...In my spare time

I never cease to amaze myself how I'm able to cram so much crap in my life. Specifically, How much crap I try to (and generally do) get accomplished - not the least of which is this blog.
I realize it's at the expense of sleep, but that's why God created coffee.
Which is nice.
Several years ago, I at least figured out the root of my predilection in that I pretty much can't stand having something done by someone else when I can do it myself, and in my head I can do it better, for cheaper. Plus I generally feel better knowing that I know how to do something.
Rebuild a Ford V8 from my brother's boat?
Check.
Rebuild Toyota Landcruiser engine?
Yep.
Design and build trailer hitch for my last two cars?
Si.
Work on bikes?
But of course.
The list goes on, so at the risk of sounding too arrogant I'll stop there. I like to say I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. Aside from being a cool dude. Pretty much got that one dialed.

So my latest project involves my car, and in particular the summer wheels. As a long term plan when I bought the car, I knew I would need to refinish the wheels after the original tires wore out since the wheels had been poorly repainted and that paint was flaking off. I like to keep my whips tight, so flaking wheel paint is a no-no.
I've repainted wheels before but a light scuffing with sandpaper was all that was needed for those. Having flaking paint would require much more effort, and rather than have a not-so-smooth finish from hand sanding (not to mention probably 20-30 hours of hand sanding) I had a local blast shop media blast the wheels (cheaper to have them do it then buy a sand blast cabinet. I looked.). As expected, they got a little hot with the media in a few spots so some filler touch up was required.(Note red marks to indicate where to fill).

After looking around at options, I decided on Glazing Putty and got to it.Glazed, but not sanded.

Center rough sanded, outer ring not sanded.


It's been a two day (well, an hour each night) process so far, but I'm encouraged with the progress and how smooth the test areas are turning out. With any luck, I'll have some freshly painted wheels in a week or so, thus allowing me to get back to some normalcy so I'm not rocking the 15" squishy snow tires when spring fully hits.

Stay tuned for more progress pics.

later.

-the ATM