Got my wheels home time to start work :)

[uk525td]

ok got them home last night
took my time lugging them up 4 flights of stairs and onto my balcony to start work
heres what one looked like when i got it home
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00013-20090509-1707.jpg
all wheels are pretty dam good!!! they all appear to be 8" rims (havent investigated thouroughly) all appear straight, all the centre paint seems livable, all the rims are badly corroded and covered in cracked lacquer but no biggy, and virtually 0 curb rash!!!
ive just been out giving one a quick clean be back with a photo :)
oh tyres, fronts are 235 40 18 and have very good tread and held air
rears are 265 35 18 one has good tread, one is near limit both have a puncture of some sort....
and all this for £77 :D

same wheel, rear with good tread
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00012-20090509-1704.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00014-20090509-1827.jpg
thats it after a quick scrup, time to hit it with the wet and dry :D

oh menat to add, inspecting hte bores revealed some plastic hubcentric rings, obviosuly to adapt to e39 fitment, however i need to adapt to e34, do i jsut put another adaptor inside those? or will i be able to get adaptors which fit into the original centrebore?

[zubbie]

If they have rings in them I suspect they are E39 rims adapted to E34 fit. You may not have to do anything ringwise. fit them over your bore and check for play.

What are your plans with them. Disassemble, polish, paint?

[EuroPartConnect]

they look like they have potential. can wait to see what you do with them

[Binjammin]

Were those training wheels for the Titanic? They look like they came from the absolute bottom of the ocean. Can't wait to see you bring 'em back!

[uk525td]

well at the moment im getting hte pitted rims upto 600 finish and then decide on the centres before i go any further
choices are stock with polished lips (hopefully if the centres arent too bad, then its cheapest and quickest)
or ...
gold or gloss black centres and polished lips

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00015-20090509-1959.jpg
Santas little helper :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00016-20090509-2019.jpg
1st sand with 60 grit

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00018-20090509-2043.jpg
80 grit just starting on 120 now :)

[zubbie]

Are they real two-piece?

Would be easier and nicer in the end if they were apart.... (JMO)

[uk525td]

well that was my initial thought, im finding hard to acertain.....and yer it would be 100% easier.....
ill have a look while i have a smoke
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00019-20090509-2109.jpg
120 grit btw coming along...
about 1 hours work so far... but i dunno how much more my hand can take... see next pic :P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00020-20090509-2111.jpg

its the finger tips :) ill stop after 600 grit tonight on wheel 1 :)

76.9x 74.1 is what the plastic rings say :) taht sounds like e39 fitment to me?!?!?
so i guess the bore is 76.9 i need rings to take up that slack, or a second set of adaptors inside the originals

ok i actually have blood coming from my fingers now and only just got 240 grit donw, still 400 then 600 tonight :(
any way this is at 240 grit
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00021-20090509-2159.jpg

[DTMkid90]

about 1 hours work so far... but i dunno how much more my hand can take... see next pic :P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00020-20090509-2111.jpg

its the finger tips :) ill stop after 600 grit tonight on wheel 1 :)



ahah sorry that made my day with the hand joke :) hah but yea its a BITCH to sand them and try and go in a circle, not just in a lil spot then move on to the next because then it will look really uneven. i say with ur car u spray it with a gun metal silver and polished lips will stand out so much more!!!! Great job on the rims, u started out lower then me though, i just did 320 up to 1500 once i got 1500 done i used this stuff i got from kragens and it polished then used polishing compound and viola its shinny :) but good job best of luck and have fun

[uk525td]

yer i decided to go as aggresive as i could
i couldnt tell if it was pitting or dirty clear coat, and i didnt want to start throwing paint stripper around, think i could comfortably hae started a bit finer but it makes nice quick work with the 60

[Binjammin]

Dude, take the wheels apart man!

[edgedude]

What did you use to clean the wheels?

[uk525td]

im still not sure i can :)i looked around thee inside and im not 100% they come apart....
anyway jsut hit 400 grit:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00022-20090509-2225.jpg

sanding time is way less than 5 minutes per grade now, wet sanding from 240 up is flying buy, 600 coming up in a sec once my phone has mailed it off :P

erm ididnt properly clean the wheels edgedude, i jsut threw on some wheel cleaner and clothed it off, ill get em presentable then jet wash the final crap out of em and hand polish on the car and wax

and theres 600:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00023-20090509-2233.jpg

well this is 800
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00024-20090509-2258.jpg

and foubd a bit of 1200 lying around :) im not sure if i went up grades too quick or what but i seem to be chasing my ass now..... i htink i may give up and hit some compound next

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00025-20090509-2318.jpg

[DTMkid90]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00025-20090509-2318.jpg

