Has anyone refinished their own stock wheels? If so, how did they come out? Happy with them?

 

I thought long and hard about refinishing my wheels but in the end had a professional do the job. I also considered taking them somewhere to be media blasted and then paint them myself but decided against that too. The cost was $109 Canadian/wheel. They look brand new.

 

I actually removed all the paint, and converted the surface to chrome-style mirror shine silver color using angle grinder and couple of menzerna bars (like the ones they use for trucks rim finishing). can’t be more happy with results. It’s been more than a year, the finish is practically permanent with a precondition that i apply a thin layer of protective paste by hand once a month to remove oxidation (it’s extremely hot and humid here).

Also I do not have to worry about painting / repainting because all what I gotta do is slightly apply angle grinder buffer wheel on medium speed with material to fix any potential defect with perfect blending with remaining surface.

 

ls430w140 - Would love to see pictures of that.

mjfn- that's much cheaper than I expected. Was that sanded and painted or did you have them powdercoated?

 

I removed the paint off of some rims that we on my Acura. Took me hours and then I had to buy cardboard so that when I sprayed the rims it wouldn't get everywhere. And you have to buy the paint. With all the hours that I put in and not being a professional I would highly recommend having a professional shop do it. They have the correct tools and it will look great. My local shop charges $100 a rim I believe. Well worth the $400. I've taken two sets of rims there since.

 

When you're refinishing wheels you dont have to strip them to the metal, just scuff the existing paint and respray over - spend an hour on YouTube and you'll quickly be up to speed.
The whole process should take less than a day and cost will under $100.
Having said that like everyone else mentioned getting them done professionally is not that expensive, but factor in you usually have to get your tires taken off and then remounted after which can add another $100 to the cost

 

They were powdercoated.

 

I sanded and refinished one of my wheels That I had scraped up on a curb while parking. It took 4-5 hours with sanding, washing, then several layers of primer and paint with drying time in between coats. It was not fun but somewhat interesting because I wanted to see if I could do it myself and get decent results. I don't think I'd do it again given it was pretty dirty nasty work, paint fumes, etc., especially if I had someplace local to do the same work for apprx $100.