Refurbing BBS Split rim GTi Alloys

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:52 am

The story so far (Pics will be added later)

Before - Thanks Scott (ICY POLO):

Well I should pick up the wheel centres on Friday.

Centres have been stripped down away from the rims (there are a lot of bolts and they are very tight) shot blasted and then powder coated in satin black

All 4 Rims are stripped of laquer and 1's polished 3 are still waiting to be done - boy is this an easy process - NOT

For information - the laquer used appears to be more of a plastic coating rather than a laquer and is a complete git to remove - nitromors just doesn't seem to touch it unless you put several coats on..... It softens the laquer enough to just lightly scrape the rim with a sharpe blade.

The big drawback it this makes polishing harder - 45mins of work just to get one rim back to close to perfect.... But that looks superb - bit weird without a centre in it but soon have the two back together....

Speedlaw · Post by **Speedlaw** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 6:30 pm

Splits can be a nightmare, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Good luck!

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:25 pm

Speedlaw wrote:Splits can be a nightmare, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Good luck!

thanks for that Speedlaw - It's coming along nicely now

All four rims polished up (and the kerbing marks almost completely gone from one of the rims - the others were unmarked anyway - but I'm being really picky here)

Tommorrows job is to drop all four wheels off to my local tyre place to have two new tyres fitted and the to good ones already fitted to the wheels reversed and new tyre valves fitted - balancing might be a bit tricky with the centres out

but I'll drive it up there and get it done when they are all finished and fitted!

Slightly off the subject!!!

Todays 1st lesson (FOC)

Before you tackle polishing splitties - get some allen headed grubscrews the right thread size to put down the holes so you don't have to spend two hours with cotton buds and WD40/degreaser cleaning all polishing compound/solvol autosol/brasso and T-cut out of the bloody threads!!!!

Todays 2nd Lesson (FOC)

WD40 on a painted garage floor is bloody slippery!!!!!

Todays 3rd Lesson (FOC)

Remember before you start a project to take pictures so you have a before and after

Had enough now - hands are red raw and I've got pains where I haven't had for ages - the slip and fall didn't help mind

Sad git that I am I've now started polishing the rocker cover cos I've got 2 days to wait before I get the centres back......

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 12:07 am

P.S My worst fear is that when they are all back together with new tyres, polished rims and satin black centres I'll hate them - still you've got to try things out sometimes or you'll never learn!!!!

Speedlaw · Post by **Speedlaw** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:46 am

You won't hate them, I garantee it. Or however it's spelled.

I've yet to see a refurb set that looks bad, either on or off a car.

Now comes the hard part of keeping them all nice and clean! Winter is a no-no...

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:48 pm

bstardchild wrote:Sad git that I am I've now started polishing the rocker cover cos I've got 2 days to wait before I get the centres back......

Voila!!!! - See club house - Is this Bling or Ming for a 1.4 8V rocker cover

Casting quality is pretty poor and I'm no David Bailey and the photos were done under house lighting so it looks better in the flesh......

Man I have so got to get out more!!!!!

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:09 am

Speedlaw wrote:You won't hate them, I garantee it. Or however it's spelled.

I've yet to see a refurb set that looks bad, either on or off a car.

Now comes the hard part of keeping them all nice and clean! Winter is a no-no...

Tommorow will be fun - the big put back together - I've got two of the wheels home now and I've just noticed there is a dirty great scratch on the edge of one rim where the tyre fitter wasn't carfefull to set the height of the arm on the machine - I'll be having a few words I think - those two new Khumo's had better be cheap!!!!

Speedlaw · Post by **Speedlaw** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:40 am

I only just saw the photo's, they sure needed some TLC...

Good choice btw!

carmadaaron · Post by **carmadaaron** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 10:44 am

bling all the way mate...!

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 3:00 pm

First wheel back together.......

Here's a picture ooops forgot to insert it!

Can't fit em to the car yet - still waiting for two tyres to be delivered to the tyre place

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:25 pm

sorry folks - final pics later today - looks fantastic

dubpolo · Post by **dubpolo** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:07 pm

how much did the re-furb cost?

Speedlaw · Post by **Speedlaw** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:17 pm

Sweet wheels!

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:30 pm

Ok Final installment

All done and on with just the wheel centres to come from Vagparts - Martyn promises next week

Front

Rear

And both together - sorry doesn't look that brilliant cos I lost the light a bit and flash plays havoc so I'll add a decent pic to this posting when I take a picture in better light

Dubpolo - Cost

Â£125 Wheels from Scott - ICY POLO (but they did have two almost brand new khumos)

Â£50 for the centres to be powder coated

Â£0 for the effort to strip the rims and polish

Â£10 for materials

Â£96 for two new tyres and strip and refit the good two

Total Â£291

Cost of new badges I'll add in later.....

BTW the stilts came free with the tyres according to my misses!!!!

OMG I could have bought new ones for that!!!! Only Joking!!!! I wanted a look and this is it!!!

carmadaaron · Post by **carmadaaron** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:06 pm

now that looks sweet!

how often are u going to clean the wheels then?