IMMA B honest dude really, ur not going to get it polished this way if ur wheels look like that see the mark between the lip and the center get that done, and u can see where u were uneven in the sanding. Take YOUR TIME ON THE WHEELS don't just do 5 mins each grit, my buddy and i atleast did 30-45mins each grit....but i say take ur time don't jump the gun and clean the wheels before sanding!!!! with

http://www.hspnnews.com/images/uploads/Tire_Gel_and_AWT_Aero.eps.jpg

wheel cleaner not the spray bottle

[njg86]

you need a buffer with some compound on it after you get to 800..mirror's

then wax

[uk525td]

yer daylight has revealed a bit more scratchy scratch than i liked gonna go back a few grades again

[DTMkid90]

yer daylight has revealed a bit more scratchy scratch than i liked gonna go back a few grades again

bro like i said take ur time on it, you have ur car with wheels now just take ur time with the polished ones so that you can be more proud of your work. Try and atleast spend 2 hours per wheel for all the process ur doing

[uk525td]

yer i went back to 600 and worked harder on the 800 and 1200 much easier to do in natural daylight
then threw on some paint renovater compund, and a bit of polish after that
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00026-20090510-1250.jpg
well happy with the result, needs a little more polishing in places but itll do for now, wheels need to get proper washed down and ill polish again, and decide if im going to do the centres

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00027-20090510-2048.jpg
the shine shot :) itll do as long as you dont stick your nose up against it, ill get a front done next and hopefully show tehm on the (unlowered) car
oh and they arent 2 piece, i have chipped some chrome of the bolts which appear to be plastic!!!!!!! so i guess they dont unscrew :( ill have to hand paint the chipped ones chrome

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00028-20090510-2054.jpg
old and new(ish) shot

[BuckNaked]

clearcoat them before they rot again.

[CleanE34]

4 flights of stairs? forget that lol. i carried my suitcase up 4 flights and i almost died.

[Boogieboy]

Those wheels really cleaned up nice....and for 77! You cant beat that.....good job!:D

[Boogieboy]

Those wheels really cleaned up nice....and for 77! You cant beat that.....good job!:D

[nmp411]

It looks really nice! Worth the hard work for sure.

[DTMkid90]

nice job and see time pays off :)

[uk525td]

clearcoat them before they rot again.
I wont put any clear coat on them, the trouble with clearcoat is it never ever seems to properly adhere to polished surfaces, so eventually it will lift....
Instead ill protect with wax and repolish occasionally, that sohuld keep it looking good


4 flights of stairs? forget that lol. i carried my suitcase up 4 flights and i almost died.
yer the second wheel wasnt too bad, wheel 3 i actaully thought the angels were coming to guide me on to my next life ;P


Those wheels really cleaned up nice....and for 77! You cant beat that.....good job!:D
£ 77 was that? $117 an absolute steal to be honest, and polihed up gotta be worth 5 times that with reasonable tyres (of which i need 1)
the time to polish em is well worth it


nice job and see time pays off :)

Yer the finish is not 100% but its more than good enough
if your stood next to the wheel you will not see a blemish, get close and htere is some dark spots (remainder of pitting) and some very fine scratches in places
this will all come out over time and from next to the car itll look great :)

[Electricalbox]

Looking good :)

[uk525td]

so, i made a start on the rest of the wheels last night
first one i came to after scuffing up with the coarse paper showed some kerb rash and some other surface dents which i didnt feel too happy leaving in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00034-20090513-2148.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00035-20090513-2148.jpg
its a little hard too see from the pics...
so i opted to fill the dents
ideall i guess some of that aluminium welding/brazing rod would have bene perfect, but,
a) i didnt have any
b) i dont havea gas torch
c) i didnt want to remove the tyres
so i thought id throw in some of this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00036-20090513-2153.jpg
I have left it to harden over night, i hope it wont be too otugh to sand back, i managed to get it pretty level, obviously it will be a bit darker htan the aluminium but we'll see how it comes out tonight :)

[mikemxbike4]

Can the girl in the pic sand down my style 5's? Please

[uk525td]

well im training her up so that when shes old enough to get her first car she can do all this time consuming stuff herself....

[mikemxbike4]

well im training her up so that when shes old enough to get her first car she can do all this time consuming stuff herself....

Thats awesome i wish i had a helper like that. Im getting tired of sanding my wheels for the past few days.

[uk525td]

have you got any finger tips left?
im going through my second set of dermal layers this week :(

[mikemxbike4]

have you got any finger tips left?
im going through my second set of dermal layers this week :(

Mine are good still. I just wear my Mechanix gloves.

[uk525td]

If i had Chuck Norris on board he would have already finished them with his beard....

[swill424242]

Nice they look good thats what i wanna do get some Cheap Two or three piece rims to work on to have as back up rims . Great job

[uk525td]

finally got round to finishing ish wheel 2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00054-20090528-0024.jpg

[tonyroc14]

you got those for 77 bucks? Nice deal

[uk525td]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00102-20090627-1417.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00103-20090627-1417.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/alanthecelt/IMG00104-20090627-1417.jpg
looks better :)

[Boogieboy]

looks better :)
Congrats man! Those came out very nice.....don't you love it when your hard work pays off!:D