I need to do something about my wheels...

[alec_b]

They're DISGUSTING. Not just dirty, I mean trash. Whoever took such nice care of the rest of the car in the past COMPLETELY forgot about the rims it seems. I've tried and tried, and I can make them look a little better, but not much. Here's what I'm looking at here:

 

 

Absolutely disgusting. I don't think there's anything that's going to fix them at this point over the counter, so I need to know where to go from here. There's a place that will sand-blast them for me for $15/rim, and then I still have to do all the finishing after that. The only problem with that is that I would need to take all the rims off the car, take all the tires off the rims, remove the valve stems, have them blasted, repaint and/or clear them, install new valve stems, remount and rebalance all the tires. I can't have that downtime.

 

Is there something I can do with the tires on the car? Or am I just totally stuck with nasty rims until I can afford to buy a new set?

[terryk2003]

i'd have them sandblasted and powdercoated...that would still involve having them dismounted and mounted & balanced though...

[jeremy]

buy new ones

[Euro]

buy new ones

 

Yeah I'm with jeremy. I think I'd just invest in new wheels of some sort.

[White93z34]

those wheels were ugly when they were new and clean, short of completely stripping them and refinishing them different neon colours they will look bad.

 

if you live in a snow climate put some snow tires on them and forget about them for half the year while you roll something nicer.

[alec_b]

Erg I was afraid that was going to be the general feeling.

 

White, they aren't THAT ugly. I've seen several Regal's around here with MINT rims, GS's just like mine, and they look really good. The 15" version that looks a lot like mine, but with hidden lugs, now those are the ugly ones.

[Addicted to eaton]

.....ugh get rid of em lol.

[Addicted2bass]

Get new rims!!!

[tornado_735]

If you have the monies, get new ones.

 

If you're a po-boy like me, rattlebomb them like I did mine. Turned out a WHOLE lot better than I thought it would.

 

I did mine flat black

.

[alec_b]

Tornado, if I still had my GP (that looks identical to yours) that would look great. And I have no problem rattle canning them, I did that on my aurora and it looked amazing. But, with as bad of shape as mine are in, the spray paint will just flake off. I guess I'll just save up for a new set...

[slick]

Sand blast, then get to town with sandpaper and polish them up. I'm willing to bet they'd look pretty sharp.

[intern8tion9l]

get new ones cause those suck. sand and spraypaint those ones

[alec_b]

I'd really like a set of chrome rims on it, but GM doesn't have a lot of great looking chrome 16" rims. There aren't that many that I really like, but I was thinking these (with the buick logo center): http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Riviera-Park-Avenue-16-Chrome-7-Spoke-Rim-Wheel-PO5-/350243021211?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item518c1c619b

 

Or these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/16-BUICK-PARK-AVENUE-FACTORY-OEM-CHROME-WHEELS-REGAL-/350357106331?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5192e92e9b

 

I like those second ones, great price too.

[Biohazed]

you need wheel acid take it tp a place that does Car detailing and have then clean the wheels or get a set of Pontiac Fat Fives

[91LuminaEuro]

If you want to re-finish them until you can afford a new set, you should be able to use airplane stripper to strip whatever clear is left off, and sand them down until they're smooth. Then you can either do a quick polish and finish up with a semi-durable clear or spray them with a durable spray paint.

 

This can all be done with the tires on, i did it to my wheels about 1 1/2 years ago and they're just now starting to show some major signs of wear as far as paint coming off.

 

Yes its not the correct way to do it, but if you're just looking for something that will look OK, until you find something better, its somewhat easy to do and should yeild a decent result.

 

My old roommate re-finished a pair of Bonneville cross laces this way, but spent hours polishing the lips and did them right and they looked awesome, so you can definitely get a good result if you take your time.

 

Just some food for thought!

[LuminaPower92]

Get a set of Crosslaces! Then it would be hotness!

[GnatGoSplat]

Eagle used to have some rather caustic aluminum wheel cleaner that could eat through brake dust pretty well. It would also make your skin feel weird if you got any on you.

