Atok

I tell ya, I was VERY nervous about starting this project but boy am I glad I did it now!! I'm very pleased with the results of my efforts.

If I could give a couple of words of advice to anyone who is going to take this on they would be...
1. Take your time!! It will take hours per wheel to get a good finish.
2. Dont' stop at 400 grit paper like some tell you to do. Go fine enough until you can't see ANY fine scratches. I tried buffing at each step and decided to continue until I had a mirror finish. If I had some fine cut compound handy I would have used it before the polish step.

I've got one more wheel to do tomorrow then I'm done. Whew!

http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/krichar/rims/rims.htm




:party:

FoolCrzy

looks good.
:thumbs:

lead foot 85 vet

looks good but you can do better than the mothers polish...........I did exactly the same as you on my intake runners but wasn't happy with the shine so I went to a local chrome shop and asked what they used.........I don't know the name of the stuff but its like a hard wax.........you just run your buffer against it and then buff the part...........looks like it was chromed........check out my sig

honas

Where is your sig???????

Dark-Knight

Very nice, now to keep them clean.............

sraft

:thumbs: looks great, but now you'll need to get chrome center caps!

Pete89

Looking good :cheers: Are those tires directional?Looks like they are mounted the wrong way

NUckINg FuTS

Cool! Need to throw on the shades :cool:

ELEVENS

Looks beautiful. Well worht the effort.

But just looking at them tired me out - I'm going to bed!

- :cheers: -Bill

IGOFASTERINMYVETTE

R U going 2 clearcoat them once you get done? :crazy:

Blueyednd

Very nice! :cool:
I cut out all the hard work and just bought new wheels instead. :D

ninetyfivevette

So you are using sand paper?

There is a much easier an less painful way of polishing...

I would go with cloth discs and polishing compound found in the tool section of Home Depot that you use with a drill. I used a bar of the red (fairly course) to take off the paint and a bar of the white as a final polish. It looked like chrome when I was done and it lasted that way for two years until I sold the car I did it to... I did keep on top of them however to keep the brake dust and grime off of them however.

I am going to setup one of the CNC's at work to do the polishing for me sometime this summer... Totally painless :)

Phil-tha-Rush

looks good.

I like the polished look better than chrome.

Do you plan on doing anything special to protect them? (clear cote?) :thumbs:

Atok

No, I'm not planning to clear coat them, don't want to dull the shine! :) I don't drive the car in the rain (normally) or salt, etc. so I just plan to give them a quick clean and polish every month or so. Also I plan to keep a coat of wax on them.

Or...A guy at a car show showed me some stuff that puts some sort of oxide coating over aluminum. It doesn't duff the shine and protects the rim. I may look into that stuff. His rims looked A1 with the stuff applied.

To answer someone else's question...Yes, the wheel is on the wrong side of the car. I had more light on the driver's side so I just stuck it on that side to get the pictures.

:cool:

Wile E Coyote

Nice Job.

:thumbs:

Whne you started, where they the rough (91,92 - I think) or the polished wheels to begin with?

[Modified by shansen, 12:19 PM 6/13/2003]


[Modified by shansen, 12:20 PM 6/13/2003]

Atok

They are '95 rims, not really polished, they seemed to have some sort of an anodized coating under the clear coat which makes them shine. 75% of the work was sanding the machining grooves out of all the corners.

PoloGrnC4

________________________________________ ___
Where is your sig?????
________________________________________ ___

:iagree:

This is one of those projects I've been putting off because of the work vs. rewards ratio.. If you've got a nice side pic of the whole car with the wheels complete I'd likely be convinced...

Thanks!



[Modified by PoloGrnC4, 3:21 PM 6/14/2003]

Atok

Sure, I'll see what I can do. It's raining now, suppose to rain for a couple of days. As soon as it stops so I can pull it out of the garage I'll snap a couple of pics and post them.

dans86

I need to do this. Those look Great :thumbs:

Bluewasp

Pics from Lead Foot 85's sig: