re Bay Area listers - question - speedline repair

["Smith, Kirby A" <kirby.a.smith@lmco.com>]

 "Gaidos, A." <agaidos@got.net> asked

I am wondering if any of you have any experience getting rims refinished. I
am buying a set of speedlines for my 90q20v and they are in need of some
cosmetic work. I am hoping to find a place that has resonable rates to
refinish. Otherwise in the end I'll pay just as much to buy a reconditioned
set. Any recommendations of suggestions?
 To save money maybe I'll have them powder coated black ... that sounds
evil.
>>>>>>>>>
Anton:

The big problem with speedlines is the use of plastic fake bolt heads.  This
limits chemical stripping unless you have a source of replacements (I
didn't).  I just peeled off the bad clearcoat, glass bead blasted the
exposed areas (in my yard), chromated the exposed aluminum, and spray
painted them zermatt silver all over. (I think I also clearcoated them,
although the zermatt silver was a original complete coat.) They look fine
from a distance, but show the few mils step transitions where the old
clearcoat wasn't stripped.  If your car is really worth perfection, you
might want to find wheels with no cosmetic problems.  Note that the
corrrosion under the clearcoat messes up the aluminum polish, so they have
to be repolished to look original.  This is nearly impossible unless the
plastic bolt heads are removed.

YMMV

Kirby A. Smith   New Hampshire USA
1988 90q Titanium gray, 182 kmi
1988 90q Stone gray, 187 kmi 
1995 S6 Pearl effect, 82 kmi