Priming wheels question

I have a set of round spoke wheels that were in really good condition, just some surface rust. I had them sand blasted and they are ready for paint. My question is should I epoxy prime them or use a primer/surfacer? Other than the texture left from the sandblasting they have a good finish but I am wondering what is the best way to fill in this texture without a lot of labor.

You need epoxy first ..period.Then, unless you are up for a lot of tedious sanding, I would use one of the heavy solids two component surfacers. The secret to making them work for you with minimum of sanding is to lay them on wet enough to let them flow and level themselves. it won't fill in large pits that way but will flow over sand blast profile and minor pits. If you have just a few deep spots/pits then just use a dab of 2 component glaze or "icing" then
sand level.

Dscott

Those look like F-12, 14 rears?? When I blasted and painted the round spokes for my GP, I found that two coats of epoxy primer gave me an acceptable finish for the paint. The rims and spokes were in very good shape. I also cheated though and painted them F&H dark green instead of JD yellow. If you're painting those red I would say you would probably be OK with epoxy and then paint. Getting a perfectly smooth finish on round spokes is a slippery slope of sanding that I tried to avoid.

It's always better to start with epoxy primer. If though there is any texture from anything it would be good to use a filler primer over the top to work out the defect before painting.

I definitely agree with the surfacer when needed. It's been my experience that the Transtar Epoxy primer that I use provides an adequate cover over a smooth but sandblasted profile on wheels. Probably not so on sheet metal parts. Only way to tell would be to shoot the primer and see what it looks like.

Yes, these are for an F12, a 1934 to be exact, so they will be red. I have painted a lot of spoke wheels (all we JD yellow) but most of them had rough and/or repaired areas and required a lot of work and sanding anyway. Since these are in really good shape I wanted to avoid all of the work if possible but I will do whatever it takes to make them look good. The epoxy I have always used is the PPG 170. Has always worked good so I guess I'll shoot it with that and see how it looks. If I'm not happy with the finish I get I'll then shoot some surfacer and sand em down. I'll post the results.

I'm not a pro - I'm just a hack.

But - I've also done some painting jobs I'm proud of that have held up. So here's what I've done on spoked wheels like that:

Sandblast as you have - spray with phosphoric acid (etch/prep - goes by many different names) to kill the last remnants of rust that are still there - then epoxy primer.

If they're going to remain primed but unpainted for more than two days - I'll then use surfacer. Since epoxy has to be scuffed if you wait too long - I just feel better scuffing surfacer than epoxy - the surfacer is softer and I just feel it's a more complete job when I'm done wiping it with a pad. Maybe that's just in my head - but it's what I do.

I find wheels like that just don't have to be glass smooth. I'm MORE than happy with the results I've gotten without trying to make them perfect. I really think you will be too.

Another thing to keep in mind while painting those is you're going to need twice as much paint as you think you will. You're mostly spraying empty space. And it takes a lot of shots from different angles to get all the nooks and crannies.

Painful if you're sweating over what you just paid for the paint.

Surfacer tends to be relatively cheap - but even so, if you don't need it, every bit of savings helps

A final note - defintely use epoxy. Wheels take a beating. Your color coat's GOING to get chipped. I think of epoxy primer as an extra layer of defense. Many of those little chips will stop at the primer layer, and epoxy is waterproof. That's why I use it on everything.

just saw your response after i posted mine - seems you've already done enough spoked wheels to negate the need for most of what I typed!

(quoted from post at 08:17:25 02/05/16) just saw your response after i posted mine - seems you've already done enough spoked wheels to negate the need for most of what I typed!

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JR, Thanks for the response. I have done several round spokes over the years with good results. Most of the ones I have painted needed some repairs/body work anyway so I gave them the full treatment. These were in good shape except for some surface rust so I was hoping to avoid the work. After thinking about it I decided that I might regret not doing it right so I have the wheels epoxy primed and surfaced. I will sand them down good this evening and shoot paint tomorrow.
You are right about taking a lot of paint. Especially the yellow since it does not cover very well.
The pic below is a set of duals on a 34 A I did 5-6 years ago and I have a set of duals for a 35 JD B to do next.

Well, I painted the wheels Saturday and put them on the tractor today. It is snowing so I have not had a chance to wash the tires yet. Turned out pretty good.