Restoring Wheels & Flipping Faces

[M240Z]

What's up everyone. I just picked up some old school wheels from a member on here for my Z and they need to be cleaned up. It appears that there is some calcium build up on the face of the rim and on the lip. I was wondering what is the best way to get this crap off, I'm mainly worried about scratching the lips. I was thinking some CLR? But what tools do I use?

 

Also I was wondering if anyone had experience in flipping the faces on their 3 piece rims in order to run a bigger lip? I heard it could be done but is dangerous. 

 

I really want to get to cleaning up these wheels because I'm in love with them. Here are some pics of the grime.

 

 

 

I'm almost done with the semester and can finally start working on my baby! :geek:

[jser12]

im gonna follow this cause bought a set of advans with minor build up and the bolts need replacing

[71DIMER]

I have refinished a few sets of wheels in my time so here's a decent pictorial of my last set of wheels I've done all with store bought items and no special tools so this should give you a decent starting point.

 

 

Here are the Panasports as I picked them up from a local swap meet

 

Here's each wheel's condition before, they weren't in the greatest shape, definitely not ready for ANY of my cars, including my Miata!

 

 

So I got a few quotes to get them beadblasted and powdercoated but they all couldn't do it until weeks from when I contacted them (cheaper places get well used apparently)

 

So I figured screw it, how hard can this be and I'd give it a go myself, so I tried the following in no particular order (not pictured here was the aircraft stripper as well):

 

All of these only succeeded at removing ONLY the top clearcoat:

[71DIMER]

So when those paint removers barely made scratch on the factory powder coating, I had to pull out the big guns (well big since I don't have access to a beadblasting machine)

 

 

This is literally about 2-3 minutes after spraying it on the wheel...it bubbles it up FAST!

 

 

This is the 'Oh man, what did I get myself into' moment:

 

End result after a second coat of the gasket remover:

[71DIMER]

 

 

After some more cleaning of residual bits before any sanding:

 

 

Before and after 1st sanding with 200 grit sand paper:

 

During and after 2nd sanding with 400 grit wet sand paper:

 

 

During and after the 3rd sanding with 1200 grit wet sand paper:

 

During and after the 4th sanding with 1600 grit wet sand paper:

 

Lip after hand polishing using Mother's polish:

 

All 4 lips after polishing with wool drill bit attachment from Harbor Freight (a whopping $10?):

 

Cleaning off the polish residue to get it prepped:

[71DIMER]

All cleaned up and ready for paint!:


Masked:


Painted (silver metallic) after being primered


Painted and clear coated:


All masking removed and lips touched up from getting my grubby paw prints on them!:
Oh and BTW, I also did the back barrels of the wheels just didn't take any pics of it.






And here they are on my Miata after I was done:

 

 

 

I think they came out pretty well considering I didn't have a proper set up to remove the factory powder coating, nor polishing setup...just a bunch of basic methods that I've used a few times.

[M240Z]

Wow! Thanks so much for breaking it down step by step for me Dimer! I hope this helps a lot of people. Im definetely going to use this method on my lips. As for my faces, since they are mesh, I think its going to be a bitch to get in all the holes. I was planning on just getting the grime off and re spraying them. Any idea on what I should use?

 

Your rims look brand new!

 

Edit: Did you only sand the lips? And just used gasket remover on the face?

[71DIMER]

Wow! Thanks so much for breaking it down step by step for me Dimer! I hope this helps a lot of people. Im definetely going to use this method on my lips. As for my faces, since they are mesh, I think its going to be a bitch to get in all the holes. I was planning on just getting the grime off and re spraying them. Any idea on what I should use?

 

Your rims look brand new!

 

Edit: Did you only sand the lips? And just used gasket remover on the face?

 

 

Thanks!

 

Yes and no.

Yes I did sand the lips only but I i did use the paint remover on the entire wheel (lips and face) but since the lips were only clear coated, it removed it from the lips but didn't even scratch the factory powder coating.

No I did not use the gasket remover on the lips, just the face.

 

I've done mesh wheels in the past, I think it was the first set I did and I used the JASCO gel like stuff with a toothbrush to get in the nooks and crannies and let it do its thing to bubble the paint up.  It's a tedious process but you can do it.  Just make sure to try to get all the paint off otherwise if you give up and just spray over any left on paint it will look half assed so once you commit, you have to finish the job.

