911, we have a brake fluid emergency

[Det_Riot]

What's up guys! New the site in need of dome serious help. I recently got my wheels done in a PVD coating. Its a type of powdercoating done that gives an awesome shine. Have had the wheels done for about 2 months maybeeee.

Car sat for a little while as weather was bad and life was busy so the car didn't get moved. Well finally got to drive it over the weekend and there was a puddle of brake fluid on the ground. Turns out it leaked all over the inside barrel of my newly redone wheel, eating through the clear coat with ease. When I popped the wheel off, this is what the clear looked like (see pic 1)

It peeled up around the barrel with ease. Washed down the wheel twice, once with car soap and once with dawn to pull out any remnants of brake fluid out. The major flaking is off byt i can still scratch off more clear with my fingernail. This is what I am currently left with:

The known process in doing these wheels states the clear is an acrylic clear. Well it appears that the brake fluid only penetrated through the clear and not to the actual coating itself.

I'd like to know two things:
1) Im assuming the haze of the clear means it is compromised. Is there anyway to wetsand the clear off and respray the inner barrel with duplicolor clear to prevent the clear from further infiltrating to the face of the wheel.

2) Is there anyway polishing with compounds and a DA can restore this clear?

Much thanks in advance!

 

[CDot]

I'm not a pro, but the clear looks gone. You may be able to polish down before applying dupicolor, but in the areas you photo'd I'm not sure if you can bring that back.

 

[Dr_Pain]

Sorry to say but the clear is gone as you mentioned and it is not advisable to try and polish the "powder coating".

Acrylic clears are much less durable than the 2 part urethane clears and I am sure the break fluid had a field day, but the coating is chemical resistant (if in the same family as powder coating).

Again, sorry to hear and sorry for not being able to provide you with a better advise than "get them stripped and redone"

 

[Vegas Transplant]

Again, sorry to hear and sorry for not being able to provide you with a better advise than "get them stripped and redone"

+1.


That's a lot of work.
Duplicolor Clear will not survive well in a wheel's environment IMO.
Maybe pose the question on a metal finishing forum if you don't get satisfactory answer here.

 

[Pockets@PoorboysWorld]

Agree with all that was said

Do you happen to have a picture of them before and the face of them as I'm looking into PVD rims for my truck =)

 

[Det_Riot]

This is unfortunately what I expected. Is there anyway to help the clear lift off the undercoat?

Crazy idea.....if the brake fluid didn't eat through the under layer, could I coat the rest of the inner barrel with brake fluid, then just wipe it away and do my thing with the wheel clear?

 

[Det_Riot]

@poorboys

 

[Vegas Transplant]

Crazy idea.....

Indeed :laughing:

But on the flip side, you have nothing to lose.

 

[geekdout]

Really sorry to hear about your wheels, especially after seeing how good they looked. But look on the bright side at least you were not out driving the car with this potentially serious braking issue and had an accident.
I am sure you can find ways of chemically stripping the wheel that are a lot more reliable, sorry I can't be more specific.

 

[Andr3wilson]

For trying to sand and reclear, it's going to be really hard to match/even out the clear (using a spray can) for the wheels, you will always see it. Like it will technically work, but if you don't have much paint experience, it will fail in about a year or two.

Do it right, and get them done properly!