle. The acrylic will come away slowly or it may kind of pop off.
You can see the inset of the design, which from the front side, looks silver. The adhesive should be left on the retainer along with most of the silver paint that served as the background for the crest before you pried them apart.
Notice the bubble in the middle. That is where the adhesive was attached to the inset design of the crest. If you are too vigorous, that bubbled adhesive can pull the silver of the crest away. You can always place it back with the adhesive it's attached to, but it doesn't look quite as good, even if you line it up perfectly. Now, start peeling the adhesive off of the retainer. You don't have to be gentle here.
Now, the acrylic will most likely have some of the background silver still on it, like this:
I sanded it off with 1000 grit, which made it pretty cloudy, but then some 3000 grit cleared it up.
The scratches on the front are solved with some sanding as well. Then, clean the back and paint.
Then the front will look like this:
Then all that remains is to epoxy the acrylic piece back onto the retainer.
There are two big places where you could go wrong. The first is pulling the chrome off with the adhesive. The second is not cleaning the acrylic enough before painting.
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 48
Likes: 1
That is exactly what I did with my center caps too. I did get a little cracking of the paint on 2 of my caps. I used some outdoor double sided tape that was similar to the stufff on the center cap when I put them back on so they would be the same height as before. I would recommend this clear on the wheels http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd_2_part_2k_aerosol.cfm It came out really well. I went with a lighter dark gray on mine. Don't have any pictures to post now.
TECH Resident
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 796
Likes: 0
From: Florida
