Rim refurb/polish/clean/restoring - SSR Mk3

[haydoss]

Hey guys,

Just bought a set of ssr mk3 and they aren't in the best shape.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/503489.jpg

Im going to be replacing the nuts as they are rusted and looking for some stainless steel ones and repainting the centres.

I've given the rims a clean but still look filthy.. I want to have the lips clean/polished/chrome, if i polish them enough will they go chromey or do i need to get them chromed? not sure how it works.

Whats the best way to restore them? I've got a wire brush and some find sand paper but i don;t want to wreck the rims.

Sorry for the newby questions (and the instagram spec pic) but just want some help!

Thanks :)

[johl]

the easiest way is to pay someone to do it. its not that expensive. or an easy way to do it yourself is take the bolts out and also the valve stem, then put them on you car (jacked up obviously) put it in gear and let it spin. takes the hard work out of polishing them yourself

[haydoss]

Thanks for the reply!

Looking at the rim itself, it seems to be a flat silvery colour? How do i get it to be a mirror finish? Is it simply polishing it or do i need to strip the paint back first? Are my rims able to be polished to a mirror finish or will they just stay flat?

Thanks

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/503922.jpg

[85Kai]

From my experience you'll be able to polish them to a shiny finish if that's what you want. Follow Johl's instructions and get to work polishing the wheels while they spin. First thing you'll want to do is use very fine wet and dry paper (start at 1200 grit and go all the way to 2000 grit, unless there are some rougher bits that warrant a rougher grit). From there you'll want a professional metal polish and a lambswool pad or buffing wheel. Or you could pay someone to do it all for you. It will be good to see how you go with it so take some photos if you can.

[haydoss]

Will do! will be respraying the centers to a bright orange colour. I'm hoping to get some quotes from a local shop to polish them and i'll see what they say and what they can do with them, or i'll end up doing it myself pending the quote.

[JDMWheels]

Good suggestions so far :)

I've had good results with similar condition wheels.

1. Give them a good clean
2. Depending on scratches start with around 600 Grit Wet / Dry and move up 800 > 1000 > 1200 and all the way to 2000 if you'd like the highest mirror finish.
3. Use a quality metal polish (Purple Polish on ebay works wonders!) and either with something similar to a Mothers Powerball or microfibre cloth polish it up.
4. Apply polish to the clotch / power ball and rub until a dark residue forms - Then clean and repeat on other surfaces!

That's just a rough guide - but with time and effort it will work wonders :)

Dan

[haydoss]

Cheers for the replies, the picture above is the best condition one that i have, the others are fairly bad haha. I'll try with the purple polish and a microfibre cloth first, if that doesn't work, probably buy a powerball.

[haydoss]

Well for those wanting to see some progress on these, read on!

Got a bit bored today so decided to finally give it a crack. I used 1200 grit wet/dry sand paper for this with some warm soapy water. I was hesitant at the start as i didn't want to stuff the rim up but thought id give it a go!

Anyway, now for some pics

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/504084.jpg

Jacked up 1 side of the car, put the nuts on and chucked it in gear, ended up using 2nd gear spinning at around 10km/hr. Kept the rim wet with the sponge while it was spinning and kept the sandpaper on.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/504085.jpg

Probably about 10-25 minutes of sanding

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/504086.jpg

And thats what i got after probably an hour, was very pleased!

Obviously it hasn't been finished but i got a pretty sore hands from cramps haha.

I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to save money and not get them polished! Feels a lot more satisfying looking at them, even the laziest of kents can do it, and im pretty bloody lazy.

Give it a crack guys, I'll post up some more pics when more progress has been made.

[Jdm-Mcc]

use some metal polish or even toothpaste to bring it up even better, you will be suprised at the results you can get with the right product and minimal effort

[haydoss]

For those who are interested, finally pulled my finger out and finished off the last wheel.
They dont look as good in real life as the pics but i wasnt after a perfect finish, just a bit of a clean up. I then put purple polish on them. After that i then got paint stripper on the centres and applied primer. Once that had dried i then painted them with silver export spray paint, suprised with the result. Now i just need to put the valves back in and get new nuts for the outside!

Hope this helped someone out haha

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/6/2/0/4/505589.jpg

[anastasios]

look great, do you need to clear coat them to prevent future shit damaging them?

[stahlz_ae86]

To give them a great lazy kent polish, get a calico wheel for a pistol drill and apply green rouge to the calico wheel then polish the lips with that. I did that with my volks and one of them looked like it came out a river before resto, came up a treat. Good chance to do now before the nuts go back on.

[haydoss]

Might look into it!

Have you got any before/after pics?

[stahlz_ae86]

Dig through some pages in the thread in my sig there should be some progress pics back in there.

[haydoss]

Had a quick squiz, look the goods! did you sand at all or just compound polish?

[stahlz_ae86]

Yeah I think I did 600 & 800 then green rouge compound on the calico wheel with the Makita power drill. I finished with autosol or California purple.

[haydoss]

Awesome, just the answer i was looking for!
One last quick question, i've looked for the green rouge online, did you get it from australia or overseas? cant seem to find anyone selling in aus or im not looking hard enough.. where'd you get yours from?
Thanks!

[stahlz_ae86]

Hmm I'm a fitter, and my mate from trade school grabbed the stuff from his work for me as they use it to polish plastic dies. Maybe try the tool shop at Bunnings, I'm also fairly sure Sutton do compounds too as I think I saw some at north east industrial suppliers the other day...

[stahlz_ae86]

Just looked, calico polishing mops and green rouge are both on eBay, just gotta work out how to fit the mop to the drill and you're set. They usually go on the arbor of a bench grinder so I made an arbor to suit the drill I think, using a bolt/nut/washers I think. Was ages ago.