Polished turbines

[Smokeyyank]

Have a spare set of turbines that I'm messing around with. I decided to polish one of the wheels. This was the "test" wheel that's almost done but needs paint and to be redone to get the mirror finish. Wanted to do one quick and see if I like the look. Not sure if I'm sold on the polished look for them or not. Thoughts? 

[Chad R]

Looks good to me

[70barracuda]

I semi-polished mine. Didn't want a super mirror surface but got pretty close to what you have and i loved them. I never cleared them so they don't look this good now. Picture is from 5 ish years ago

 

[Smokeyyank]

Cool, thanks for the input. May just polish this set and powder coat the other set. This set is rough so they have to get sanded down. 

[PCO6]

11 hours ago, Smokeyyank said:

Cool, thanks for the input. May just polish this set and powder coat the other set. This set is rough so they have to get sanded down. 

 

You could get them turned down in a lathe.   I've had 2 sets done, one of which was was badly pitted.   I could have sanded forever and still not have been happy with the results.   A wheel restoration shop did them for me at a reasonable price ($125 CDN).   Anything I would have done wouldn't have come close.    

 

 

[Smokeyyank]

3 hours ago, PCO6 said:

You could get them turned down in a lathe

 

Had saw that done before. This set I wasn't planning on spending a lot of coin on. Other than sanding paper and some of the special conditioning tools just been my time to clean these up. Mainly was just trying to bring these back to life either polishing or painting. The other set I have is in a lot better shape and those I'll probably powder coat.  

[Salvagedcircuit]

It seems like the correct way to refurbish the turbine rims is to:

1. Bead Blast rims
2. Polish front spoke surfaces to mirror finish or turn spoke surface on lathe
3. Gray powder coat entire rim
4. Wipe off gray powder coat from spoke front or use tape before gray powder coat application
5. Bake
6. Clear powder coat entire rim
7. Bake

The powder coat companies nearby want $120/hr + materials

For rims, this is just not worth it to me.

 

I think the best way to budget restore these rims is to bead blast, polish with a drill + polishing agent, wipe surface with alcohol, clear spray paint.

It just does not make sense to spend $300-500 a rim on these when there are folks on ebay who offer matched polished turbines for $200-400 each and will probably take less with some lowballing.