Wheel Restoration

[Chewievette]

Do you guys know anything about restoring wheels? I've got a set of Carroll Shelby rims that are going on my 240z but they look like crap. I want to clean them up a bit but I have no clue where to start. Everyone I've talked to has mentioned either wire wheel or grit blasting, I'm a little hesitant to do either because I'd like to keep the original finish if possible. But I dont know if thats possible. If you guys have any ideas, I'm listening! If all else fails I'll blast them and have them powdercoated. Here's a pic for reference:

 

[Guest JAMIE T]

Glass bead them. It'll leave a nice clean, smooth finish vs. a sand blasted finish. You could them polish the lip and paint them back the original color and put a clear coat on them.

[Guest Heuristicism]

Do NOT wire wheel them. This is just not the thing to do. Have them media blasted by someone who knows what they are doing.

 

Or (hehe) you can do them yourself with some hard work. Get some sandpaper- start at 80/100 grit and work you way up to 1000 grit.

[Cruez]

I second the glass beading.... at low pressure. even glass will pit the metal at #60 psi.

[SHO-Z]

I blasted my wheels myself with silica sand. They were black with brake dust and years of never cleaning, I built a box to blast them in and lined it with plastic to contain the sand, the wife used it for a planter after I was finished. Used a quality respirator, this is bad stuff to breathe. Polished the edge of the rim and the fins with 600 wet sand paper and then a buffing wheel in my side grinder.

[nienberg.11]

I'd have to agree with low pressure glass-beading being the way to go. I had a tacky looking colored epoxy coating on my wheels and had that sandblasted off, which resulted in the wheels being badly pitted.

[JMortensen]

I wouldn't be too concerned with saving the original finish. Not trying to be a dick, but your Carrol Shelby wheels were not rare or expensive or particularly good. It's just a cheapo, heavy, one piece cast aluminum wheel. Blast away and paint the centers whatever color is best to suit the car.

[Buzz]

I had a MOMO five star wheel repaired by a company in Cal. http://www.wheeltechniques.com/ They did a great job. The wheel was center bent. I had sent it to another wheel repair shop,when it came back they said they couldn't fix it and it looked like an egg and some one was beating on it with a hammer! I sent it to http://www.wheeltechniques.com/ it looked like new when it came back! They do package deal for refinishing to. Mike

[Chewievette]

I know they aren't rare but they look a heck of a lot better than a lot of wheels that I've seen and they were free so I'm not going to complain. I had the tires dismounted yesterday by a buddy of mine who works at discount tire and I took one of the rims into the shop today and glass beaded it, the old finish came off really easy and I just cleaned up the back side a bit. It looks much better now! I took a sanding stick to a couple of scratches and leveled them out and filed out a couple of smaller scratches. I then took a chunk of scotchbite I had laying around to the centers and outer ring and I think I like the brushed look a little better than polished, it doesn't hurt that it's a helluva lot less work. I think the centers are going to get painted black because I havn't decided what color to paint the car yet, and black goes with Everything. I'll snap a couple of pics later and post them. The only thing I'm worried about is the corrosion on the mating flange, aluminum rim on steel hub, is there any way to prevent it from getting worse? Could I take the rims to a welding shop and have them fix it?