[71DIMER]

Oh and I forgot to mention you have to used the aerosol gasket remover, not the stupid pump spray one they sell here in CA so it might be hard for us CA guys to find.  :(

[71DIMER]

Here’s my Watanabe wheels I also refurbished for a second time since I was lazy the first time around and just painted and clear coated the lips instead of polishing them…what a mistake! :P

 

Before:

 

 

Close up of Lip & logo:

  

 

Clear coat sanded off lip:

 

Bolts removed:

 

Face/Barrel separated (hammered out):

 

Face prior to stripping:

 

Face being stripped:

 

Barrel before polishing:

 

Barrel rear side before:

 

 

Barrel rear side cleaned up:

 

 

Old hardware: I tried salvaging by cleaning them:

 

But decided it wasn’t worth the risk so I got the proper grade hardware from Fastenal.com (you CAN'T use hardware store quality nuts/bolts here guys!)

 

Nice and Shiny:

 

Face paint removed:

 

Face primered:

 

Face painted:

 

[71DIMER]

Face logo painted:

 

Barrel shined up:

 

Test fitting:

 

 

After, well worth the elbow grease!

IMG]http://i491.photobucket.com/albums/rr274/sfbaycl/Watanabes%20Refurbish/8152c92b.jpg[/img]

 

 

 

 

Rear Side of Barrels:

 

[M240Z]

The lips on the Wantanbes look like mine. I'll be sure to post the results once I get them done. Hopefully I can start working on them next week or so. Thanks for all the help Dimer, your wheels look great!

[Homeboyx]

Those Watanabes make me want to jizz.. although I'm not really feeling the white(?) faces on them though. Still, after saying that, I'd still rock them. haha

 

Also, I can't believe that gasket remover spray did all of that!

[71DIMER]

 

The lips on the Wantanbes look like mine. I'll be sure to post the results once I get them done. Hopefully I can start working on them next week or so. Thanks for all the help Dimer, your wheels look great!

 

 

Glad it can help you out and good luck with your wheels.  Just keep at it when all looks like you're in for big mess, it will pay off! :P

 

 

 

Those Watanabes make me want to jizz.. although I'm not really feeling the white(?) faces on them though. Still, after saying that, I'd still rock them. haha

 

Also, I can't believe that gasket remover spray did all of that!

 

 

They're not white, it's a light grey (Winter's grey) and I'm not out to try to please anyone on what color haha! :)

I tried the graphite and hated it, same for black wheels and silver wheels seem too boring so this color will look nice and contrast well once they're back on my blue wagon.

[DatMo]

This great and awesome job! thanks man!

[Supra510]

Nice work

[Homeboyx]

I have to ask, where in the hell did you find that gasket remover spray? any specific auto parts store?

[M240Z]

Ok so I finished sanding my lips and they look a lot better. Everything is smooth but I still have some blemishes where all the old corrosion was. Will this stuff buff out? Everything is smooth and I went over it multiple times while sanding but nothing comes off. :crying: 

 

[Homeboyx]

Before and after of how the wheel was/is atm.. Anyone have any tips on how to remove the rest of this spotty mess behind the wheel?

 

 

 

[shakotan710]

I've been starting to restore wheels, and im still in the process of it, but I've been sodablasting my car and I'll do the wheels in a couple days, and anyways if the stuff on the rear of the wheel is just grime that's in the paint, sodablasting or just sanding it will work, just takes some time though

[71DIMER]

Homeboyx: I've had libra wheels that were just like yours.  Just get a wire wheel that you attach to a drill and go to town on it.  For the tough spots just press the wheel a little harder in that spot.  Give it a try and repost pictures afterward! :)

 

[dirty-mik3]

i wouldn't use a wire wheel on my wheels, sounds way to harsh on aluminum. i could be wrong but id be hesitant to use that approach without seeing results in person first.

[Homeboyx]

I should've updated this a while ago... After sanding them with 220(?) grit and still not being satisfied with results I decided to wire wheel it as suggested. I didn't dig deep, I only did just enought to scratch the surface bit off.

 

 

I still plan to spray paint them some color so I can get that really clean look. Not sure what kind of color I should use yet to be honest..

[M240Z]

Those look great Homie!

I bought a can of the gasket remover for $20 and I couldn't even get all of my wheels. So I am now looking for someone to sand blast. Anyone know how much I should be looking to spend?

[Homeboyx]

I used gasket remover.. it did NOTHING. Anywhere.