Meguiar's Malaysia Car Care Forum

[Tim_Feicai]

Hi guys.

I'm in need of local advises from forum members. Well, my waja is set up on Work Euroline rims. I love these rims and dont want to sell it off and buy another set for a quick fix.

Now the problem is that when I got them, they were in an ok ok condition. There were scratches , nicks, rust & etc. I have clayed (blue) them and polished using #83 and waxed with a sealant (M21).This has only been done to the outside of the rims. Havent have the time to really take off all the wheels and clean it thoroughly. Maybe this saturday...

Its been buggin me for years and now I decided to give it a makeover, with a economic budget in mind la.

Back to the problem.

The wheels are suffering from clear coat failure. Its peeling off and some dirt has been trapped under the coat. Layman's term - "rim kau berkurap. "

Well, I've inspected the rims and found that the face of the rim is machined finished topped with clear. Material beneath the clear is aluminum (not sure about the whole build of the rim la) plus lips are also clearcoated.

Here the pics :








From the picture, you can see the exposed material beneath the clear. I've tried experimenting with wet sanding on it and gave a rub with Mag & Aluminum Metal Polish. Seems to give a relatively shinier finish. (only spot test not whole wheel)







So the big question now ------ How do I improve the appreance?

I was planning to
a) wet sand the face, then polish using metal polish (Megs/DP/wolfgang 4 step) and clear it.

b) send to engineering shop. use lathe to remachine the face. Problem is, in order to do so, I need to seperate all the 3 pieces of the wheels. And looking from the bolt pattern, I dont even know what pattern they are.
If you were to be at my side of the state, its very hard to find quality shops that does this area of work.

All suggestions/advises are welcomed.

Reward = kopi tenom


Cheers,

Tim

[dwRK]

its corrosion...

do not machine it...done badly will make it crack!!!

if you DIY...

1. paint remover/stripper...will take the clear coat off...

2. use copper wire brush to remove the whitish stuff...

3. if u want mirror finish...polish with metal polish...(buff with cotton wheel/compound if u wanna try high mirror finish)...

4. i prefer "sandpaper" finish....lost for word...will paste pic later...this one easier to do...

5. clean it thoroughly...then respray clear coat...


...or you can send to shop and respray grey, silver or whatever colour...
_________________
...wax lover...

[Tim_Feicai]

[Tim_Feicai]

** BUMP

Anybody out there has restored machine polished rims?

[g88]

use M83 to polish rim ? Would this be the main cause the coating failing ?

I guess there isnt much u can do now...either strip them off or repaint.

[KrisMas]

Hey Tim, I've bookmarked a couple of links and waiting for the right time and courage to do mine. It's in quite a poor conditions as well with some peeling clearcoat and deep scratches. Can be of some help.

http://www.acura-legend.com/vbulletin/f13/diy-refinishing-gs-rims-39665/
http://www.autopia.org/forum/detailing-articles-videos/80657-repairing-painted-wheel-curb-scratches.html?highlight=damaged+wheel

[ModMyVi]

i suggest a repaint at a specialized rim shop, not a typical cherry tree paint shop. i just remachined the edges of my rims, inside and outside area. did not affect the look of the rims though
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Love:KAIO,KSG,M21 2.0
Hate: Bird droppings

[KrisMas]

Sending them to the shop IS the best option but, what the heck, we're DIY CRAZY!! (even if it meant trashing it and at the end of the day sending it to the shop anyway... )

[Tim_Feicai]

[Tim_Feicai]

Any specific names of the shop you guys gone through? worse case, send KL to refurbish....I rather do it one time than do it over and over again..

Tim
ps: i'm using office desktop...my laptop HDD is dead. there goes 40GB of research...f#$k!!!!!

[KrisMas]

[Tim_Feicai]

[ModMyVi]

from refurbishing rims to refurbishin hard disk drives. haha... we are helluva flexible dudes. haha...

anyone knows if its possible to respray a rim to bright silver? not chrome, not polished aluminium, but kinda like VW CrossPolo's rims.
_________________
Love:KAIO,KSG,M21 2.0
Hate: Bird droppings

[KrisMas]

I think I've seen pink wheels on a pink car before. Can remember where and when.

[evilnickwong]

Off topic again, but if your notebook HDD died and the symptom is the "clicking" noise, try wrapping the hard disk in plastic and placing it in your freezer for a couple of hours. After that take it out and immediately plug it in via external USB interface. I'm dead serious, I've done this before and it worked on an otherwise irrecoverable drive.

As for your rims, DIY is always fun, but sometimes sending it to a competant shop might be the prudent choice.
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'91 E30 318i