These things are looking a little tired. Has anyone here refurbished or otherwise cleaned these things up? I've pulled the center caps and lug nut caps, cleaned 'em up and painted 'em black, which improved the overall look of the wheels quite a bit. But......what's the best way to clean up the wheels themselves? I'm thinking about painting them silver, but I've been thinking about that for so long that I'm starting to think it isn't the best idea...or I'd have done it by now!!

Any before/after pix out there, or at least good descriptions of what you've done to make them look better? For what it's worth the car is a '92 Dark Green Grey Metallic RS.

Save the "buy new wheels" comments - it's not an option as this is basically my foul weather/semi beater car. I want it to run perfect (which it does) and look decent (which it does) but I've got three other cars that are higher priority.

 

Why don't you polish them, get some airplane paint remover strip the clearcoat and old paint off and use a dremmel too; or air power die grinder w/ polishing head and polishing compound about 3-4 hours per wheel and wah-la polished wheels.

 

I polished mine. LIke he said take your time, polisth the lip and spoke pattern. Use a flat power palm sander to do it. I went 100 grit on up because I didnt not strip the clearcoat, i sanded it off.

They look so much better. See the pic. I even took some black vinyl and covered the old ugly center caps and made red bowties for each one. The pic doesnt give the polishing justice here. These things do really shine. I also polished a set of 92 16" wheels and one spoke IROCs both of which look much better and give more reward for the hard work.

Theses are forsale by-the-way with the 235 tires on them....

 

Tommy, did you strip and paint then sand? I suppose with a small palm sander and varying grits of paper I could make pretty short work of them.

 

Like this

 

those look great, amazing how a little tlc goes a long way.

 

man im loving the center caps. i need those to complete my rims