I just scored these rims at a price I couldn't pass on. The clearcoat is all peeling off, and there is some ugly corrosion on the face of them, but the bead is in great shape, as are the lug seats.



I'm stripping them down, and my initial plan was to repaint the accents, color-matching them to the truck, and then polishing the face. However, I now have other ideas:

1) colormatching the whole wheel to the truck with a polished lip
2) factory silver over the whole wheel with a polished lip
3) smoked chrome

Just looking for a few opinions.

 

I have never seen wheels that bad.

I would go with your original idea. That's a lot of polishing though.

 

They almost look like they were caught in a fire. I doubt you would be able to get them back to original. I would just paint them.

 

smoked chrome !

 

Ha ha. You think those are bad, you should have seen the ones on my old Exploder when I got it. It's just poor clear coat adhesion, and oxidation where it flaked off or lifted. I already stripped one of them last night, and the oxidation isn't horrible. It just looks bad. I'll post up pics after I start sanding it. Put it this way: the oxidation will not require me to sand it any more than if I were to take a set of brand new wheels and sand off the machining grooves so that I could polish them.

 

They're just about ready for paint. Still haven't completely committed to a plan yet, but I'm really leaning toward body color with a polished lip.

FYI: this was the worst one of the bunch. Spray on aircraft stripper, and some time with a small wire wheel and a scotchbrite wheel.

 

Damn man, you really cleaned those up.
I think DSG would look awesome on them.

 

Hmm id say all gunmetal grey, or brushed lip and black 5 spoke powdercoat them badboys..

.

 

Big improvement! - Dupli-Color® Shadow™ Chrome kit gets my vote for the finish.

 

Well the Shaddow Chrome is designed for painting over existing chrome. If I were to chrome these, I'd just have them done in smoked chrome. I wouldn't chrome them, then rattle-can smoke them. LOL.

I'm leaning mostly toward doing them the same color as the truck, and polishing the face & lip. I was thiniking of just polishing the lip, but I don't think it would work without doing the whole face, since they blend together.

 

I would personally have them powdercoated, this way they will stand up to your tough winters up north

 

That's definitely what I'm planning. I'm stopping by another shop today to get a quote. I got a quote from one place for $250, but that's pretty high for rims already prepped that just need spray and bake. I know plenty of places will do a set for $150, and I've heard of people getting them done for $25/rim on more than one occasion. If I can't get them done cheaper than a couple hundred, I'm just painting them, but hopefully they'll be powdercoated.

 

screw it buy the pwdercoat gun from harbor freight and do it yerself. use the oven in the kitchen to bake it.

 

LOL. Wife does not approve of baking parts in the house. I baked some painted parts once and the house smelled for a week.

I actually got an old oven for the garage, but I haven't wired it in yet, and I don't have the room right now because of a bunch of other stuff in there.

 

Wirelessly posted

There's a cheap place but it's a long haul from you. Procoating in Woburn ma. My friend paid $25 a rim

 

Dude I work in Andover. Woburn ain't that far. I'm checking with a place in Eliot on my way home today. If he doesn't give me a good price, I'll check that place in Woburn out.

Thanks for the info.

 

Works on "polished" too - doesn't have to be chrome. Not a fan of color-matched wheels, but I'm sure they'll look good whatever you choose.

 

Polish! and clearcoat

 

Wirelessly posted

I was just thinking the same thing. Those would look sweet polished up.

 

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 8530)

LOL. You guys just wanna make me bust my @ss smoothing them out and polishing them.

I'm sure they would look great polished, but that would be a ton of work. I'm looking to do something that doesn't take me 50 hours of labor. LOL

 

They quoted me $50 each. I stopped by the place in Eliot, but the guy wasn't around, and the phone number I used to have for him is no good (cell number), but the business truck was outside, so I'm thinking they're still there. He runs two businesses, so I think I just have to catch him there.

 

I think I may do them myself after all. I can borrow a powdercoating gun from a friend, and a day of cleaning in the garage (which is needed anyway), and I can get the oven installed. I just need to make sure these rims will fit in the oven. $50/rim is the cheapest I've found.

I just got a quote from one place for $530. LOL. For that price, I would have bought some aftermarket rims.

 

Alright, so after searching around, getting prices, and considering my options, I decided to just go ahead and paint them. I'm sure they won't last a long time like this, but I'm happy with the result, and I want to get some larger rims within the next year anyways, so these should do until then.

I went with a factory bright silver. They aren't perfect, but unless you scrutinize them, you wouldn't give them a second thought. I also decided to colormatch the center caps. I popped the logo pieces out, did some sanding, and then coated them with primer, base, and clear to match the wheels. I'm quite happy with the results. I'm getting some 265/75/16 Firestone Winterforce on them next weekend.

I'll post up a pic of them when they're on the truck, but until then...(I know, the pics suck, but that's what I got for now. LOL)...

 

Wow they look great!

 

Wheels look good!