[markysimon]

Hi all,

Although Comstar wheels are stamped with a warning not to disassemble, does anyone have experience of refurbing and re-painting them and if so, what's the best way to go about it? Mine on my CB400N are the gold spoked variety which are pretty shabby and won't look good on my street-tracker conversion. :-| Can they be sandblasted and sprayed black without taking them apart? And if I DO disassemble them, what are the pitfalls to avoid? :|

Cheers – Mark

 

[metu71]

I had reversed comstars on my CB750F with that same marking. They were in pretty bad shape what comes to paint work and I decided to repaint them without disassemble. I just soda blasted them as clean as I could. I did not try to get all old paint out of the hub etc, the principle was that if I can remove old paint from a certain place with soda blaster I should be able to put new paint on it also. After blasting, I washed them thoroughly and sprayed primer to make paint attach better. The final paint was 2-component semi-glossy black.
Before spraying primer I needed to mask all the edges, rivets and bolts as those should not have paint on them. I left old tires on to keep easier handling. Here is couple of pictures.

 

[seisdatex]

Hi all,

Although Comstar wheels are stamped with a warning not to disassemble, does anyone have experience of refurbing and re-painting them and if so, what's the best way to go about it? Mine on my CB400N are the gold spoked variety which are pretty shabby and won't look good on my street-tracker conversion. :-| Can they be sandblasted and sprayed black without taking them apart? And if I DO disassemble them, what are the pitfalls to avoid? :|

Cheers – Mark

Mark,

I media blasted and powder coated my comstars. Color and clear coats.

Jim

 

[danno]

Very nice job on your Comstars, metu71 !

 

[MDM]

Here is couple of pictures.

View attachment 52199
View attachment 52200

Those are some REALLY nice-looking wheels. If you were my neighbor, I'd be offering to paint a couple rooms in your house in trade for you doing that to my Comstars! Mine are kind of aged-looking; I've seen people paint theirs different colors for whatever reason and thought, "I suppose I could do that, at least they won't look any worse than they do now. Probably." But after seeing yours, if I ever decide to paint mine, I'm going for the stock look. It turns out that - like the motorcycles, themselves - Honda wheels look better original than "customized." (Just my opinion, of course.)

Regards,

 

[metu71]

Thanks. I always have some space that needs repainting (at least my wife thinks that way), it would be good trade.

 

[longdistancerider]

Do not take them apart for any reason. I know people will say that you can but consider how you are going to true them when re-assembling. Honda says don't do it for a reason.
I had mine media blasted and powder coated. Rather poor job on the powder but it's held up well

 

[dtsmjr8dan]

I don't have any pics, but I just 'touched up' mine with rattle can. I went with the satin finish so they didn't stand out from the rest of the bike. I have a 'survivor' not a restoration.....LOL. They look clean and neat against the tires. I just masked off the unpainted ring.

 

[HerrDeacon]

I just rattle canned mine but sanded and polished the lip to tie in with a few other polished bits on the bike. Happy with the way they came out.

 

[markysimon]

All this info is very helpful and the results as pictured look great. One question though, here in the UK I'm not familiar with "media blasting" – is there another term for it that I might be more familiar with? :-| Also both HerrDeacon and Seisdatex appear to've painted the bolt heads on their wheels, whilst MDM has (painstakingly?) masked them: is there any downside to painting them I wonder?
Cheers – Mark

 

[seisdatex]

All this info is very helpful and the results as pictured look great. One question though, here in the UK I'm not familiar with "media blasting" – is there another term for it that I might be more familiar with? :-| Also both HerrDeacon and Seisdatex appear to've painted the bolt heads on their wheels, whilst MDM has (painstakingly?) masked them: is there any downside to painting them I wonder?
Cheers – Mark

In the case my seisdatex, its powdercoating rather than paint. One possible upside to coating the bolt heads...the coating servers as a barrier to prevent oxidation from forming between the wheel and the bolt.

Jim

 

[Garythompson]

I had reversed comstars on my CB750F with that same marking. They were in pretty bad shape what comes to paint work and I decided to repaint them without disassemble. I just soda blasted them as clean as I could. I did not try to get all old paint out of the hub etc, the principle was that if I can remove old paint from a certain place with soda blaster I should be able to put new paint on it also. After blasting, I washed them thoroughly and sprayed primer to make paint attach better. The final paint was 2-component semi-glossy black.

 

[danno]

Yeah, post #2 and #12 of this thread don't look similar...

 

[Barney]

I sprayed them with WD40 and then wiped them with a cloth. They don't look bad and it's easy to do when needed. A mechanic in a bike shop showed me, he was restoring a Silverwing.