# How to refurb polished wheel rims?



## P200MSD (Jan 5, 2009)

My alloy wheels have polished lips to them, but as they are polished the lacquer has little to adhere to, also due to the salt over winter, the lacquer has peeled in places and corroded.

They are BBS LM replicas and the finish was never A1, but now they look terrible!

Can I use a polishing wheel on a rotary with jewellers rouge, and what can I use to remove the existing lacquer? Would wet 'n' dry do the job then polish them back up?

It really lets my car down now so in dire need of advice/ideas! Thanks!!!


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

some people on another forum (don't know if I'm allowed to say the name) use strong paint stripper to remove paint, then use a sanding flap on a drill and start sand moving up on the grades of sand paper until its at a stage where they can polish them with some metal polish. if you pm i can give you the name of the site.


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## fulcrumer (Feb 25, 2012)

Have them refurbed professionally and repainted.

If you want to retain the mirror polish they can be reskimmed but most will not guarantee the work for more than a few months.

Lepsons are good but a long way from you.


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## P200MSD (Jan 5, 2009)

I really wanted to have a go myself this weekend though. I know of several companies that could refurb them but even they can't guarantee them due to stones, salt and the possibility of poor washing/care.


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## putzie (Mar 19, 2012)

i did a set on my brabus which i did myself and paid for a set to be done , the ones i did myself are now looking a little tired but only need polishing again after the last 3 winters , the ones i paid for have only been on over the summer months (march to november ) and still look like new !


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## CopperBottom (Nov 17, 2007)

I had the same problem with SSR split rims and I have recently refurbed the polished lip myself.

The lips were fairly pitted through poor maintainence on my part ( i didnt reseal them regularly enough during the winter months)

I split the wheels so i could repolish the split rim bolts later.

I used nitromors to remove the laquer off the lips (be VERY carefull when applying) Once i had scraped it all off and washed the lips, I started with 600 grit wet and dry to remove the pitting, and then went up the grades up to 1500.

I bought my self a could of Zenith cutting wheels and a couple of fine finishing wheels. I the started with a brown bar (Grey didnt seem to have any more real cut than the brown) and then onto Blue.

To give a better quality finish i used the Pink bar with the finishing wheel. There were still a few fine scratches in the surface, so i hand balled the final finish with Britemax.

Ended up like this


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## P200MSD (Jan 5, 2009)

^ that finish looks amazing! I had a quick go today, using 600 / 1000 / 1500 / 3000 / 12000 grit (the last 2 being micro-mesh) and finished off with autosol, the result is greatly improved but have borrowed a polishing wheel so tomorrow i shall attack it properly and finish it with AG metal polish and seal it with CG wheel seal.

Proably not quite as good as a pro, but sometimes doing things yourself gives you the satisfaction that getting someone else to do it just can't cut.


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## CopperBottom (Nov 17, 2007)

Cheers


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