seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

so what do you guy think?

JrodGTI

VERY NICE!

wozzoom

Very nice. Now do the 16" rims from my GTUs and you'd be a god in my book!

bingoboy

can you give more detail about what you did

mazdaspeed7

I did.

click here for the pic

The pic in my sig seems to capture the rims at tone one angle when you cant tell theyre polished...


edit: I cant win for losing. Copy and paste the link url into your brower.

seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

Well it is really a process if you have a lot of time. I started by wet sanding (by hand).
1. 220 grit
2. 400
3. 600
4. 1500

this all takes a while by hand if I had a small electric hand sander it would have cut the time in half. the important thing is to make sure you removing the scratches from the last rougher grit paper.

then its onto the polishing, luckily i have a rotary car buffer. Three separate pads are needed for the three separate compounds I used.

1. No7 (brand name) rubbing compound
2. No7 polishing compound
3. Turtle Wax polishing compound

The No7 polishing compound has a bit more grit to it than the Turtle Wax

Make sure you use a dedicated pad for each one. I found the terry cloth ones worked best for me

mazdaspeed7

Theres one that looks pretty good(aside fromt he door dings), but again, youll have to copy and paste the url into your browser.


edit: fixed this pic

MtnRacer

Very pretty. How many hours per a wheel?

Steve

seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

If i could get ahold of a set that would have been my first choice.

btw, mazdaspeed7 MMMMMMM

seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

All things said and done,breaks and what not about a wheel a day.

TargaRX

iTrader: (12)

I started to do mine but the I got lazy, so I just painted them. not a close pic but you get the idea..

mazdaspeed7

I have 2 sets, and one of my friends has another...I guess thats where they all went...

Thanks for the compliment. Im waiting for skirts and a front lip to repaint it. Those door dings drive me nuts.

MtnRacer

Wow, that is a ton of work. Congratulations, they look very nice.

Steve

mazdaspeed7

Power tools, my friend. It took about 2 hours a wheel start to finish for me. I had a buffing pad on a 4" angle grinder for the polishing. It made real short work of the hard part.

daviddeep

iTrader: (4)

Hey mazdaspeed7 -
Have you ever tried those paintless dent removal places (like Dent Wizard)? I've used them for both sides of my '90 GTU and they can make those aggravating door dings disappear for about $100 per door. Best part is that there is no paint matching.

seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

Yah I hear ya, Well you live and Ya Wait, buy more tools

seveninphilly

iTrader: (7)

oops

mazdaspeed7

The majority of the dings have the paint chipped in the center. And aside from that, the paint is pitted some on the roof, and otherside just showing its age some. And on top of that, I do paint and bodywork, and have access to an awesome hvlp spray setup, and a great place to paint. I could do my whole car for less than havigg the doors done the paintless way.

diablone

iTrader: (2)

These look great!

mazdaspeed7

What did you do to make that come up like that? I can see where the URL is different, but can you be specific on what you did? I would love to be able to link directly from imagestation.

edit: i figured it out... he took the .orig.jpg off the end of the first url.

nlc1179

those look sweet man. i have never seen those rims so shinny and nice

bingoboy

i would polish up my wheels like that if it didnt involve taking them off and unmounting the tires >.<

Ronac

well..
You could polish it when its on the car but you'll regret it after. You're gonna get a really sore back.

Bio-Weapon

I cant wait to see those on a car. It makes those otherwise absolutely awful wheels look nice!

Ronac

I have bad condition s4 turboII rims. Should i polish mine too? maybe I can sell them for a decent price after.