eg6sir88

alrighty, as some of you know i came up on some mesh wheels from a buddy of mine.. .not sure of origin but they're O.Z. wheels and looked like hell when i got them.. so i'm polishing the lip and painting the mesh bronze....

<u>whats needed:</u>
sandpaper: ( i just bought it in 9x11 sheets, needed a couple of each)
150 grit (only needed for curbing and other flaws)
220 grit (will remove the grooves from the 150, if 150 not needed.. .start here)
320 grit
400 grit
600 grit
800 grit
1000 grit (optional)
1500 grit
box of latex gloves (if not, your hands will be black afterwards)
wheel paint (color of choice)
wheel clear coat
blue painters tape
wheel polish
patience

before:



here is one after being stripped of paint and steam washed..
lookin a little better here..




here is one of the lips to begin with, using the curbage as a reference point...




this is after hitting it with 150 grit, you want to do this dry sanding (again, only needed for curbage or any other flaws)




this is with 220 grit to cover the 150 grit grooves, dry sanding again




320 grit, again dry sanding




then 400 grit, dry sanding (forgot to take a pic, too busy)

now to 600 grit wet sanding, be sure to use lots of water




800 grit, wet sand.. again, water (forgot pic again, haha)

1500 grit, wet sand.. water, water, water




not too shiny yet.. how bout a little polish :D




now that the lip is nice and shiny, time to tape off the outer rim so no paint hits it.. like so..




some people use newspaper and tape it.. its a hassle and rips.. so i use all tape.. :D




time to apply paint/clear.. apply evenly (mine was difficult to do because getting in between the mesh isnt easy)......... place in sun and let it dry.. once dry, remove tape.. should look like this ..




again referring back to the curbage.. this is as good as i could get it




and here is the outcome




and now to the difference from before and after polish and paint...
oooo.. notice the shine off that lip..




that is all


Modified by eg6sir88 at 3:04 PM 9/11/2007

sleepinEP3

sick restoration

seen the other people hating in the other thread but those bad boys are some nice looking wheels. make sure you report back when you get them mounted

kleen98accord

iTrader: (1)

looks good. did you tape the outter rim?

Khmerican

What kind of stripper did u use? Im restoring some bbs meshes, but it is a pain because the of all the little hard to get spots in the mesh. Is there something else thats cheaper and more effective than air craft stripper, cus ive used up one can on 1 wheel and those things can get costly.

66fasty

id like more details of the process too because I've got some Racing harts i want to redo.

eg6sir88

i used a spray stripper from home depot.. and the pressure washer at the spray and wash.. just cover them with the stripper.. its kinda like a gel.. let it sit for 15 min.. and pop a couple quarters in and spray the **** off..

eg6sir88

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kleen98accord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks good. did you tape the outter rim?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea.. i polished it then taped it off to paint the mesh

eg6sir88

first post updated with more pics or process

Civic DX 4dr

iTrader: (2)

good job man

Rease3

come do mine haha

SilverDC4

does wheel polish protect from oxidation of the lip of the rim since you sanded it?

2ndlife

Maybe good to clear coat everything including the lip.
Wow that restoration result is very nice and almost pro looking. But how much
time was put into each rim. I tried before on just one rim that had a 10 inch curb rash and including sanding and painting, it took hours. I can't imagine how long the whole rim would take with home equipment.
Nowadays I would just get it done professionally at a rim restoration shop for a reasonable fee. But I think it is money well spent knowing all the labor involved and they can correct larger damage too. Plus for certain rims needing powder coating, I just can't do it myself at home.

eg6sir88

it took about 2-3 hrs each wheel .. i did them on separate days so i didnt kill my forearms.. home equipment, whats that?.. you mean my arms.. ahhaa

wakedoe

how stupid it would it be to mount the wheel with no tire and jack the car up, then run the engine and use it as a lathe for such a job? are we talking dismemeberment here?

ForceFed Motorsports

Awesome job, im gonna attempt the same on a set of ls mesh wheels for my other DC4 daily driver

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wakedoe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how stupid it would it be to mount the wheel with no tire and jack the car up, then run the engine and use it as a lathe for such a job?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hmm, probably wouldnt recommend it but good effort

doubleshotz

They came out real nice
Still wondering why some people polish first then paint, while others paint then polish....

A handy tool for sanding the lips would be the tiny sanding block with handle (3M) sold at home depot. That way you can EAT after you done with the job. I couldn't feel/move my fingers after trying to do this by hand under cold weather.

eg6sir88

thats what the gloves are for.. to keep your hands clean..

horchata

man, you really brought those back.

AZTEKEF9

iTrader: (3)

i'm planing on doing mine with a brushed aluminium finish.....any hints?

eg6sir88

hhmmm.. not a clue

MeIpk3

Nice restore. Hope the other 3 turn out good.

eg6sir88

turned out great.. on the car now.. no pics yet though.

alispoon

nice job man, i bet it took a lot of time. but it pays off at the end if u dont want to upgrade to some newer rims or u just got something with these rims u got.

dkid15

nice man

jdmh22a1

came out sick, what car are they going on