[urq] Wheel restoration

[Ben Swann]

A wheel specialist will remove the tires, bead blast them and turn the lip
on a giant wheel lathe.  Some have rolling pressure machines that can
uniformly strighten out bent wheels fairly quickly - expensive equipment
though.

I have tried to do some hand refinishing.  It is laborious and without the
right equipment, you will not get a good paint finish which following the
above machining and surface prep, is followed by paint and clearcoat,
possibly powder coating and/or oven baking.

Someone else fill in and add details here, because I'm no specialist, only
have observed some of this being done in a local wheel shop.  I think a
reputable shop with the correct equipment can do a fine job for around $100
a wheel, but have seen some charging well over $200 a wheel - yikes!

You might do all right hand refinishing with the simple design of the Fuchs,
but forget doing the BBS Basket weave!  You may be able to get some curb
rash out using a rotary sanding disk but use care, as it is very easy to go
overboard and do more harm than good.

Ben

[Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 13:11:50 -0600
From: Thatcher Hubbard <thatcher.hubbard at gmail.com>
Subject: [urq] Wheel restoration
To: Urq List <urq at audifans.com>
Message-ID: <7cd43ae2050602121141edd117 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

You'll all have to forgive my ignorance, but can someone give me some
basics on what it takes to make wheels look nice again?  A guy on
Audifans is selling some Fuchs that have some curb rash, a few
scratches on the faces but look good otherwise.  Is curb rash
repairable?  How do you repair an aluminum rim?

I ask because I'm tired of rolling around with these terrible 16" 5
spokes I've got on my car and I much prefer the look of the Urq with
the Fuchs on it.]