Alloy Wheel Rehab

[DrewQ45]

Got new wheels on the Q but was thinking about rehabbing the old konigs as seen below in my Sig. One wheel had a crack on the inside edge and was losing air so I had it professionally repaired. ($$$ )

There is a fair amount of curb rash on the outside edges and I was thinking of using an orbital sander to smooth em down then super-fine grit, then polish. Only issue is, once I sand it, I'll be doing away with the clear coat on the sanded area. I'm wondering if I should shoot it with some polyurethane on the edges? That should prevent dirt infiltration and stripping I'm thinking?

Aside from the extreme edge, the wheels look pretty good so I'm not looking to make this too much of a major project. I'll probably put em up for sale when I'm done.



...Drew...
Modified by DrewQ45 at 11:17 AM 4/8/2006

[elwesso]

personally what I would do is bust the dremel out to smooth the rash out and then sand it with some fine grit..

[DrewQ45]

personally what I would do is bust the dremel out to smooth the rash out and then sand it with some fine grit..

Don't have a dremmy but got sharpening stone which fits into a drill. I'll try the orbital first since the edge has a flat surface. My main concern is breaching the clear coat.
Modified by DrewQ45 at 11:30 AM 4/8/2006

[elwesso]

My main concern is breaching the clear coat.

I think you're gonna end up doing this regardless of what you use.

[maxnix]

My main concern is breaching the clear coat.

I think the curb rash means you have already done this.

[DrewQ45]

I think you're gonna end up doing this regardless of what you use.

I got that part brotha... my question is, the best way to seal it after I sand it down.... Lacquer, poly? Take a look at the pic in the original post... you can barely see it but there is a flat edge on the lip. That's the part I'll be sanding. I think Jeff did this before but he stripped the entire section and left it bare. I'm not looking to spend a day on em.

[Jeff Williams]

DO NOT USE A DREMEL OR DRILL!

The aluminum is so soft, within a few minutes, just by hand sanding, you will get the nicks and scratches out. Us a sanding pad, follow the grain of the original machining, and then touch up with some clear and a brush.

If you sand a large area, you might as well cut all the clear off, and re-clear the lips.

Be sure to tape off the spokes, and anywhere you don't want to scratch the wheel.

I re-cleared my wheels when I first bought them, but the clear coat paint I bought at Advance Auto started yellowing after a few years. The paint was soft, and nicked easily.

The best thing is to jsut sand the heck out of them, then polish them Like I did, then wax them instead of clearing them. The shine is almost as good as chrome.

[one ton garage]

To be honest, if your intent is to sell them afterwards, you'd be better off saving yourself the headache and trouble and time in refinishing them. Cost on those wheels was like 35 bucks a pop, and retail was like barely 100some. Being used and an older model, I don't think you'd be able to get much for them... probably nowhere near enough to even cover for your time in doing anything to them.

[DrewQ45]

Are you trolling me?

Where did you get your cost info from, just guessing? Konigs aren’t as cheap as you think… do a little surfing. When new these eighteens were selling for near $300 each. http://www.tires-n-parts.com/w....html.

These are very decent aluminum alloys and relatively lightweight (19.8 lbs) given that they are cast wheels. I won’t be looking to make a killing on them and don’t mind keeping them if it comes to that. Aside from the chapped lips, they are in good shape.

...Drew...

[Fenvy]

you're better off finding a single toxxin on ebay or other used market

it's not like konigs are quality wheels... it may be 300$ per wheel at retail price but hey, it's used and you proabby; won't get over 500$ for a full set w/o tires, being knock off brand, used, damaged and all

from personal experience, cracked/gouged and other major damage are not worth the repair unless they're high end wheels

[defrag010]

toxxins are sweet wheels, my old roomate had a set of white 17" toxxins on his civic and they looked nice.

He curbed one real bad and broke it after they were discontinued, and he bought the ADR clone version of the toxxin and used his konig centercap ring on the ADR wheel, and you couldn't tell a difference if you tried!

I think it would look pretty sick to have the whole wheel stripped and polished.

[DrewQ45]

you're better off finding a single toxxin on ebay or other used market

it's not like konigs are quality wheels... it may be 300$ per wheel at retail price but hey, it's used and you proabby; won't get over 500$ for a full set w/o tires, being knock off brand, used, damaged and all

from personal experience, cracked/gouged and other major damage are not worth the repair unless they're high end wheels

Huh? The repair was already done. Found an aluminum repair expert less than a mile away. All four wheels are good now.... Of course they are used and I'd be selling them as such.

Intially I felt that it wasn't worth it too but I got a pretty good price on the repair. Had I known I might have kept them and not bought new wheels but I'm happy with what I have now. BTW, Toxxins are no longer made and almost impossible to find even on Ebay. At one point I was trying to find a spare so I ran an automatic search on ebay for nearly 7 months and only came up with a raggedy set of 17s.

Drew

[Fenvy]

Huh? The repair was already done. Found an aluminum repair expert less than a mile away. All four wheels are good now.... Of course they are used and I'd be selling them as such.

Intially I felt that it wasn't worth it too but I got a pretty good price on the repair. Had I known I might have kept them and not bought new wheels but I'm happy with what I have now. BTW, Toxxins are no longer made and almost impossible to find even on Ebay. At one point I was trying to find a spare so I ran an automatic search on ebay for nearly 7 months and only came up with a raggedy set of 17s.

Drew

like I said, that style is so common so it's hardles considered as collection, let alone hold its value

I had cracked wheels before, after getting them repaired, the crack reppeared eventually... I also bought a set of meshes with one wheel hirt hard on the curb. It eventually became warped. Hope you don't go through the same thing eventually

[one ton garage]

Nah, no trolling... just telling you the cost cost on those lower-quality wheels (and why you might want to reconsider putting forth any unnecessary time and effort into something that will net you little return)... they are amazingly-cheap to manufacture. A friend used to be a buyer for a major auto chain and they bought those sorta wheels for like 30-50 bucks a pop (depending on size and finish)...

[Jeff Williams]

You guys have put more time in this thread, than it would take to polish one wheel.

I bought a stripper wheel from Advance Auto (actually, I ended up getting 2) for about $7. It did a great job of stripping of the original clear coat, and didn't leave deep scratches. I went with 240 grit next, because I didn't have any 120 laying around. In about 45 minutes, I was polishing with 2000 grit paper.

I say put them on Ebay, and make sure you include Lexus in the bid, so you get more people to look at it.

[DrewQ45]

I say put them on Ebay, and make sure you include Lexus in the bid, so you get more people to look at it.

Haha Jeff! Now you're talking! I really don't expect much for these and it's not a big prio right now. I'll probably get to polishing them over the weekend.

...Drew....