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RedSquare JDM wheel refurb


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Before I found my 720 project truck, I won a Yahoo Japan Auction for some wheels I thought looked similar to one of my favorite JDM wheels of all times, Desmond Regamsters (I know they're really German made). Since there's no such thing as a 6-lug Regamaster, and they were going for so cheap (around $100), I bid and won.

 

Actual auction pic.

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After paying around $500 in fees and shipping, they arrived and sat at my mother's for months as I got settled in my new place. One day I finally decided I was in the mood to work on them, so I went and got them.

 

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They're amazingly clean, and the faces look mint. The only problem is the clear coat has started peeling from the polished lips and one wheels has a small nick on the lip that will get addressed later.

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Just test fitting them when I was changing my shocks

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They're 15x7 Offset 8 wheels.

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More to come.

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Purchased some Jasco brushable paint remover and poured it on a foil wrapped styrofoam plate for obvious reasons.

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After the strippers application, I set out to the local manual car wash to hose the stripper off;)

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Cleaned the truck while I was at it.

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I didn't get a really good shot of the after pics while there, but you can kinda see how well it worked. I got about 95% of the lips stripped.

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What little the stripper didn't remove, will be removed with my ScotchBrite drill attachment.

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With the wheels relatively clean, last night I started prepping them a little more for paint by scuffing the lips and center with 3M roloc discs.

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As stated earlier, only one wheel has any kind of real blemish, so i scuffed the area with 80 grit, then cleaned and prepped with Alodine. Alodine is a real toxic substance that does a chemical conversion of the surface (oxidizes it) and is the best way to prep it for painting. The paint is suppose to bond to the alodine'd surface better.

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After the Alodine air dried, I filled the nick with JB Weld. I'll later block sand the JB Weld and then I'll clean every nook and cranny of each wheel with an aluminum cleaner before alodining and primering all exposed aluminum

 

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Today I block and sponge sanded the the JB Weld that I applied earlier. I then cleaned and thoroughly roughed-uped the entire wheels with "Awesome Orange" aluminum cleaner from Napa and a green 3M scrubbing pad.

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It says orange on the bottle but, smell nothing like oranges. Smell like phosphoric acid and tastes like burning;)

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Foaming means it's working.

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Acid etched and now ready for Alodine and primer.

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Lips after Alodine treatment.

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Lips hit with water based aluminum milspec epoxy primer scored on Craigslist

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Next, I'll cleanup my work space and hit them with some SEM high build.

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^Thanks. There are also some blemishes on the wheels faces, but JB Weld is to hard to feather sand, so next I'll use Bondo.

Regamasters are made in russia. I have 2 sets.... These look sick though. I dig the 720 also!

 

Yeah, that's absolutely correct. My mistake.

 

Almost a whole can of SEM high build for all four. There is some flaking of the original paint due to aggressive stripping and excessive scrubbing, so I'll be filling in those imperfections with regular Bondo before any more high build. I'm gonna hold off on wet sanding until next weekend and then the following weekend, I hope to be spraying base and clear.

 

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Still haven't decided on color and the blue lugs nuts aren't for these wheels, their for another set I had coated satin black.

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^Thanks

 

I have too ask... Why aren't you just powder coating these like the other wheels?

 

Later

Joel

 

Well, I want to try my hand at painting with real automotive/catalyzed paint and I wanted to break in my soon to be air compressor with this project. I also have a color in mind that I feel powder won't replicate.

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