Restoring my wheels...I hope

A

ALblackT

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2013
So here's what I started with
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1376420699230.jpg

And here's my attempt at a wheel with some turtle wax polishing compound, followed with some mothers wheel polish
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Not horrible results. But I'm not satisfied. I have some 'stuff' embedded in the wheel, or so it seems. The wheel isn't smooth, or as mirrored as I'd like.
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Any suggestions?
Also, I'm sure you noticed the cracking, faded, dull, gross, atrocity of a paint job on these things. What can be done that doesn't require 142 days of digging through each cell of the honeycomb with a rag?
Thanks!
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Wow what a difference already!

Unfortunately I think you are looking at needing paint for the black as it looks like most of it's gone and faded and not just in need of a cleaning. If your not really picky and this isn't a show car you can tape off the polished part and hit them with some rattle can paint. Just don't get too close or you will have paint runs galore....kida want to mist it into the nooks and crannies and then hit the face of the rim last. Do the misting in several light coats....don't rush it cause it will take time to get it into all those areas.

Also I would remove the wheels from the car and paint/mist them from the back side into the nooks and what not as well, that way if you do run the paint it's not on the front face of the rim and less clean up less mess. It will also help you cover all the spots more uniform.

I would expect more people will chime in with more experience than me who have "been there, done that"

Looking good so far...keep the pics coming!
 
Should I strip the old paint first? It looks like they have been painted a few times before. If so, what's the best way to do that? Also, is there a better polish, or maybe a cutting polish for the polished part? Looking for more shine!

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
 
Always best to strip and then paint for best results. Chemical strip will be messy (but you can do at home) and blasting will probably be fairly expensive but garner the best results (I believe). By the time you are done you will probably wish you bought new ones for the time and money involved if you are going to strip them and really restore the aluminum.

I figured you were going for this on the "cheep" seeing that the rim lip on one of the pics was a little ground up. Not knocking you just trying to get an idea of how far you are willing to take this job. A full resto of the wheels done the proper way will cost quite a bit!

The way I look at it is this....there is no real easy way to sand the paint off yourself so media blasting them is probably the best way to go over chemical strip (I'm guessing). If you go that far and spend good money to do it your then going to be thinking "do I really want to paint these myself with a rattle can cause they will only look good for so long" as opposed to professional paint or powder coat...... all costing big $$$!

You may just want to do a little more asking around on here and see if there would be any benefit to priming them before you paint them (if you decide you are doing this yourself) or if the end result will be the same if you just degrease them and hit them with some black paint and call it a day.

As far as the aluminum goes I don't know what is recommended for removing the pitting but I believe there are threads on restoring aluminum T wheels on here that will give you some pointers for the polished aluminum areas that need restoration. Try looking at the "stickies" at the top of the forums or a search should provide some results.
 
Any idea on the price to powder coat them?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using TurboBuick Mobile mobile app
 
ALblackT said:
Ouch.. 90 a wheel

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
Click to expand...

That was for blasting and a single coat. If you have a cabinet you might find a place that would let you blast them yourself. THose GNX wheels are going to be PITA to blast and it will run into $'s.
 
Yup, sounds like a chemical strip and a rattle can

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using TurboBuick Mobile mobile app
 
Please post some finished pics of your handy work so that it may inspire others.......that and you can show off your hard work!
 
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