This is my first wheel or polishing job that I've ever done, couldn't resist snapping a few pics before I taped it up for paint. I'm gonna do some more hand polishing after the tape comes off and might even go back a do a light white rouging and then start with the lighter polishing products. Will sealer/glaze and wax take out those itty bitty swirl marks or does it just seal the aluminum?

 

Close up, you can see a light problem area on the left of the spoke. I'm getting too picky this is gonna take F^$%ing forever!!!

 

Looks great man I can not see a problem area on the left spoke So it must not be that bad.

 

nice verry nice

 

Thanks, theres just a tiny bit of light pitting but not very noticable hey ss where in ne ga are you, I'm up in athens.

 

I am up here in Elbert Co. on the SC border about 40 min away from athens

 

Ahhh I c, theres not too many 3rd gens around here mostly stangs and 4th gens but thats usual...

 

I know what you mean. I actually see alot of 3rd gens just not nice ones.

 

man.. that really looks sweet.. what do you use? it looks like chrome.. I am on my fouth set of wheels, and i can't get a shine like that! check mine out

 

Looks great man. I'm dreading the day I have to tape all mine off for paint.

 

i sanded the ever living shi*t out of em, black and decker mouse (around 200 grit or so?) followed by 320, 320 wet, 400, 400 wet then used emery, tripoli, and white rouge with a buffing wheel, then white rouged by hand, then eagle one never dull wadding polish. Thats the only one im almost done polishing. I'm having to do two at a time since I only have two extra wheels. The other one is ready for the higher grit sanding and then buffing and the polished one is pretty much completely taped up for painting. So my car will look pimpin on one side and stock on the other for awhile lol.

Met - Taping really isnt that bad. Just put it on so it hangs over the edge a little and make sure its down good on the part you dont want painted. Then take a razor and cut at a 15 degree angle to the edge pushing against the edge a little and moving the razor down gentely and then pull up and push down gently. It pretty much shears right off...if that makes any sense? I could probably take a few pics for you if thats confusing...

 

its not as bad as you think. Imagine having to tape off a formula wheel. Now THAT sucks!

 

was i actually supposed to tape of the tire? i never did. Is that aircraft stripper gonna eat through the tire i no longer have? I think not, and plus you dotn haveto paint them once again, i just left them aluminum, looks nice too if youve ever seen my car.

 

I think you did an excelent job. I want pics when you are all done.

 

uhh yea dude...the wheels are aluminum..thats why they call it ..polished aluminum im painting the inserts...

Ill put a pic when on this thread after there painted and probably make another when I get the full set on the car

 

Its not really that bad, just takes a while. I think we had all 4 masked off in under 3 hours.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=194495

 

Yipes mine arent going that quick, but irocs look a little easier to tape. Did you have any overspray and if so what did you do to remove it so it didnt mess the polish up?

 

I just did mine a few weeks ago....after i pulled off my tape (the day after i sprayed em) I had some leakage and some paint got on the polished parts and there was some inperfections in tapeing off the corners....... so i took a rag and wet a little spot on it with acetone and rubed the paint right off the polished part....this worked good for me just becarefull not to put too much acetone on the rag or it will run into the painted areas. It didnt change the look of the polished parts at all but i did give them another good polishing with autosol and buffer wheel on a elec drill (the cordless just wasnt fast enoght).

 

Cool, thanks JC I should start painting tommorow...unless the weather is like it is today, bluachhh nastyness!

 

your welcome grngryoutmyway (you may even see some leaked paint in this pic)

if it wasnt for the centercap there i would of thought you stole pick of my wheels befroe i painted them....looks like the exact tire and i even have the chrome valvestem caps. heres a pic of mine after i painted them few weeks back...they were wetsanded and polished last yr.

 

this is after i removed the leaky paint gave em another polish and put them back on the car....the pics dont do them justice they look just as good as the one grngryoutmyway did but the camera isnt picking up enoght light.

 

Did you wetsand? And how long should I wait inbetween coats (using spray cans)?

 

nah the thing is your camera is pickuping too much light and your getting glare on things that would otherwise not have glare. Check out the camera manufacturer's website and see if there are firmwear updates for your camera to fix that problem. If not then maybe you'll just have to live with it.



shane

 

uhhh no dude its just how you light it everything reflects differently and its sometimes tough to pic up reflections on a digi. I acutally did mine in a dim area with a desklamp a few feet away not shining directly on it. This allowed for limited amount of reflection so the camera could actually pic it up. While as his is out in the sun with tons of uv light everywhere...

