I bought this car (88 rx7 turbo II) a few weeks ago. Got a decent deal I figure( it was cheap). But the rims are screwed up. The rest of the car is in good shape except for the seats, which I have replacements for. Anyone know how I can get these rims looking nice again? the peel on the edges looks like clearcoat damage. I have time but not $$$, so replacing rims is not an option.

 

No problem. It doesn't look like you have any deep scratches.Just sand the old clearcoat off or use a chemical paint remover on them. (Be sure that it's safe for aluminum!) and shoot another clearcoat. Any decent paint store or hot rod shop should be able to point you to the right products. While you're at it, you could always polish those babies for some REAL shine. I've seen the stock wheels high polished and they look pretty good.

 

Yeah just have a wheel shop restore them for you.

A shop in Atlanta quoted me $50/wheel to make it look like new, and that was with filling in some scrapes, resurfacing the 89+ rough surface aluminum look, and clearcoating.

 

Thanks! How do I apply the clearcoat? I've never done this before. My dad got his wheels painted at a local body shop for about 25$ a wheel, would it be about the same for clearcoat? I can afford 25 per wheel, but I don't think I want to spend 50$ quite yet.

 

Oh yea, I also need a spacer so I can put in my CD player. Where can I get one of these, or do I have to make one?

 

Circuit City sells kits to fit pretty much any normal CD player into the dash. You have to cut some tabs off (its for all mazdas) to make it fit. Its 20 bucks. I had my radio installed there, and the harness that holds the radio is really flimsey. It comes with supports that strengthen it bigtime... but they don't tel you to use it on the RX-7. I used them the 2nd time; thats how I broke the first one.

 

Bought my kit radio mount kit from crutchfield & the quality is EXCELLENT!!!!

On the wheels, I doubt you can replicate the chrome coating with paint, so I'd HIGHLY recommend getting the rims resurfaced professionally.


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For the 89-91 rims, you can see the "rough surface" of the aluminum is covered in clearcoat. For chrome wheels you need a wheelshot to redo the rims.

 

Wait... the rims have clearcoat and chrome? I guess that would present a problem... resurfacing would be too much money, I might just leave them as is...


...BUT I have a little experience w/ lapping, but only with heatsinks on computers So maybe if it ends up looking as shiny as the bottom of those heatsinks (which are aluminum) it would be worth undertaking. Will the clearcoat stick to plain aluminum though? Would it be worth clearcoating? I still would like to know if I can do the clearcoating myself, cause that may save me some money.

 

To save $$$$ I would try to refinish them yourself beofre you go and spend a ton of cash on getting them professionally redone. Sand them down to get a smoothness back, where the scratches are then find a good spray can color, and quality brand of course. Dupli-color makes a rim specific silver/gray spray paint that should be pretty close to original color. Then all you have to do is clear coat 'em. Should look pretty good.

 

Oh yea, here is the entire car. The engine needed rebuilding when I got it, but that is being taken care of. I got an exchange from some place in Canada (rx-7 specialties?). The new engine is coming with 3mm apex seals and an 89-91 turbo rotor housing, which is supposed to help with cooling. I got it for 1600, which I think is about fair, considering the engine. The body is in pretty good shape, save the wheels and that one ding in the front you see there, which I plan on painting.

BTW my dad thinks the cats are plugged, does gutting them out have any adverse effects? (besides small hp increase :P) I live in GA where they don't check that stuff, so its not a prob about emissions.

 

Oops forgot the pic