I have been detailing my XJR for a few weeks now and have been slowly working through all the steps that I wanted to do. I spend a few hours each day working on it when not at work.

So far, I have:

Polished all the "chrome" trim around the windows
Polished/restored the headlight lenses
Compounded the paint
Polished the paint
Applied 2 coats of synthetic wax
Treated all of the black plastic with Meguiar's Ultimate Black trim restorer.
Cleaned all the leather (I still need to apply the conditioner)
Shampooed the carpet (and the seatbelts)
Treated all glass with rainX

The next step that I want to take on is the wheels and this is where my question is. I have the 20" Sepang Wheels with the polished stainless steel trim rings. I plan to remove the wheels so that I can thoroughly clean, polish, and wax all the painted silver surfaces. The stainless steel polish rings all have varying degrees of curb rash and I want to try to restore them. I looked up pricing for replacing the polish rings, but it seems that it would cost about $740 to order new rings from England or closer to $1000 to order them form here in the US. No way am I paying this. That's almost 10% of the value of the car... Crazy!

I'm thinking about removing the wheels, disassembling them, and removing the polish ring. I can then file and sand the rings up to a very fine grit before re-polishing them on my buffing wheel.

My hesitation comes from the titanium bolts that hold the 3-part wheel together. I believe that there are 15 on each wheel and I''m worried that I'll break one. These aren't easily replaced and trying to drill out a broken titanium bolt doesn't sound like it would be fun. I have searched the forum and read the previous threads concerning Sepangs. I don't want to paint the polish rings. Another concern I have is damaging the polish rings while trying to remove them. I'm not sure how well they are glued to the wheel barrel.

Have any of you ever done this? Would you recommend doing it?

As always, I appreciate your thoughts and opinions.



.

 

If the Sepang are 3 pc wheels, by disassembling them you may face seal issues when reassembling .
Vintage BBS 3 pc wheels are most valued when still with the original seals not yet taken apart (a proof that they are leak-free and not previously damaged).

 

Had my rims refinished and they pulled them apart. My trim rings were off already. Anyway the xjr sepangs you shouldn't have an issue resealing they don't have that special valve stem. Also..I was real curious about polishing and clearcoating the aluminum under the trim ring...Anyways interested in how it comes out@!

 

Hey Slowpoke,

I think that I'm going to give it a try with one wheel and see how things go. Hopefully, I'll have time to try it this weekend. I'm really nervous about breaking one of those titanium bolts though.

 

wondering if this ever happened. Had my sepangs redone but painted years back, he my
detroits redone with new trim rings and now have another set of sepangs I’m wanting to do thanks!

 

No, I gave them a thorough cleaning and polishing without taking them apart. I decided that the likelihood of damaging something was greater than the possible benefit. I did polish the stainless trim rings with a Dremel while they were still in place.

 

Sepang is a 2 piece wheel so can be split with the tyre on and inflated. I did a refurb on mine and was fortunate to be able to remove the bolts with no issues. I did clean all threads with a tap and a die for the bolts, I have no comment on the drilling out but spare bolts are availble for Ł5 ish here in the uk. They are not tight but will or should have some thread lock on them.I didnt have the beauty rings they just seem blingy to me.

 

I heard some people have polished the aluminum under the trim ring . That’s what I was curious about.

 

My Sepangs have also curb damages which were produced by the previous owner of the car and I would like to refurbish them. I'm looking for the name of the original silver colour but so far I wasn't succesful.

Can somebody be helpful with that question?

Thanks in advance,
Ramón