Speedline Refurb?

[Tim Leech]

Ive picked up a set of Graphite Speedlines of Jayboy for the 16TRZS, they are in tidy nick asides the usual corrosion on the silver rim which is quite bad.

A local polishers has quoted me £20 a piece just to polish the corroded silver rims up but wont guarantee how good they will, cost wise thats ok but I would ask if anyone on here has had a go at DIY on this with any good results.

I dont have £80 spare right now so looking to do it cheaper?

[mds141]

Tim, Paul refurbed his own wheels, but once he'd paid for several gallons of nitromors to remove the paint and bought sandpaper, fresh paint and lacquer it didn't work out much cheaper than getting them done professionally. Personally I'd save up and get them done at a refurb place.

[Tim Leech]

I probably will Mark, but unlike the wheels Paul has done (well I may add) its just the silver lip thats tired, the rest of the wheels just needed a good clean.

[Defender110]

Tim use a P800 grade wet & dry followed by P1500 then grade 3 renovator to polish back. You can use a 3mm fine line masking tape to define the line.

[citronut]

you will be very licky to get them looking half good if you try to do them on the cheap Tim

this company ( http://www.spitandpolish.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) did Chris Salters GSA alloys they collect on the moday and drop them back on the Thursday all done

they charge £40 quid plus VAT each trade and they come back looking new,

and £48.75 plus VAT each trade including new valve fitting a tyre and balancing,

absolutely super dooper job

regards malcolm

[citsncycles]

I've never done this, but my brother has refurbished period alloys for his VW's in the past. It took him quite a while, but the looked fantastic when done. The biggest issue he had though was getting decent lacquer adhesion, which lead to the corrosion creeping back in. He did get a set done professionally and although they looked no better than the ones he'd done himself, they stayed that way for longer.

[Paul296]

DIY jobs are a lot cheaper than a decent bodyshop job, but VERY labour intensive to do a comparable job. The alloys I'm about to fit to the TGD (when they're finished) will have cost about £150 incl. price of wheels (40quid) and sandblasting (40quid) plus 50 family size packs of elbow grease (free). To get a comparable job done professionally would have cost me more than twice that considering how bolloxed the wheels were in the first place and the black lines/centres have to be either hand painted or custom masked.

Just to do the rims you could do it yourself for 20 quid; file down the kerb dinks as far as you can without compromising the wheel, fill the rest with P38, mask off the rest of the wheel, etch prime, paint, 2pack lacquer (with a mask in the open air or you'll die of cyanide poisoning - not good) and polish; once it's all cured (and there'll be LOTS of sanding and finishing involved in that lot if you want a really pucker job). Bingo! If you want a hand Tim and want to save a few bob let me know.

Here's one of the speedlines I did. I should really have wet n' dry'd the paint back before lacquering for a better finish - I'll know next time!

[citronut]

as i said above this company ( http://www.spitandpolish.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

charge £40 quid plus VAT each rim trade

depends how much spare time you have i spoz

regards malcolm

[Tim Leech]

Spare time is something that is quite lacking, I actually bought 5 wheels of Justin, so may have a go at the "spare" myself and see how it comes off before I throw £80 at the other 4, I have refurbed wheels before (the GT ones), and did quite a reasonable job, but I was doing the whole wheel then, and had them shot blasted first, and then filled and used an orbital sander.

[KevR]

I'm about to do a set of notspeedlinesbuttheotheronesIcanneverrememberthenameof - not worried about getting a professional finish, so long as they look a bit less like they've been at the bottom of the canal for the past ten years. Looked into various sources of rattle cans for the wheel paint and the best deal was from http://www.beal.org.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - £2.90 a 400ml can or £29 for 12, which should be plenty for four wheels. Also got some satin black to redo the upper window surrounds etc.

[Paul296]

Spare time is something that is quite lacking, I actually bought 5 wheels of Justin, so may have a go at the "spare" myself and see how it comes off before I throw £80 at the other 4, I have refurbed wheels before (the GT ones), and did quite a reasonable job, but I was doing the whole wheel then, and had them shot blasted first, and then filled and used an orbital sander.

Sounds like a plan - have a practice on the spare. As long as you take your time Tim it's not that difficult to get really good results.