i always get alot of people wanting to see the wheels i have re-finished and polished so here they are....

original Enkie 92's... paid $200 for them

 

ARE Hammers.... came with a body kit i paid $350 for

 

factory plus rims

 

painted accents


outside shots...

 

this what what they look like on the car...

 

i've had so many people wanting me to do their rims that i ended up making out a price sheet.

 

What's your process?

I get a lot of factory alloy wheels from the scrapyard.. But in looking for minimal curb rash and wheels that spin straight and true, I get a lot that have bad clear coat and some corrosion.

 

i'v got a set of rotar rims that im trying to do similar on whats the basic process? i'v got 400-1500 grit. i dont think the 400 is corse enough for getting the pitting out in a reasonable time.

 

for the plus wheels i wanted to get rid of all the casting marks on the face of the rim, but keep them on the lip. for the rim face i used a mouse palm sander with 220 grit to take the clear coat off and sand away the casting marks! i then sanded the face down with 400 then 1000 and finally 1500 grit paper.

to keep the casting mark look for the lip i started off with 100 grit paper, but you have to be careful because after you get through the clear coat any scratch marks you make will be very hard to get out if you don't like them. i then move onto 220, 400, 1000 and 1500 always following the same pattern as to keep the casted look!

finally i used Mothers mag & aluminum polish in the white round tin..... i love that crap and will never use anything else.

 

What do you use to clear coat the wheels? What protects the freshly finished wheels from corrosion?

 

i do not clear coat my wheels. when i wash/wax my car i just spend maybe 10min and polish the wheels. they hold up very well and are easier to keep the shine if they are not clear coated and i have been doing this for several years now.

 

you have inspired me to buy second hand wheels and refinish them. Great work.

 

nice job on the wheels Mike!

 

Beautiful work man! Thanks for sharing.




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Looks awesome! Now considering doing my own rims for a project, thanks!

 

I use the same basic method, I refinished a set of Celica-Supra wheels on a 1980 Celica GT. This was my dads car, and a family heirloom. He was going to crush it, and I took it. He needed a winter car, and took it back for the season, my brother drove it for a few months, and to make a long story short, nearly two years of NO attention to the wheels and they still look better than when they had peeling clear coat all over them. They have lost their shine, but they will easily polish back out with a little mothers.

 

that car is in surprisingly great shape for an OH car Chris! still have it?

 

Doing the same thing with a set of BBS RS. It's labor intensive but after getting one lip mirror polished it's definitely worth the effort. Just have to be a bit more careful since I put a few deep scratches in it and I'll have to redo it to get it looking perfect.

 

Not at the moment, I get it back in the spring.

 

What year is that Celica? My Dad used to have a '79 that was a blast.

I've got a set of very ugly Enkei knockoffs that I plan to paint with Plasti-Dip (black) just to try it out. The videos look pretty cool, and it's not like I can make them any uglier. If I don't like it, I can just peel it off. Worth I shot considering the short amount of time I have to do anything...

 

Its a 1980 GT that my aunt on my dads side bought brand new in '80. Sold it to my dad in the late eighties for $300 because our POS Chevette was costing more to keep running than it was worth. I grew up road tripping in it, getting dropped off to school in it, going to the grocery, pretty much everywhere. My dad repainted it and gutted the quarters every few years to kill off the rust. Its got close to 5-600,000 miles on it. And he rebuilt the 22r top to bottom three years ago. Needless to say when I heard he might crush it, I just couldnt let it go...

 

Well great job saving that baby!

 

looks great, just last week I did a set of bullitproof rims on my 69 cougar convertible. I had start with a cup wire brush, the rust was bad. After hours of sanding and polishing, they look amazing!

 

nice to hear man if you have any pics throw them on here

 

Those plus rims look awesome! Any particular kind of paint you used for the accents?