Refinishing Center caps 17” RS-4 style wheels.

Jerry

A2OC Donor
Does anyone have any advice on how to refinish the worn paint in the center of the caps on the R/S-4 style wheels? Is the painted center bit removable from the aluminium housing? Is the chrome 4 ring bit removable?
What’s the correct paint colour? Certainly looks dark gray on mine.
Anyone attempted this or did you just get new caps?

I’ve had the wheels refurbished before but they all exclude the Center caps! My colour storm is a very nice example of an original low mileage 04 Red Colour storm (purchased from orginal owner 5 years ago) and the tatty Center caps let the car down.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
 

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You can remove the Audi rings, I did that, masked the outer edge and sprayed gunmetal grey, looks nice.
Thanks Andy. So the center gray but remains in place, rings come off and just mask and spray center. Sounds doable.
Maybe even a project for today if I get the grass cut before the rain arrives!

Cheers
Jerry
 
This cross section answers the questions. The rings are the only removable item.
When I get another cap, to replace the one I sectioned, I will explore "sand" blasting, to strip the old lacquer from the ally ring, and prepare the plastic centre ready for painting. Then, finally, lacquering the whole cap. I think masking the ally maybe easier than masking the centre, as it's domed.
Does anyone have practical knowledge, or experience of blasting media that might suit? Needs not to be too aggressive as ally and plastic is quite soft.
Mac.
PS : If anyone has one tatty, but undamaged cap, to spare, give me a shout.
 

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Thanks for the photo Mac. How do the 4 rings attach to g to he plastic Center hub? Easy to remove and refit without damaging?

Cheers
Jerry
 
Thanks for the photo Mac. How do the 4 rings attach to g to he plastic Center hub? Easy to remove and refit without damaging?

Cheers
Jerry
They have 4 pegs, near each corner, and a locating pin. I made a jig, so that I could push all four pins at the same time, as the ring is quite fragile, fine to pop in, on the line 15+ years ago, but not so now. I used a pillar drill (not on) to hold the jig, and then applied firm force, and out they came. I'm sure there are other ways but you must be careful.
Here's my jig.
Mac.
 

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Thanks again. Looks like I am now armed with the know-how to give this a go when time permits. Just need to get a can of gunmetal spray paint and a couple of tools and I’ll get on it. I’ll post a pic to you when I’ve successfully compiled the refurb. I really appreciate your help and advice.
 
Thanks again. Looks like I am now armed with the know-how to give this a go when time permits. Just need to get a can of gunmetal spray paint and a couple of tools and I’ll get on it. I’ll post a pic to you when I’ve successfully compiled the refurb. I really appreciate your help and advice.
I'm told that Ford "Moonstone" is close to the OEM colour. Don't blame me if it's not though 🤞
Mac.
 
You could take a centre cap to one of the paint centres who have the colour match facilities and they could scan it to get a very close or even perfect match.

If you look at the centre caps closely you will see the aluminium outer ring has slight grooves on it from where it has been turned on a lathe before being gloss clear lacquered.

The Grey plastic centres however are more of a matt finish and actually the colour isn't a million miles away from Audi Dolphin Grey which is an A2 colour so could be an option if you don't have any joy trying to get a perfect colour match.

I have refinished many centre caps in the past and to remove the chromed plastic 4 Audi rings I usually just use the flat part of an old chisel or flat headed screwdriver to push the tabs out from the rear and if you're careful and take your time they usually push out fine.

On the odd occasion one may be a little loose when you refit them (normally due to them having been removed previously) but worst case scenario you can just use a tiny blob of Araldite epoxy glue or similar on the back of a loose tab to secure it.

Once you have masked the outer aluminium ring lightly sand the plastic centre, clean it with thinners then always use a plastic primer first just a light dusting coat first followed by a nice even coat or two then a couple of coats of the coloured paint before finishing with a couple of coats of matt or satin lacquer.

That should give you the best looking factory finish possible, well from using rattle cans anyway.

The plastic primer I use is made by Autotek btw (not Autek that I put in a previous post, I checked 😁)

Good luck and post pics of the results👍
 
Thanks for the very thorough and practical advice A2Z. I’m hoping to give it a go today. I have one good cap ( from a generous donor in our membership) that can use for a colour sample) and I’ll use that to get a reasonable colour match.
 
Thanks for the very thorough and practical advice A2Z. I’m hoping to give it a go today. I have one good cap ( from a generous donor in our membership) that can use for a colour sample) and I’ll use that to get a reasonable colour match.
If I posted pictures you would disown me as a member. We don’t have an American word equivalent to palaver but now that I’ve been here in the UK long enough to be granted citizenship, I use the word for projects such as this seemingly simple job.

What a palaver!!

The 4 ring removal was simple. Thanks for the advice.

The masking was tedious but necessary. All ok.

Plastic primer. Not a problem.

Colour match, I have a lot of spray cans that I don’t need now. In the end, I used a BMW glacier silver followed by a careful dusting of Audi Quartz.

So far, things looked good.

Unmasked everything and shot them with Matt finish clear lacquer.

The aluminium outer ring turned white.

Within an hour the great colour match on the center was milky white.

Now in the process of removing the lacquer and looks like I will be back to square one as the meth spirits is cutting the lacquer from the outer aluminium but damaging the paint-work on the center.

So palaver seems to adequately describe the project.

To make it worse, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and stubborn as a mule, I’ll be at this for some time.
 
If I posted pictures you would disown me as a member. We don’t have an American word equivalent to palaver but now that I’ve been here in the UK long enough to be granted citizenship, I use the word for projects such as this seemingly simple job.

What a palaver!!

The 4 ring removal was simple. Thanks for the advice.

The masking was tedious but necessary. All ok.

Plastic primer. Not a problem.

Colour match, I have a lot of spray cans that I don’t need now. In the end, I used a BMW glacier silver followed by a careful dusting of Audi Quartz.

So far, things looked good.

Unmasked everything and shot them with Matt finish clear lacquer.

The aluminium outer ring turned white.

Within an hour the great colour match on the center was milky white.

Now in the process of removing the lacquer and looks like I will be back to square one as the meth spirits is cutting the lacquer from the outer aluminium but damaging the paint-work on the center.

So palaver seems to adequately describe the project.

To make it worse, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and stubborn as a mule, I’ll be at this for some time.
Ah dear, sorry to hear that but on a positive it sounds like you did great and everything worked well up until you removed the masking instead of leaving it on when applying the matt lacquer which should have just been for the plastic centres not the outer ally rings.

Always annoying doing things twice but I'm sure it will be right and worth it in the end 👍
 
Yup. Strangely the aluminium outer ring was lacquered, but it was a gloss lacquer. I’m off to get some lacquer thinner tomorrow, clean the outer ring and repeat the process on the outer ring with standard gloss lacquer and see how that goes. Eventually I’ll get a satisfactory result, just got to keep at it.
 
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