Wheel refurb...
 

Needed a spare wheel for the car so managed to buy one from fleebay. It needed refurbished and some kerbing marks taken out so I decided to do this today.


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c.../Audi/w2-1.png

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c.../Audi/w1-1.png

400 grade sandpaper on the DA sander to remove the powdercoating, then grade 400 wet & dry followed with 1200 grade wet & dry and finally 2000 grade wet & dry.

Once this was done some Solvol Autosol applied with the rotary polisher soon had the alloy shining.

Still needs a little work and once I have achieved the finish I require I will have it etched and lacquered

Click image to view full size
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040914.jpg

Click image to view full size
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040915.jpg

very shiny, how much work did you put in to that?

The hard work is in removing the powder coating and sanding back with wet & dry. Oddly enough the wet & dry does not last long when sanding the wheels, the alloy seems to rip the surface from the paper.

The secret is to work your way through the different grades of wet & dry finishing with grade 2000, then the actual polishing is only a matter of a couple of minutes per spoke

So I managed to finish polishing the wheel today, I decided there were too many marks still on it and started by rubbing down again with the wet & dry grade 2000. This took the best part of an hour as there was some tiny pit-marks that had filled with polish, these have to be removed to achieve a reasonable result.

Click images for full size

This is the tiny marks that must be sanded out
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040916.jpg

The aim is to have a uniform even finish
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040917.jpg

Once prepared it took a maximum of 10 minutes to polish the wheel using the rotary and 10 minutes to finish by hand
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040918.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040919.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040920.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040921.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040922.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040923.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040924.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...h_P1040925.jpg


The alloy used in wheel making is not completely smooth, so a complete mirror finish would be almost impossible, plus if it was a mirror finish the lacquer would not adhere to it properly, so I am happy with my efforts. Just need to get it to the paint shop now for the painter to do his bit

After having this thread I have knowledge that I can buy the tyres which could be bravo in quality. That is really awesome.
Its my goodness to have this idea.
Thanks man.