[garrito_burrito_]

I must start this thread by saying I absolutely love my Autotecknic competition paddles, BUT, I noticed a few weeks ago that the beautiful LBB paint they were finished in had started to develop cracks in the paint of both paddles. Now, knowing these parts are made of aluminum, I have come up with a way to solve this problem if any of you run into the same issue, especially since there isn't really a way to exchange the product (see autotecknics policy) I decided to go this route instead of repaint them, which would have taken much longer, and maybe I would have run into the same issue again in the future. Also I was installing an M performance steering wheel at the time I discovered the cracks so the timing was perfect.

In essense: I decided to #1: strip the paint down to the metal, #2 sand, #3 polish the bare aluminum, 4: use a light sealer to achieve a beautiful polished aluminum look (all took about 5-6 hours)

#1: remove the paddles from the wheel (along with all plastics) and let them soak in paint thinner for a couple hours. Keep in mind I had the LBB painted ones which actually had a layer of metallic silver painted under the LBB. So we are talking 2 layers of paint here. Let the thinner do its job (may take more time).. after letting them soak I used a plastic scraper to remove the majority of the paint, then used steel wool to get the hard to reach spots, and went over the whole piece to uniformly remove all the paint.

#2: sand them down in a single direction using 1000 grit+soapy water, then 1500+soapy water, then 2000+soapy water. after the imperfections of the metal have been removed and a semi polish has appeared, I moved on to polishing.

#3: Polish the paddles (rub very hard) using a good metal polish and towel. This may take longer than you think depending on how much shine you want and may reveal more imperfections, if they appear, go back and re sand them (I had to twice). then move to polishing them again

#4: Use a lighter metal sealer to further polish/seal the paddles. then wash them down with soapy water to clean off excess sealer. Dry them and install.


Hope this helps!

[samsamdar]

Are your paddles flimsy at all? I can only shift gears if I press the paddle in the direct middle.

[garrito_burrito_]

don't use the center pins they provide... the stock ones are a much better fit from what I experienced.

[2M]

Originally Posted by samsamdar

Are your paddles flimsy at all? I can only shift gears if I press the paddle in the direct middle.

I have the stock pins and my paddles shift best from the middle or bottom, difficult from the top.

[Uncledanny6]

Originally Posted by garrito_burrito_

I must start this thread by saying I absolutely love my Autotecknic competition paddles, BUT, I noticed a few weeks ago that the beautiful LBB paint they were finished in had started to develop cracks in the paint of both paddles. Now, knowing these parts are made of aluminum, I have come up with a way to solve this problem if any of you run into the same issue, especially since there isn't really a way to exchange the product (see autotecknics policy) I decided to go this route instead of repaint them, which would have taken much longer, and maybe I would have run into the same issue again in the future. Also I was installing an M performance steering wheel at the time I discovered the cracks so the timing was perfect.

In essense: I decided to #1: strip the paint down to the metal, #2 sand, #3 polish the bare aluminum, 4: use a light sealer to achieve a beautiful polished aluminum look (all took about 5-6 hours)

#1: remove the paddles from the wheel (along with all plastics) and let them soak in paint thinner for a couple hours. Keep in mind I had the LBB painted ones which actually had a layer of metallic silver painted under the LBB. So we are talking 2 layers of paint here. Let the thinner do its job (may take more time).. after letting them soak I used a plastic scraper to remove the majority of the paint, then used steel wool to get the hard to reach spots, and went over the whole piece to uniformly remove all the paint.

#2: sand them down in a single direction using 1000 grit+soapy water, then 1500+soapy water, then 2000+soapy water. after the imperfections of the metal have been removed and a semi polish has appeared, I moved on to polishing.

#3: Polish the paddles (rub very hard) using a good metal polish and towel. This may take longer than you think depending on how much shine you want and may reveal more imperfections, if they appear, go back and re sand them (I had to twice). then move to polishing them again

#4: Use a lighter metal sealer to further polish/seal the paddles. then wash them down with soapy water to clean off excess sealer. Dry them and install.


Hope this helps!

I have an unused gloss CF set from autotecknic if you're interested .