this is what got me thinkin. can you polish a GTA wheel? itd be a PITA for sure, but is it possible? it almost looks polished in this picture, but it might be silver. i just think it would look BA. this wheel is for sale on ebay, and no it is not mine. it also doesnt have much info on it at all. oh, and like i said, the auction is for ONE wheel. but what do you guys think? would it be good lookin? someone wanna photochop?

Gon8go has polished GTA rims like those. They look good of you ask me. Here's a pic. It's not the best view of the rims, but you can prolbably get an idea of how it looks. Maybe you can ask him to post other pics.

I think he means everything polished like including the laces in the center.

That wheel was probably chemically stripped of the paint in the center part. I bought a used set of red ones for my 84 TA, then stripped the red off, polished the rims, sprayed the centers dark charcoal, then cleared the whole wheel. They came out great, but I must have spent close to 30 hours in the process.......

Oh sorry, I guess I didn't understand what you meant

I'll tell ya, if you strip the worn clearcoat paint off of them, they're already pretty damn shiny underneath that **** (was the case with mine)... I took an extra step to wetsand them and hit 'em with some aluminum polish with the Powerball Mini... Worked great...

well, i was leaning more towards polishing the whole thing. that seems like it would be impossible to do. ive been thinkin about sanding the lip and polishing that, but what about chroming the whole thing?

Gta wheels are the bigest pain in the but to paint, it took literraly 3 hours clean one wheel, BEFORE stipping the clear off, wich I didnt do a good job of and am looking for suggestions of products that I could just put on and then spray off then taping and eventually getting paint in every crevice it was a night mare!! but they look sick and complement my car great

GOOD LUCK!!

hey, why does your car have red GTA badges? did you put those on or did it come that way from the prior owner. looks kinda neat.

i mean make the whole thing shine. not just strip paint the center, polish the lip. i mean, make it all a mirror.

I got it with the maroon GTA badges on there... They came from (big surprise) a maroon GTA originally.. I'm in the process of bodywork/repaint now though, so those emblems are off... I'm going to get a set of the proper white ones eventually..

I think that chrome GTA wheels would look BA! They would kinda end up looking like the chrome EVO wheels from a 4th gen! Wonder how much it would cost to have them dipped in chrome.

i dont know but i think when it comes time to do wheels again, i may just chrome my gta's

I just got done redoing 2 of my wheels.I found brake fluid to work very well.Especially if left to sit overnight.Clear peeled right off.I lightly sanded mine then cleaned them.To clear coat them i mounted them back on my Rr diff,jack the rear so wheels were about 2in off ground,started the engine,put the trans in nuetral(wheels will turn).Then sprayed from the edge to center in a straight line.BTW i think these wheels would look better with some color in the center.That area is too textured(not machined) for the chrome to look nice enough.

Oh yeah,the pic!

What grit?

Wet sand?

If your asking me.I started with 400 grit.Then 1000 afterwards, but i only wet sanded them for a couple of minutes with each grit.

put the trans in nuetral(wheels will turn).Then sprayed from the edge to center in a straight line.BTW i think these wheels would look better with some color in the center.That area is too textured(not machined) for the chrome to look nice enough.[/quote]
I never would of ever though of that great idea, but doesnt it spin too fast to get a good coat of paint on it

The wheels do spin fairly quick.What i did if a wanted to get better coverage was to just slightly apply the parking brake, but just barely.A click or two at a time on the handle was enough to slow down the wheels.

Mine were silver, with the lips polished. I wound up going back to the gold laces. The silver didn't "pop" like the gold does. But this may be a good photoshop starting point if someone wants to use it.

Kevin

i still need to polish my GTA's. they look sick when done. im going to keep them gold however. did you guys take them off to do it?

Affermative, Its alot easier in the shade

yeah, i think itd be easier to manuver around them too.

i got some camaro wagon wheels and want them shiney like the ones above, how do i do it, i have paint stripper, would that be fine, or no. and then i heard about wet sanding with wd40, or with water, and then power ball it, its very common, would that work with the wd 40, is there any way to mess them up.... i dont want to take a chance with theese wheels. i tried to do some aluminum intreped es wheels, and failed, and it sucked.... any help.....
sorry if im on the wrong post, i searched and got 2 resaults

Mine aren't polished just paintes silver w/ clearcoat. I've been wondering about having my rims totally polished too though. one things is certain, they would be hell to keep clean.

