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Are these Turbines worth it?


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1 minute ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Nope, nope nope. I picked up (4) in MA for $120 with very bald rims. They were not in great shape, but way better than that photo.

Ok, Salvagedcircuit, you already got yours, so how did you find them? Craigslist and eBay are very thin on decent rims for a decent price.

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I spent $125 a wheel to get my Eliminator wheels refinished.  They are far less complex that the turbines.  If you just want to sandblast them then it could be economical to refinish them but gosh $550 seems steep for a set in that bad of shape.

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This is not a good deal, because ebay sellers like this exist. $169 each. I'm sure you can message him and lowball him even further. That's a professionally refinished rim. There are nearly a dozen ebay sellers who do the same thing, a lot list at ~$200/rim. You can lowball them and probably get a newly refinished set for $500 or less.

Refinishing the turbine rims is a process.

There are multiple threads on here about it, but it takes a lot of time or money to do.

The general order of operations is this:

  1. Power wash the dirt / grime off. If there is little to no corrosion and it polishes up with auto store wax, just use them.
  2. If they are tarnished and corroded, they'll need to be bead blasted or sanded
    1. Bead blasting and sanding removes the luster/shine on the 10 spoke rims
    2. You will need to either re-machine the surface of the 10 spoke rims on a lathe or slowly step sand the spokes from 400 grit to like 3000 grit, then polish
    3. Polishing compound must be removed with acetone or alcohol
    4. In between the spokes is an off-gray color. This means the rim will need to be powder coated in off-gray, then powder coated entirely in clear. Some people skip the two color powder coating and just clear powder coat. Spray paint clear coat will likely not hold up to road debris, which is why powder coating is your best bet.

Bead blasting, polishing and powder coating cost money. If you have a commercial grade bead blast cabinet and a powder coat booth, sure go to town. But otherwise, your best bet is to hunt around for a set in good shape or lowball some ebay sellers. Ebay will always cover you if you get a set in bad shape.

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10 hours ago, robfg67 said:

Got a lead on 5 Turbine rims with 4 center caps for $550.

 

I haven't seen them in person yet, but the picture attached is a fair representation.

 

Thought?

Resized_Resized_20230717_114749.jpg

 

You could have those restored professionally and be happy with the results but at $550 before you start it's going to be expensive.   I bought a set of 4 in similar condition for $100 CDN (about $75 US).   I paid $125 CDN each for them to be done by a wheel restoration shop.    They ...

- media blasted them

- painted them silver

- turned down the originally polished surfaces to remove the pits return the shine

- clear coated them

 

I was fine at that price as I would have spent a lot of time and effort and not got the same results. 

 

1681272623_20-09-278.JPG.71ccc53dd4ba9b117665bfc42314a31f.JPG

 

2097892101_20-10-232.JPG.828eab967833a9ea4fde19a017904395.JPG

 

 

 

 

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$550 for these wheels and tires? Are these specific ones like....limited edition or something? I on Google and saw a set of turbines for like $300 completely clean and shined like new. These are totally not even worth it. I'd be hesitant to give him $100. I saw on Facebook market place not to long ago a set of steelie wheels like that's on my truck that had big fat knobby tires and he was asking $750. And he said they were estimated to be used about 1500 miles. I'd either let the dude just sit on the wheels or offer him anything under $100. That's just crazy seeing the condition. 

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