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Painting your wheels can burn down your garage!!

2K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  Fasciaguy 
#1 ·
So does anyone happen to know if the stock CTSV wheels have Magnesium in them? Being a stock GM wheel I doubt it, but not sure how to find out. Its kind of important because I am planning to refinish mine and if they are part Magnesium they will react with the solvents in the paint and will likely catch on fire. If anyone remembers high school chemistry class you know what happens when you ignite Magnesium. Its pretty violent.

I have the 7 spoke 6 lug wheels pretty common. Planning to polish the face of each spoke and paint the sides and inside of teh wheel black to match my car. Should be a nice winter project.
 
#3 ·
...Or DO put water on them.

 
#5 ·
First, the stock wheels are aluminum alloy, so no need to worry about magnesium. Since there are plenty of threads and pictures of people with their stockers painted black or gunmetal or whatever I would think you would be able to find plenty of posts about people's wheels bursting into flames if it was a concern.

Second, I'm curious how painting magnesium would cause it to burst into flames. :confused: I know that burning magnesium (or any other metal) is a bad thing, so I can understand why you wouldn't want a Class D fire in your garage. What I don't understand is how solvent in a paint would cause magnesium to flash to the 800F needed to make it ignite.
 
#8 ·
In theory some of the solvents can reduce the energy of activation to cause magnesium to oxidize, but I don't think that elemental magnesium is actually used in the wheels. Alloy wheels may have magnesium but, its going to be a magnesium alloy, where it is bonded to another metal for strength an lightness. Magnesium by itself is quite reactive, and would not be used in a wheel that is exposed to weather.

As for catching fire, the people who say that using solvents on your wheels can cause the magnesium to catch fire, probably ignited the solvents. VOC solvents are EXTREMELY dangerous, and the ability to create a very dangerous fire, very quickly with them in an enclosed area like a garage is extremely likely. It is much more likely people were cleaning their wheels, and not handling the solvents correctly, which is what caused the fires you may have heard about.
 
#9 ·
In researching what types of paint to use I called my local painters supply shop. My question being what would be the best method to paint the wheels after they are stripped? Aluminum primer, epoxy primer, strait epoxy paint or an etching primer and regular paint. Plus I plan to polish a portion of the wheel to a high gloss shine (chrome like finish) and then clear coat them to protect from oxidation. However what will stick to a very smooth aluminum finish? His first question to me was are the wheels Magnesium? I asked why whats the difference? He said Mag wheels will react to the solvents in the paint and have a chemical reaction which results in a fire. I'm not a chemist so I have no idea exactly how but he has seen it happen. I told him it was a GM vehicle and probably not a mag wheel. He said probably not as they are mostly found on high end exotic sports cars. So not sure how it happens but I didnt want to find out the hard way so figured I would throw the question out there.
On a side note I did walk into the paint supply shop a couple years ago to find the ceiling all black. The day before an employee had spilled a gallon of paint on a tile floor and thought mopping it up with some paint thinner/reducer would make for easy clean up.. Seemed like a good idea the store has pleanty of it. However the mopping action created enough static electricity to ignite the reducer and explode.. Luckly it was a quick flash and didnt catch the whole damn store on fire. But turned the ceiling black and the employee mopping had a lot less hair. That image has stuck with me and would like to avoid such a surprise as I dont have the good luck that fellow had that day.
If I figure out how to post pictures I will attach the modified picture of the stock wheel the way I would like to paint it.
 
#10 ·
I was thinking of painting my wheels and then just decided to have it done by a local wheel repair place...IIRC it cost around 120 bucks per wheel... however, I gave them a new set of tires to mount when they were done so in reality they only cost about 90 bucks a wheel after i subtracted the cost of mounting new runflats...

Had the same company powder coat the forged wheels on my Elise semi gloss black......brake dust does not show up.... OK I am lazy.

I plan on a CTSV wagon purchase as soon as they come here.. first thing I will do after debadging it is have those forged wheels painted black...I plan on a black wagon.

Painting wheels body color is SOOOOOO old skool.. we did this back in the late 70s early 80s..

To this day I still get positive comments... the kids at the car wash think its really dope..

The stock wheels are high pressure cast in Italy. High pressure casting puts the strength of the wheel somewhere between forged, billet and low pressure or centrifugal casting. It seems the Italians are masters of aluminum casting.
 
#12 ·
Cleaning solvents,Paint, etc. will not react with enough heat to ignite a magnesium alloy wheel. If you grind it into chips you may have more luck igniting but your tires will leak later. Many years ago when Powder coating was new to the automotive arena, I had a set of Minilite magnesium wheels done white. The shop was concerned because of the heat used in baking the paint (powder) after application but had no problems. I did my own experiments with mag in different shapes and sizes of chips and found it very difficult to ignite unless one was very determined.
Just do any of your iffy processes outside to avoid gaseous buildup. Enjoy
 
#13 ·
no magnesium, but as Robin Williams said " paint has strychnine in it, how paint supposed to stick to part without strychnine?!?" (speaking about Chinese painted toys...)
 
#15 ·
Or better yet maybe our goverment if they insist on receiving crap from China place some quality inspections on their products and check for such things as lead and make sure they meet the same guidlines US makers have to meet. Add a adminisrative fee on all their products to cover the costs of doing and managing such tasks.
 
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