Refurbed my Wheels

After over 3 years of ownership I've always felt that my wheels have let down my car a bit. The previous owner used some caustic shite that damaged the lacquer and allowed corrosion and pitting to set in.

I've never been able to justify to the purse holder that paying for a refurb would be worthwhile and I'm never going to be able to afford those big blingy 18" wheels, so I decided to try and do them myself.

I bought some Nitromors (brown tin) varnish and lacquer remover. This is evil stuff and eats paint and skin in no time at all. Working in a well ventilated area (outside ) I carefully removed the lacquer working section by section and rinsing it off every 20 seconds or so with water. Then I used some 800 wet & dry to start sanding back the pitting. It was at this point that I thought might have made a big mistake doing it myself.

and ?

and ?

was going to say the same...

i'm sure there's more, otherwise it would be 'Refurbing my wheels'

So I decided to stick with it and used some 1200 wet & dry in the vain hope that some more of those scratches would come out.

So now the hard bit. Polishing. I used bog standard Autosol and lots of elbow grease.

1st Polish

Then a bit more

and then a final buff.

They need a bit more work doing and perhaps a better type of polish but they are alot better than when I started.

Doug, a dremel with a polishing bit would make life a lot easier, stick with the autosol but just with an electric bit..

certainly an improvement mate, looks like you've done a good job there

Bloody hell, very impressive. your arms must feel like lead weights after doing all that by hand!

your having us on doug thats just a bit of a wheel

nice one Doug, is that all 4 you have done?

Nice work Doug, thats a great improvement Just the other 3 to do now then??

Hard work though isn't it!

it sucks refurbing non split rim wheels

after all the hard work of the first one you then realise you have 3 more to do

looks tons better though Doug

Heres a tip that a mate of mine tried with me the other week on his golf. Put the wheel to be done on the rear wheels (front wheels on his golf) and jack the arse end up. Switch the engine on and put in 2nd or 3rd gear and release clutch. Then hold sandpaper (roughest first) onto the rim as the wheel spins (the higher the gear the faster it spins). Spend about 10 mins on each sandpaper until you are using wet and dry. After first lot of wet and dry, apply autosol as well. Then buff and polish. We turned his very dull wheels into polished in a few hours. If there is 2 of you doing it, one on either side, you can get all 4 wheels done in no time at all. Worked a treat.

Heres a tip that a mate of mine tried with me the other week on his golf. Put the wheel to be done on the rear wheels (front wheels on his golf) and jack the arse end up. Switch the engine on and put in 2nd or 3rd gear and release clutch. Then hold sandpaper (roughest first) onto the rim as the wheel spins (the higher the gear the faster it spins). Spend about 10 mins on each sandpaper until you are using wet and dry. After first lot of wet and dry, apply autosol as well. Then buff and polish. We turned his very dull wheels into polished in a few hours. If there is 2 of you doing it, one on either side, you can get all 4 wheels done in no time at all. Worked a treat.

i've done this before, it's great for removing curb marks using a metal file and sand paper

make sure you turn off the traction control though otherwise nothing will turn

I've done all four.

Took me 4 days (bearing in mind that my back is shagged so I took lots of breaks etc. The 1st wheel i might redo from scratch as i used the green Nitromors so it didn't properly remove all the lacquer.

They'll take quite a lot more polishing before i get the finish i want. Can anyone recommend anything other than autosol I'm trying to get a really bright finish.

Autosol is one of the strongest cutting polishes around, so great for removing scratches. It might be worth trying a softer compound like autoglym metal polish and using a dremmel to polish up finer.

Heres a tip that a mate of mine tried with me the other week on his golf. Put the wheel to be done on the rear wheels (front wheels on his golf) and jack the arse end up. Switch the engine on and put in 2nd or 3rd gear and release clutch. Then hold sandpaper (roughest first) onto the rim as the wheel spins (the higher the gear the faster it spins). Spend about 10 mins on each sandpaper until you are using wet and dry. After first lot of wet and dry, apply autosol as well. Then buff and polish. We turned his very dull wheels into polished in a few hours. If there is 2 of you doing it, one on either side, you can get all 4 wheels done in no time at all. Worked a treat.

i would like to try that

Well impressed

try maguires chrome polish its better for finishing than autosol make sure you laquer over..... try petrol resistance laquer from halfords its for motorcycle tanks etc;)

Heres a tip that a mate of mine tried with me the other week on his golf. Put the wheel to be done on the rear wheels (front wheels on his golf) and jack the arse end up. Switch the engine on and put in 2nd or 3rd gear and release clutch. Then hold sandpaper (roughest first) onto the rim as the wheel spins (the higher the gear the faster it spins). Spend about 10 mins on each sandpaper until you are using wet and dry. After first lot of wet and dry, apply autosol as well. Then buff and polish. We turned his very dull wheels into polished in a few hours. If there is 2 of you doing it, one on either side, you can get all 4 wheels done in no time at all. Worked a treat.

Sounds a great way to lose a finger or two or even wrench your arm out of its socket.

Done correctly you could look like the black knight in Monty Pythons Holy Grail in no time.

http://www.yourfilmsucked.info/blog/uploaded_images/BlackKnight-796430.jpg

Sounds very dangerous to leave the wheels turning. The wheels look excellent, great job:d

looks great mate, I did wonder if you could move with your back after that amount of work:D

They look much better.

excellent job there

Well done Doug, that autosol is good stuff Used it on exhausts in the past, you did well

They'll take quite a lot more polishing before i get the finish i want. Can anyone recommend anything other than autosol I'm trying to get a really bright finish.

You could try one of them polishing kits from Ebay, they should bring them up nicely. Something like This