 

grngryoutmyway - you asked if i wetsanded...do you mean my paint on the rims or you mean the polishing.
It was a yr ago that i did the wetsanding and all that polishing.
Like i said earlyer i just repainted and repolished them a few weeks ago. I dont think i need to rewetsand again. If you happend to ask about the paint i didnt wetsand the paint...that is 2 coats of black and 2 coats of clear. I waited like 1-2hrs inbetween coats but they were farly light coats....i had a little run or two cause of all the crazy corners and stuff but its nothing you can notice unless your siting on the ground looking at em. Oh good idea maybe get 2 spray cans of paint and 1 of clear(2 if you want more then 2 coats).

kidrcth & grngryoutmyway- my camera is picking up enoght light from the flash (no good for reflections) but the lamp i have comeing from the other angle isnt bright enoght. Also there is no natural sun light on that rim with i think would help out alot. I think if i had better lighting in the garage and the wheels were facing up instead of sideways(on the car) so more above light could be on em theyd look better. Ive also tryed useing the macro seting on the camera but that makes the flash not as bright and then i get really dark pics. If it wasnt so snowy and dark out right now i think maybe i could drive it out of the garage and get a better pic but on well guess not today.

 

what a coincidence.. that is the same tire! 245 50's?
Here's my procedure.
DA sanding with dry 320 (hand sanding the rest)
400 wet, 600 wet, and finish with 1500 wet... smooth as glass
then i attack it with a mini-buffer with compound, and then about 3 coats of mothers.. It shines pretty good, but it's nothing compared to that 91-92 wheel! great job

 

Thanks 85 I went up to 400 wet and then started on compounds (emery, tripoli, white rouge) on the buffing wheel and then WR by hand and then eagle one polish I'm gonna go back over them some more after I paint em. The second didn't turn out quite as good as the first (pictured) but it seems like there some inconsistencies in the quality of aluminum in the wheel...oh well

JC Yea I was refering to wet sanding during painting. I'm thinking I'll do 2primer, 3color, wetsand, 2clear of all light coats. Its going a little overboard..but I've spent so much time on these already that I might as well dive in! Still have to switch em and do 2 more
Oh and about the camera, you might want to try taking some pics with the flash off. When you use the flash it adjusts the light captured. I find in most cases I can actually get better reflection and lighting if I just take pics without the flash...all cameras are different tho...

 

yah no flash tryed it you cant even see the wheel let alone a reflection, funny thing is its a expencive camera too.
I think you should wetsand your 1st coat of clear too. I dont think its overboard at all!!!! I didnt prime cause i was going right over old factory paint. But you may have to strip off any overspray from protectants if you got any on your wheel,,,also may want to strip off the polished parts (with asetone) so your tape sticks better.

 

Wow.. those really look good. I had started on another set I had but, just didn't have the time to follow up so I sold them. Makes me wish I had finished them though.
I just ended up stripping and painting the centers of my current ones black. I'm indifferent to the look, though they look 100% better than the nasty clear, checked look they had, but, I like what you've done.
Maybe one day I'll find the time......

*edit... what are you doing with the center caps if I might ask ?

 

yah what about those centers what are they made from anyhow??

 

The center "lug" piece is plastic with an aluminum rim around it . So I'm just gonna polish the aluminum part. I havent made up my mind if I'm gonna order the camaro decals to put back on the aluminum part of the center cap or not. It would be cool If I could find something different to put on there. I'd attempt to paint something on em...but I know it would turn out like crap.

DB I actually kinda like your wheels. It might look cool if you polished the center caps too. The actual polishing didnt take quite so long, but sanding the casting out took me like 6 hours a wheel...

 

Love the polished 92rims. Now If I could get em in 17's

 

TPI look in summit, there is a company now remaking those wheels and several others (z06 for instance). summit racing carries them now and they all sorts of sizes... i knwo they have 17's...

Steve

 

uhhhh you sure about that one buddy? They make Irocs, Z06, ZR1's etc...but I don't know of any company making 91-92 Z wheels in anything but 16..and I believe that the only way to get those is Chevy NOS? I'll check Summit tho...someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Ive never seen em in 17's or id already have em.

I was just at Summit Racing Sunday and I woul dhave noticed em on the Wall of rims they have.

Im sure they would have em on display because it would have to be a NEW rim made.

 

hmmmm i might be thinking of the iroc wheel then sorry!

 

Heres an idea for replacing the stock center caps, the black background is carbon fiber these are my rims

 

That looks pretty cool man, how did you do that? I really want to get some sort of decal to replace the circular one that sais camaro going around the aluminum part of the center cap. Anyone found anything interesting to do?

 

They are factory GM on some new malibus or montecarlos, something like that