sinkrun Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I have always wanted to see if I could restore a aluminum wheel well here it is. I Wrangler 15x8 Canyon I bought them and 4 spacers from a girl at a local tire shop $100.00 for everything. I always wanted a set of these Canyons but around here this is what they look like, And off Ebay from a salt free state there $500.00 with shipping. This was harder than I thought the clear coat on these is the toughest stuff I have ever seen. The stripper worked well on the machined surface If you put it on and let it sit like they say. Down in the slots its painted with clear and its TOUGH if you put it on and let it sit it just gets hard again . I used airplane stripper and the only way I could get it off was to wait a few mins and scrape it with a old brass spoon I found. It does not scratch them hardly at all and you will be polishing them anyway. I did not polish the openings just wire brushed them where there was corrsion and to get the final paint off there a rough surface anyway. I tried sanding by hand with no luck I had cheap sand paper and hard aluminum and me being lazy didnt work but should if you have more ambition than I do. I used a air sander with those little 3" wheels to get every thing down below the corrosion and you not only have to get the corrosion off you have to also take all the machine marks off and make the whole surface the same. You will have to hand sand and polish them once you use the air sander at least I did just could not get the right look with the sanding disks. I am going to try to get some more pics and update this as I try to come up with better ways to get this done. This is where I am at now I need some fine paper and am going to wet sand the heck out of them with 400 and 600 and them try to figure out what to do to polish them. Best part is there are 3 more to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I had two sets of Turbines I intended to restore but ended up scrapping them. I was wondering if someone would do this DIY. Did you clear coat them yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinkrun Posted July 30, 2012 Author Share Posted July 30, 2012 No clear coat not sure if I want to do it or not they way they sit I can polish them with a powerball and mothers aluminum polish if they get tarnished. I don't ever want to go thru removing clear coat again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomguy310 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 i used to repair wheels like that a few years ago, we had a cnc lathe, we would sand and paint if needed and then recut the face of the weel and then clear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinkrun Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 I was thinking about that I was a machinist / tool maker for years and know a guy with some machines but none that large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomguy310 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 it only has to spin 15+ inches.. the one we had was cnc and had a probe that digitized the wheel to read the profile like a pharro arm does, but if you had a regular lathe you could just use and old axle and bolt the wheel to it and chuck it up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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