Here's mine - polished lip, painted centre...

wow those look sick any more pics especially back farther so I can see what the car looks like with them

Yeah they're a great looking wheel especially if you just put in a bit of time to get them to look the way you want.

Bit of a bastard to keep clean tho

how do you guys suggest to polish some camaro "wagon wheels" or as i call the anniversary camaro wheels, just cuz they are common on 92's, but what do you guys suggest, i want them looking like the above wheels

Have look around on this site - there are plenty of articles on polishing wheels like this one:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/au...-z28-rims.html (Painting Z28 rims?)

No real secret, just use a good paint stripper to remove the original coatings then start polishing. I like the look of highly polished alloy against painted areas. I use clear coat over the painted area but leave the polished alloy bare.

To preserve a good polish, a good clear coat (not spray can s__t) is required, or at least a lot of maintenance.

Here is the difference between stripping the clear and actually polishing the lip...

Yeah if you don't want to spend a bit of time to keep them looking good you should clearcoat them. I just use regular car polish on the rim and they stay nice.

Love the photo - shows how nicely these things polish up

i dont like to clean my wheels alot, a polish now and then would be no big deal, but mud and dust get on them often, but they get washed about once a week and polished about once 3 weeks, is that enough to keep them in good shape, or would they fade or something.....

There are plenty of posts here on thirdgen about how to do it. Just so you know, it's a LOT of work and will take way more time than you would expect. If you want them done but don't have the time we offer wheel polishing and we're in the Chicago suburbs so we're not far from you. We can put the same "mirror finish" on your wheels like the pictures shown.

How much roughly would it cost to polish and paint a set of GTA rims? Do you need to have the tires taken off?

this is a great thread, Keep it up
reason is. I am doing something close this weekend.

Basicly redoing my rims with a bit of a twist but they need to be done. Some spots of the clear are gone and I hate the way it has made them look.

What would be a good stripper?

You're looking at about $75 per wheel to polish and paint GTA wheels. Yes, the tires need to be taken off to get the best results.

You cant just 'dip things in chrome' EVER.

First off they need to be chemically clean, THEN they need to have a layer of copper (price copper and see where this is going to go) Then theres a nickel coat and LAST is the chrome.

Heres the problem, the chemicals to chrome plate ANYTHING...even plastics are EXTREMELY expensive (I worked at a chrome shop) due to their disposal fees. In fact, a lot of places are getting rid of the copper cyanide baths, which means no more chrome plated steel.

Also, to chrome plate ANYTHING it needs to be buffed perfectly...PERFECTLY smooth or it looks HORRID.

plate with copper, buff, plate with copper, buff. Plate with copper, buff...then nickel and chrome.

Either way...if you want a shiny finish on ANYTHING...it needs to be smooth. dull finishes result from light reflecting off of the irregularities in the surface and being diffused...hence it looks dull. shiny surfaces are smoother. Science...

i started my wheels, after stripping, one came out perfect, but the other ones have too many problems, its just not working, it seems that the clear coat isnt the only thing peeling, it looks that the polished part of the wheel has peeled in certain areas, and some other places like on the face they seemed to have bubbled, where do i go from here

What stripper are you using? May need to apply it a few times to get the factory coating off.

in my personal oppinion, the best stripper you can buy today, i bought a gallon of some good stuff, recromended by the worker saying its the best yet most expensive, and i stripped my 86 sport coupe with 1 coat, FACTORY PAINT, it wouldnt come off at all for any other stirpper. i tried multiple coats, but yet still, dosent change anything at all

I thought about doing the spokes on mine. Polishing the wheels is time consumming it took me 2.5 days to strip, clean, polish, paint my wheels. And with no clear coat you have to wipe/wash the brake dust off rugullary or you will be doing it again. The dust will etch into the unprotected aluminum.

I am about to do a set of formula wheels as well as re do my lace wheels in the below picture. I am going to use the formula wheels for when it is stored and when I am working on it so I can keep the lace wheels cleaner.

Don't forget to pull the valve steam also before you start polishing it. It gets in the way and the stripper will deterate the rubber anyways.

My 2 cents....

After you spend all that time polishing your wheels don't let some tire jockey pound weights on them. Have them match mounted and make sure they use stick on weights on the inside of the wheel only. Pound on weights aid in corrosion of your wheels.

Definitly don't use lip weights, weights on the inside of the rim is the only way to go, I've never had a problem with balancing my wheels with stick on weights on the inside. And who would want ugly weights on the lips especially after spending hours on each wheel?