Finally I finished polishing my 16" Turbo wheels for my Formula. It took sometime considering I had to strip the clearcoat, sanded out the pits and machined lines (220 thru 1500 grit in stages) and polished. I still need to clean the rough inner sections and paint those silver. I purchased the Center caps new on Ebay for $60 and i thought those would look better then the stock WS6 caps. I can't wait to finally get them completed and back on the car.

i wonder how well they will maintain a shine between polishings? i remember my ol centerline auto drags would be terrible and my current centerline champ
500's stay amazingly nice.

Thats something I wondered about too. I was thinking about cleaning them then clearcoating. But I know clearcoat needs to adhere to a surface to stick similar to base coat/clear coat paint systems which i've uses before. But i have never clearcoated a polished rim before. I'm afraid it will flake off in a bad way. At least the original clearcoat could "stick" to the machined lines on the wheels.

A friend that has a body shop suggested looking in to having them powercoated in clear. Has anyone heard about doing or has tried this before?

If not i'll just keep them polished and store them in thw winter months.

i had my champ 500's powder coated and going into this the guy said it might not come out right and he was very up front and honest. sure enough he was right. kinda like the blue waters on white sand beaches, my wheels were a blue tint kinda like the 30th T/A wheels but not quite as blue.

needless to say, when i got home i broke out hte aircraft stripper and went at it. i think the reason i was able to strip them so easily was because the wheels were done that day.

i'll polish mine maybe every 8 months or so but its been atlest a year or a bit more since i'v polished them and they still look pretty good.

i have 2 sets (maybe 3 i think) of FORMULA wheels and i'v been back and forth on polishing a set and painting a set black. the orig set is soon to be sent out for a full factory refinish.

this is my centerline champ 500 16x8's.

Different shops use different powder coat. Depending on the powder it can come out with different hues. Certain places ive seen to a real nice clear powder coat on aluminum intake manifolds, heads, and valve covers at a shop by me and the only horror stories I have heard were that the powder coat starts to yellow after a year or so if its not kept perfectly clean. Oil and gas tends to yellow the clear I'm am assuming.

i can agree on that, the shop i went to didnt do that sort of thing norm and i think thats why i had the results i did. being my wheels stay clean easy, i dont mind the annual or simi annual polishing.

still wonder how the polished FORMULAs are gonna hold up without clear.

i would think it would depend on how much use they see. The rims on my truck last maybe a month where the ones on the motorcycle and the boat trailer get done once a year.

I keep mine up with that Mothers Power Ball thing and it seem to work real good.

nice!

I won't be driving this car with the rims in the winter months. The salt and ciders is brutal on paint and rims here in WV. I will use the Mother's Powerball to help maintain the shine and I think I try a coating of good paste wax in between polishings.

I have an extra set that I'm going to polish and paint the inner sections red to match the car. Then try a good Clearcoat(probably like i used on the car) and see how it works out.

Wheels look good, i just think it looks odd with the chrome center caps.

My Irocs are polished without clearcoat. Best polish I've found, hands down is Mother's Billet polish, and I put it on with a diaper cloth. Powerball just doesn't do it well enough IMHO. I don't drive much in the winter either, but I still polish once in the spring and once in the summer. I also use a good coat of wax after each polishing.

....I've had the wheels polished for about 7 years, and a few times I've gone back with the white rouge and small bonnet on an air grinder. This is even better than the Mother's billet, but it's a lot more involved.

I stripped and polished my formy wheels and have not clear coated them. Like Abubaca i use Mothers twice, three times a year and then a coat of polish. They look great and have never had a oxidation or corrosion problem.

Mine were stripped and powder coated. Looking to put clear on top. unsure if thats OK to do.
Yes, they are formula Turbos. and they were colse to perfect when I got them for 200 for the entire set.

oh..sorry..here they are