Zelfiris

Hello, I have recently picked up an used set of volks from a good friend of mine and the condition they are in is not the best. A local shop quoted me $180 per rim to refinish so I figure why not try it myself. Last year I did something similar on a set of Forgestars and it was not too bad of an experience.
I love doing paint polishing but with the weather outside is not getting warmer any time soon, I decided to get a head start so the rims would be ready for summer and I would have one less thing to worry about.

Below are the steps by steps I had taken for my process. I’m also trying to learn to take better photos so I’m really practicing two hobbies at the same time. Anyways, on with the photos!

Day 1

The current conditions of the wheels:

Face











Evaluation: Cake brake dust, dirt and grime, curb rashes. The lip looks to be in very poor condition. Three of the four lips need to be sanded down. The brake dust barely came off when I wiped it with my finger. The gunmetal spokes look to be in good condition at least.

Barrel




Evaluation: The barrels look like it’s been many years since it was washed. The stickers were also peeling a little.

The Wash

Well, I couldn't bust out the frozen hose and bring the wheels onto my driveway and do a good wash. So I snuck the wheels into the tub in my basement (very quietly of course). I did the same thing last year with my Forgestars




And of course, things could have been easier if I had a detachable shower head..


The brushes I used. Two for the lip/face and two for the barrel


Other products:
- Optimum No Rinse in a pressurized sprayer
- Chemical Guy's Diablo Gel
- Optimum Power Clean


During

Zelfiris

All Dry




As you can see, after a good wash the barrels were still very dirty. It had a lot of tar and grime that did not came off. At this point I decided to hold off polishing the barrels until summer came. I need to hit it with Iron remover and tar remover (CarPro Tar-X) but I ran out of this product. In any case, the smell from Tar-X is very strong so I wouldn't use it indoor.

Further Inspection: Water spots, swirls, curb rashes, and chips on the lip can be seen now that the caked layer is removed





Next I proceeded to clay bar. The wash did not remove some contaminates stuck on.

Zelfiris

Wetsanding
This part I knew I hate most. Wetsanding. I spend a lot of time sanding to level the curb rashes. The goal was not to completely eliminate the rashes but sand down smooth enough so I can run my polisher without destroying my pads.

I used 320 grit, 600 grit, 1500 grit and 2000 grit. Other combinations are doable but this was what I had on hand. The 320 grit and 600 grit were purchased from Home depot, and other two from Canadian Tire.




Smoothing it down




Much better





Another rash



Time spend on Day 1: 6.5 hours

Zelfiris

Day 2
Got sick of wetsanding from day 1 so I decided to try something else. I remember the stickers were peeling so I tried Krazy glue.






Nope, didn't work. At all. Wouldn't stick lol. So I went back to wetsanding.




All the lips were finally leveled and smoothed out. (FYI - My thumb is still numb)

Next was to remove all the dirt and oil
- IPA 50/50 solution
- Optimum No Rinse Wipe down



Lip inspection with LED light - You can see the condition the lip is in. Fine and medium scratches everywhere. The water spots were still on the lip after the wash.


Can see the lip has slight discolour from sanding



Centre Cap was faded too


Polishing

I opt'ed to use a Cyan foam pad + Optimum Hypercompound



My handy polisher


After 3-4 passes



Other side not yet polished


Lip polished (not the disk)


My pads after the first rim


Time spend on Day 2: 4 hours

This is where I gave up. Yeah. Gave up. My two pads turn completely black from removing all the contaminates and it was not coming off after scrubbing them 4-5 times with all purpose cleaner. I left them soaking for the night because of it. If I want to work on the three other rims, I have to repeat the same process.

Some lesson learned for me:
- For rims in this bad condition, I should have chemically stripped the contaminates first. Use iron remover, tar remover and a stronger brake dust cleaner
- My forgestars were a breeze because I washed them frequently and I underestimated these volks
- Continue outdoor as the polish smell is quite strong. I knew that but still tried anyways
- Be patient and wait for summer to come

I will continue this thread when summer is here and work outdoor. I'm putting my wheels away tonight.

I hope everyone enjoyed my crazy urge to work on my car (well, just the wheels)

Zel

IneednSC

Yea man i totally understand your pov, i have volk gt7s and they where horrible! I took all of them off, removed the center, applied airplane stripper, wet sanded for hours!, finally polished them up...if i had to do it again i would try and steam them.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

great work... Nothing like washing rims in the bathtub lol..

Zelfiris

Totally agree. I enjoy doing all the work on my car when I can. It would've been a lot less hassle if I went to a shop but its a good way to kill time

Yup LOL

I stopped for a minute to think if anyone was going to find out since I don't have any sinks bigger enough for 19 inch rims lol.. had to be the tub

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

I love these little projects, you got a perfect one there due to the fact your lips are not chrome, you can bring those back to brand new condition

by the way what area of Toronto are u in ?

also is that the griots 3 inch polisher? Im about to order the 6 inch, is the 3 inch strong enough to do a full buff and polish on a car?

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

These projects are always fun to watch after going through them. I helped my buddy do the same on his as well. The only difference was that we stripped off the clear coat on the wheels and polished the aluminum straight. Its crazy how bad a shiny surface can become with neglect huh?

Zelfiris

Thanks for viewing. The weather here is spiking back and forth and I haven't found a nice day to do all of the work outdoor yet.. hence the bathtub lol

I take the approach the clearcoat is still pretty decent so I can use paint compound/polish on it and later reseal the sections I had sanded down with a product called opti-coat

Part 2 will continue when its positive double digits outside

Zel

monkey92

iTrader: (3)

i did this to my wheels last month with the exact same blue pad haha. i threw away the pad tho because i would not use it on anything else again because it would have left very nasty black residue.

KamiSpeed

iTrader: (1)

Nice write up! The lips came out great