There are a couple if gouges in the Aluminum on a couple of them,and some curb rash/bend on the front pass.side rim.I wanna sandblast them,and tun them into silver(POLISHED ALUMINIM) with black cutout slots.Any opinions if its worth the extensive time to try to save these rims? I cant afford to buy another set,and i OWN these at least.Any ideas in dressing those Gouges/rash? 1st 2 pics passenger side 3&4 are driver side.
THANKS!!!!

 

Driver side

 

if you get them blasted do not use sand. I had some rims sandblasted and it makes the aluminum too rough and pitted. Have them use glass beads, or silica.

 

anything is restorable...it just depends on how much time/effort/money you wanna spend

 

ACTUALLY, blasing is the worst thing, you have to turn them on a lathe to get the correct pattern. Then repaint them...

ANYTHING is restorable, if you want to spend the energy, time and money.

Contact hitman@78ta.com he does 2nd gen restorations and when I was talking to him a few years ago he was eventually get into 3rd gens as well, but they were too cheep right now to do it right. He does wheel restorations for 2nd gens I do not know why he could not do yours.

John

 

Thanks okfoz,I sent hitman an email.I hope they can be done affordably,or else I'm gonna have to keep hunting for a new set.

 

Check out this tech article I wrote awhile back.
http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums...howtopic=12115
Of interest, they are the same wheels as the ones you're working on.

I hope this helps!

Leon

 

Leon, that is EXACTLY what i want my wheels to look like.Since mine are all gold,how should i tackle making the slot inserts black.Do i strip & paint the slots first,then do the faces? Also,what type of black paint ....Autobody?
How about the PONTIAC lettering also...Paint the whole rim Black first and Then start your process?
By the way, you do BEAUTIFUL work!

 

Actually, the inner parts are painted a dark charcoal metallic, and yes it is a autobody paint and clearcoat.
If I were to do your wheels, I would start be using a strong liquid paint stripper, then after all the paint was gone, I'd sand the wheels smooth, polish them, and then mask of the polished areas, and spray the color on the inner parts of the spokes.
I used a brush and painted in the PONTIAC letters on the one spoke, and it turned out fine for me.
And thank you for the compliments, its always nice to see that other appreciate the hard work I put into my cars.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask for anymore advice..

Leon

 

Any body shop should be able to send those out to get restored. I offer it through my father's body shop, but generally because of shipping costs, it's cheaper for people to do it through their local body shop. Expect to pay about $200-225 per wheel, but what you get back will be a like new wheel front and back.

 

From the factory you can see how they originally painted the wheels

1) cast the rim
2) paint the charcoal color
3) Machine off the face to silver
4) clear coat.

Its not necessarily the easiest way for the shadetree mechanic, but it might give some ideas.

John

Leon,
Those wheels are Absoluetly gorgeous... The only thing personally I would try to do would resore the original machined look on the wheel.

What I have considered is to take an Industrial sewing machine motor, hook it up to a foot pedal control, and then to a (non posi) axel I have sitting in the back. Then I would anchor the other end so that only one wheel would spin. Hook the motor up to the axel (where the driveshaft would mount) Then make a tri-pod so that I could sit on a chair or stand up and have a regular tool for refinishing wheels.

John

 

My father in-law has a full "old school" arsenal of machine shop/lathe equipment.He fabricates some pretty intense stuff.Im going to ask him to help me out with restoring these rims. Any idea what the EXACT paint code is for the charcoal grey paint guys?