Anyone have any experience refinishing the wheels on their cars?? The rim's on my 95 Jag are kinda cloudy/chalky and just don't look good and they collect dirt and dust in a hurry.. I was thinking of sanding them down and refinishing them. You can see that they are scratched and well used with 208k+ miles on them. I just want them to look fresh again. Are these uncoated bare aluminum wheels or did they some with a clear coat or paint?? If they are just bare aluminum them I couldwetsand with 800 or 1000 grit wet sand paper them buff them out to a shine.. Any thought's??

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I had a '95 for 10 years, gone now. As I recall the wheels are painted with a clear coat. You would spend a great part of your life trying to get to bare metal with 800 and 1000 grit sandpaper. You might consider using paint remover to get rid of the paint and clear coat. After that you could use 1000 and 1500 grit sand paper and polishing compound to get a glossy finish. This could be clear coated. The other alternative would be fresh paint and clear coat. The most durable paint finish would be a base coat and a catalyzed clear coat. A auto body and paint shop would be the logical way to get the base coat/clear coat finish applied, unless you have a compressor and paint gun. You can also go the budget route and buy aerosol wheel paint and clear coat from your local auto parts stores. I understand the quality is pretty good.

Doug

 

Greetings Cobb,

Those are the "Dimple" wheels, and they're polished and clearcoated. Refinishing can achieve good results, but is not cheap. I bought a refinished wheel to complete a set, and the clearcoat was not nearly as nice as the factory finish.

Alternatively, I have a set of these Dimple wheels in near perfect original condition for $400.00 plus shipping. I think $100.00 would get them to Charleston, although I'd much rather bring them down and spend a night on Seabrook Island. Best wishes,

Andrew Bernstein
British Auto Care

 

I refinished all my wheels. I think the wheels are not clearcoat painted, they are clear powdercoated. The powdercoat is removed by using a small high quality (for accuracy)paintbrush with aircraft stripper. Be careful not to remove the painted areas, carefully trace the stripper around the edge of the silver painted areas, you need to save them as-is for contrast. It will take two or three applications and removals with waterto get all the powdercoat off. Then take wet or dry 220 paper wet and sand the surface until the machining pattern is removed from the wheels, then go over it with 320, then 600, then get a ventilated cotton 6" or larger buff wheel on a fast drillwith red rouge and buff it out to a polish. Itshould look like mirror when you are done. I then polish it out with Mothers Mag and Aluminum poish, then wax with the best wax you can find. This will work less well in the North where salt gets on the wheels and sits there. In the South where I live, they look perfect after 8 years, requiring rewaxing twice a year to protect the finish. To me, there is no finish prettier than mirror polished alloy. It's richer than chrome and won't ever peel or fail.

 

if your wheels are original jag parts then there is a clear coat, this needs to be taken off by applying paint thinner, then when the coat is off, you need to buff it with a machine not hand sanding, then after the metal part is properly buff you need to apply a clear primer paint when dry you need to apply another coat of clear coat acrylic, each coat should be very thin and consistent, should be painted in a booth to avoid any dirt particle from contaminating the surface of the wheel. BTW your picture is not showing.

 

how exactly do you use red rouge? mine is in a bar form. do I need to shave it?

 

I know this is pretty old but how do you know when you have all the powder coating off? I have sanded the wheel down and can get a good shine but it is still pulling a lot of black off the wheel when I go to shine. I assume that it is the powder coating coming off. I also screwed up and took the paint out of the dimples. Any suggestion on the type of paint to use to get that back. This is my test wheel and have not used any of my current wheels. just need to know just in case.

 

The blackening of the polish compound is the oxidation of the metal removed in the abrasive action and is not necessarily the clear coat

You can polish a spoon or putty knife and see this as a reference

I plan on removing the tougher paint in the dimples and air gaps and painting with a burnt orange / red to give the wheel a bit of bite against the factory blue / green " nautica " body color .

I have a local automotive paint supply / shop to get the paint as rattle can may only last so long

both the dimples and air gaps may be too much together and just paint the air gaps and leave the dimples unpainte

The red or tan rouge bar seamed to scratch too deeply so liquid Brasso on the wheel seemed to work

Editing

 

Paint stripper, remove paint residue, sanding with sandpaper, polishing and brush, ready.

 

A option on wheel centers you may or may not consider

The tabs on the centers that hold them in can be repaired with some JB Weld possibly

New one are available from a vendor I ca't recall

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...5/#post1173811

 

 

lots of work but to me it was worth it

these are the tools that i used,after sanding with drill sanding attachements,...makita angle grinder 6000rpm,orange cutting wheel,then green polish,then white...red rouge first,then green,then white...

 

Hmm. You have giving m some great ideas. I still have paint left over from when I did my bumper so I will do my dimples the red and leave those vents a gray metallic and shine the hell out of the rest. PLan to get most of it on my test rim this weekend.

 

Did you use a stripper to get the clearcoat off?