You could also try wet-sanding some of that stuff off. If you don't go through the clear, you can hand buff it back to a shine.

[BS009]

Honestly they just look like they've got a bunch off dirt on them. What kind of wheel cleaners have you tried? The Eagle One a to z stuff i use has been able to clean every rim I've used it on. Sure there's some oxidation there but some tire cleaner with a fairly stiff brush should make those things so clean they'll look like new rims.

[alec_b]

Thanks for all the tips. I was looking at acid wheel cleaners, they seem to work great, but they all say things about not using on unprotected aluminum. Will an acid cleaner strip off the clear that's left on the rims? I'd love to find a way to strip the clear off and I don't mind spending the time to do it right if it saves me money.

 

What about the aircraft stripper? Where in the hell do I even get it? It sounds like that's my best option, but will it eat through the brake dust? Brake dust is mostly metal, and the aircraft stripper is made to NOT harm metal, correct? It seems like the best idea would be to use the acid cleaner first, eat away the brake dust, scrub and rinse, then hit with aircraft stripper to remove the remaining clear. Then clean and dry again, then hit them with clear and polish. Lots of work, but probably worth it depending on parts cost.

[GnatGoSplat]

No, acid won't strip off the clear, but it might hurt it. I know the Eagle wheel cleaner made the clearcoat on my wheels look dry and dull, but hand polishing with 3M Fill & Glaze was able to make the clearcoat look good again.

I would try cleaning them and trying to save the clearcoat before stripping. It looks to me like they've just got caked-on brake dust.

[alec_b]

It's tough to see in the pictures, but it is more than just brake dust. The fronts are mostly brake dust, but all 4 rims have pretty severe clear peeling around the lip, the rears oddly enough are the worst.

 

It's like IMPOSSIBLE to find a nice set of rims around town. Either they don't exist or the people that do have them want WAY to much money for stock wheels. There's no way a set of factory 16" rims should cost me more than $150 bucks, unless they're brand new.

[BS009]

Aircraft stripper should be pretty easy to find, autozone carries it and so should advance auto parts. I would remove the tires first if I were you because it could damage the tires. If you don't wanna remove your tires you should try to find it in a little bucket-like can so you can control where it goes with a paint brush. The brake dust and everything coated onto the rims should just come off with the clearcoat since that's what it's all baked onto.

 

Once you've got all the clearcoat off, you can sand them or polish them or whatever. You should probably clearcoat them again so they don't oxidize again.

 

I've been wanting to do this too so that my aluminum polish will finally be put to use and I can have shiny rims but I don't wanna have to pay to have the tires taken off and then pay again to put them back on afterward.

 

I would at least try some wheel cleaner first, you're probably gonna use it later anyway if you want your rims to stay clean.

[alec_b]

I probably will try wheel cleaner first, I just want to know what my options are.

 

Dismounting and remounting the tires isn't a huge deal for me, I can do that for free at work on one of my days off. It's a matter of what to put on the car in the mean time while the rims are off. I even considered doing 1 wheel at a time and using the spare while the wheel is off, but that won't work because with as much as I drive I'd wear out the spare before the first rim is even done.

[RareGMFan]

I'd try cleaning the wheels with this stuff first:

 

http://www.autobarn.net/oil1035605.html

 

While they didn't look brand new, I couldn't believe how much corrosion they removed off the lips of the TGP wheels, and it made the Special Edition wheels on the GTP look like brand new. Big fan of this product.

[1990lumina]

I probably will try wheel cleaner first, I just want to know what my options are.

 

Dismounting and remounting the tires isn't a huge deal for me, I can do that for free at work on one of my days off. It's a matter of what to put on the car in the mean time while the rims are off. I even considered doing 1 wheel at a time and using the spare while the wheel is off, but that won't work because with as much as I drive I'd wear out the spare before the first rim is even done.

 

Just go to a wrecker and find even a steel rim with a decent tire on it and use that. Might look ghetto, but at least it'd be the correct size and safer to drive on as it sounds like you must drive on a highway to work and back?