Refurbishing wheels

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:34 pm

I just got hold of some nice 14' BBS crosspokes, i wanna do them up and stick them on my motor for a bit as they all have sweet tyres, and 14's are oldskool

Was just wondering, im gonna strip them all back and sort the structure side of things out, but i wanna know, can you give them a polished lip? I mean, once i take the paint off will it be possible to diamond cut them with somthing like a dremal.

If not, anyone got any ideas of where i can get paint to match the silver that they are already.

Cheers

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:01 pm

you should be able to polish the lip.
just go finer and finer with the sandpaper, then get the polish out.

Plenty of people will go to 1200 (or even 1500 grit ) before polishing. I seldom find the need to go much past 400 grit (wet) before getting the polishing mops out.

Personally I wouldn't use a dremel, they are too fast over a small area. Better off getting a polishing mop for a drill (and get a cheap drill If you don't want to ruin the bearings in your good drill!)

As for colour match, there are certain BMW colours for wheels (Artic silver sounds familiar) failing that Just paint them a good wheel silver.

oh yeah, if you laquer the polished lip when done, it will dull down quite a bit. personally I'd just keep them polished (i.e. no laquer on the lip)

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:20 pm

yes you can diamond cut the rim ,mine are done luvly

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:32 pm

pics pls gcorky

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:46 pm

some metal polish like autosol will bring the lip of the rims up nicely, available from most motor factors/Halfrauds etc

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:02 pm

I started polished the lip on one of my alloys when refurbing them myself. Wasn't too hard really and came up pretty good, quick too. Used 600 grit and autosol.
Went for painted in the end though.
51-91-1-900-344 OEM part number for 400ml tin of BMW silver wheel paint. Yes it does exist !!!
Done mine in motorsport stylee, but with a more subtle centre tone as i always thought my motorsport centres were a little too dark.

Andy

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:57 pm

will post pics tommorrow ,charge batts first

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:22 pm

Cheers for the info guys. Well after stripping them back, theres too many dents, dings and deep chunks missing on the lip to have it polished. So i spent all night striping the whole wheel back , filled and reshaped all the bent metal and it looks good, gave it a base coat in some random colour i had laying around and it looks mint. Only thing now is to get some propper paint.

I think im just going to go to halfords etc and pick up some cheap primer and silver mettalic paint. Is that suitable, or is there a specific wheel paint?

Also, have people been laquering them, or just painting and leaving them? dont really wanna look at them in a couple of months to see that the paints all flaked off

Post Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:25 pm

Cheers for the info guys. Well after stripping them back, theres too many dents, dings and deep chunks missing on the lip to have it polished. So i spent all night striping the whole wheel back , filled and reshaped all the bent metal and it looks good, gave it a base coat in some random colour i had laying around and it looks mint. Only thing now is to get some propper paint.

I think im just going to go to halfords etc and pick up some cheap primer and silver mettalic paint. Is that suitable, or is there a specific wheel paint?

Also, have people been laquering them, or just painting and leaving them? dont really wanna look at them in a couple of months to see that the paints all flaked off

Post Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:26 am

After the paint i stuck a sh!t load of laquer on, brought the metallic out really nice. I'd agree, go with the silver you like from Halfords, or even BM's own, not to dear. Take your time though and put the paint on in a load of small thin coats to get a decent flat finish, when you put the primer on it'll shine, don't try to get the shine from the paint. For quantity I think i used 2 small primer, 3 large aerosols of colour (1 silver & 2 grey metallics), 4 small laquer for all 5 wheels.
Andy

Post Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:27 pm

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... ic&t=18505

get em done,most places fill em and still get polished lip etc.........

Post Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:15 am

Right well ive painted one rim and it looks sweet as!, propper nice job if i do say so myself. Striped the wheel back with some 120 grit DA sheets, then worked back with 240 and 320 just to smooth it out a bit, primed, painted, then put a heat lamp on to cure the paint, need to laqure it but they look pretty sweet.

I would have got them done propper, but a)their 14's lol b) they were mullered, i managed to fill and make up some rim edge that was lost,but you cant really fill in massive holes and then polish the lip c)i aint loaded!

happy with this one, got 3 more, then need to buy some badges!

Now my bro wants me to do his 15's

Post Sun Oct 02, 2005 11:55 pm

Now my bro wants me to do his 15's

He loves it really...

Post Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:07 am

Ill get some pictures up soon. Only done two wheels, in artic silver, but im really feeling the need for gold centers and leaving a silver lip.....tempting lol.

Gold+BBS+14's= oldskool to the maxzor

Post Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:10 am

has any one ever polished a full bbs 15??

Post Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:36 pm

swirly what did you use to fill the kerbing/dents? isopon?

Post Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:13 am

Yeh mate, plus some other very light pug to fill in minute dings.

This is what the wheels turned out like

Then i thought....nah that looks cool, but i want somthing differnt.
So i went to halfords again and waste even more money on some gold paint, not the gold i would of liked, a little bit too dark/bronzy, but it still looks cool i recon