Jump to content
The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Wheels! At last...! At long last...!!


Digsy
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have finaly got my arse in gear and got my BBS split rims fully refurbed and onto my car. Dead chuffed with them I am, too!

 

To recap these used to be Pulse's wheels, which got passed to Soop Dogg when he bought Pulse's car. When Mr. Dogg suggested they may be up for sale I ripped his arm off. A bit of minor kerb damage on one of them, but nothing a bit of TLC couldn't sort out. Maybe I could give them a new coat of paint while I was at it..oh dear... the brain-cogs started turning...

 

So anyway, full strip down and clean up. The kerbed bit turns out to be a thin stainless steel strip that runs around the rim but can you buy these as an aftermarket part? Not on your nelly! I never knew that tapping thin gauge sheet steel with a small hammer and then draw filing it flat coud be so much fun. :D And the polishing up using 1200grit wet and dry that followed. Still, what was a biggish kink in the metal is now hardly noticable.

 

While I emptied Halfords of primer, gloss black and laquer to do the insides of the rims, I dropped the centres off at Aerocoat - my powdercoaters of choice. After a bloody good old chat with the owner we decided on a colour and the best way to mask the wheel so that it would still fit inside the rim when the powdercoat was added. I decided for a custom job based on their Reflectra Silver finish (black powdrecoat with a reflective translucent wet second coat topped off with laquer). The more reflectove coat you put on the brighter it gets, until it ends up looking almost chrome plated. I wanted a gunmetal finish - no problem. All I had to was turn a millimtere off the centre cap diemeter so that it would still fit when the powdercoat was on.

 

With the centres underway and the rims in the process or being painted during sucessive trips to my folk's place (having turned their garage into a temporary spray bay) you would think it was plain sailing from there on. No such luck!

 

The very centre of the wheel is a plastic clip-in carrier with a thin aluminium disk which is embossed and painted with the BBS logo in white, then covered in a clear plastic layer. These were shot. Moisture had got under the clear layer and dulled off the aluminium colour. After stripping them down and paitning them back up with Plasticote chrome I took one look at them and earmarked them for the bin. Must do better, but I know I'm not good enough with a hacksaw to cut four perfect circles and get them on the car while I'm still young..,

 

The solution? Well the nice people over at DC Developments have a laser-cutter than can do circles very nicely, thank you. They can also supply a rather nice mirror-polished stainless steel. That'll do nicely!

 

One slight problem: The plastic carriers are slightly domed to take the original pressed aluminium discs so my thicker, stainless ones (which woud be flat) would not sit properly. Nothing that another night on my mate's lathe didn't fix - even if the parts did keep jumping out of the chuck.

 

When I got the bits back from the coaters they admitted thay had had a slight mishap while shot blasting the centre caps. The force of the beads had slightly deformed the metal. I didn't think that it would be an issue, accepted the parts and went away happy.

 

Unfortumately, when I tried to assemble the caps onto the hubs I discovered that it was a problem. There was no way that they were going together, so I spent an afternoon carefully bending then back flat in my vice. Naturally, despite lots of thick rags and my surgeon's hands (lol) this knackered the finish on them. No matter - I had lots of laquer left over from the rims - I'll just blow them over with that.

 

Turns out that Halford's idea of "clear" is more like "milky". One coat of laquer on the caps later and I'd well and truly ruined them. Disaster! Plate of humble pie in hand I go back to Aerocoat and tell them what I'd done. I leave them the bits and get on with re-assembling the wheels.

 

Now - the centres originally had the BBS logo on them, but these had bitten the dust when I switched to bling bling stainless steel laser-cut discs. What to do? Enter stage left Remark Designs (no website) who made up some nice custom decals for me using artwork supplied by e-mail.

 

I went back to Aerocoat to get my resurrected centre caps, which are now looking lovely again. The price of my stupidity? Nothing. Don't forget that this is a custom paint finish and I'd messed it up myself by having a go with Halfords laquer. OK, there was some damage from shot basting but I'd aready accepted them as being OK. I ended up haggling them up to a packet of Benson and Hedges for their trouble.

 

Finaly, an hour at Wheels ad Tyres Direct in Beccles to swap my tyres over and fit the wheels and job's a good'un. I like these guys. They take care of your wheels and don't get all funny about fitting stuff that they didn't supply.

 

So, whayyda think? I love them, but maybe after all that effort I'm a teensy bit biased..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. You might also be interested in our Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.