Painting the rear Comstar on a Honda CX500
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This isn't a professional job - it's done with rattlecans in a shed, no booth in sight. We used Duplicolor engine paint due to having good experiences with it on other areas of the bike, and we wanted to match the wheel colour with the engine. Can't guarantee yours will turn out anything like this as all wheels and painting situations are different, so take what you can from this but use your head and work with what you have. Now, the rear wheel on this CX500 has seen better days:
A closer look at the spokes shows a fair bit of rust:
...and some pitting:
The rest of it was crusty:
...as was the inner section:
Before we started scrubbing anything off we masked off anything that had grease in it:
First plan of attack - the good old wire brush:
A quarter of an hour later, some elbow grease resulted in a fair improvement:
More elbow grease required on other areas:
Some of the areas with more rust defied the brush, however:
...so it was time to bust out a toothbrush;
and some rust converter:
Apply with toothbrush, follow instructions (let set, wash off, immediately wipe with quick evaporating solvent) then wire brush again:
That's looking a bit better. At the same time, there were other things which required a bit of cleaning/de-rusting - like the axle end and castle nut:
After a bit of scrubbing with a wire brush the castle nut still looked quite rusty so once again we busted out the rust remover. It's generally a bit easier to coat it if you screw it back on the other end of the axle:
Letting the rust remover soak in:
This stuff bubbles nastily if you drop it on anything:
The axle end and metal collar also looked like they could do with a little attention:
Wire brush + collar =
Axle end got the wire brush and metal scourer treatment:
Still a touch of rust. More scrubbing:
OK, so back to the wheels. After more scubbing, rust converter, wire brushing etc. we're left with cleaner wheels. Now, put some wax and grease remover in a spray bottle, grab a bunch of clean shop rags and go over every to-be-painted surface, paying particular attention to the little nooks and crannies. By the end of this you should be able to wipe any section with a clean rag and not pick up a single bit of grime. Once you're done, you have some nicer looking wheels - probably still with a few blemishes, chips and slightly corroded areas:
Masking off the brake - stretch tape across the gap, then use a utility knife to cut around it in the groove - here partway done:
Mask off the tyre as you please, then it's time to undercoat. The hardest part of this is getting to the inside faces of the spokes; we found it easiest to do them first to reduce the risk of getting too much paint on the outside faces and producing runs.
Two coats of Duplicolor Engine Enamel Primer, followed by three coats of Duplicolor Engine Paint (Aluminium) results in:
It's not perfect but for a rattlecan job left to dry in the sun, it'll do.
...and:
We'll update with the look once the paint has cured and the tyres are scrubbed clean of overspray, and again once they're on the bike.
