Refinishing Style 19's

[lwrstds]

I am thinking of purchasing a set of style 19's, in alright condition.
I've just wanted to take a refinishing project on for a while, and it's becoming realistic.
I've never refinished any wheels, am I getting in over my head? lol

Just looking for some advice i guess, i will post pictures of the process if the deal actually closes

[zoo]

What condition are the wheels in? Also, we do not know you or what skills you possess. There is no way to answer your question.

[pDubs]

Lol. What is your plan with them. I'm extremely confused by the point of this thread.

1: What exactly is alright condition? Are the bolts rusted and oxidized/nasty?
2: Are you planning on polishing the lips?
3: Are you painting the centers? Having the center powder coated?

If you are taking the centers somewhere to be sandblasted and powder coated you might as well have them do the bolts too.

It's pretty straight forward with these 2 piece wheels. You will take the nuts off the backs of the wheels and tap out the bolts towards the front. If the face is stuck in there good use a block of wood wrapped with a towel or something to knock it out.

If the faces look good and you are leaving them the color they are I'd just clean em up a bit. Same goes with the bolts.

If the lips have curb rash or are oxidized I'd hand polish them.

Follow this procedure.

Thanks everybody. For those wondering here's how I went about polishing the lips.

I used aircraft stripper (in a spray can) and taped off everything that I didn't want stripped/polished. I sprayed the lips evenly with it and it immediately started bubbling (the clear coat). Let it sit for 20 minutes and then hosed it off real well. I did that twice.



I then began wet sanding and used a spray bottle which was really convenient to continuously spray the lips down and a bucket of water to keep the sandpaper in and dunk in. I have a friend who also has a set of LMs for his corvette so we each did our own wheels together. We each did one every Saturday 4 weekends in a row. haha.



pruned hands






The process was 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2,000 all wetsanding. 400, 600, 800 probably each took an hour and then the steps went quicker. After 2,000 is done they look awesome and polished then you hit them with some mother's aluminum polish and put a huge smile on your face. Here's a pic where I hit a section with the mother's polish compared to the 2,000 grit.



You only need to use the aircraft stripper if the lips have clearcoat on them. You can have the lips re cleared after polishing, preferably powder coat cleared because regular clear probably won't hold. Only thing is clearing them will take away a little bit of the shine. I've decided to keep them raw polished like CCWs, Rotiforms, etc come and I'll just go over them with a 2,000 wetsand and mother's polish again probably when I mount the stock wheels for winter every year. As long as you keep up with cleaning them and taking care of them the raw aluminum won't oxidize.

I had a tiny bit or curbage on my lips that sanded out with the 400. You could always step it down to 320 or so just for the curbed parts. I've also heard of people using a file to smooth it out first, then sanding. I've never had to do that.



That was the aerosol paint stripper I used. Got it at Napa but I've seen it at Advance auto or autozone before as well. I know sometimes Home Depot has it as well but I've only ever seen it in the brush on type there.



If you have any questions I can help out. I've done several FULL refinish on wheels. Here's one I did.

http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45050