OK - the alternative is to get yourself a set of steelies cheap from a breakers and do it youself or bring the spare into play (cheapskate method) and do it a wheel at a time or buy one spare steelie and do em one at a timedubpolo wrote:there not that bad! i think if it comes to welding you may as well buy a new set!
Heres the method
Depends on the starting surface finish but as a general rule most surfaces tend to be painted or coated to start with.....
Strip the tyres of the rims (need a tyre place that's friendly and will store your tyre(s) cut the tyre valve out so it doesn't get in the way.......
Strip the centres out and get em shot blasted (£40 tops) and wet paint yourself - filler primer, sand and then primmer and top coat followed by laquer
Rims
1st Paint strip and degrease
2nd Coarse wet and dry - 200 or 400 for really badly kerbed - use with care
3rd Depending on the existing smoothness of the surface I select a grade of wet and dry (typically 600) and get to work flatting it down - switching to a finner grade (typically 1000 although sometimes I have to do a bit of 800 work first)
4th Get the buffing wheels and compound bars out (a kit on the net can be got for about £20) - I tend to use just green for alloy and buff away using min compound
5th Buff up using soft cloth to check for any areas that need further attention (go back to 2nd or 3rd stages as required)
6th Solvol Autosol (£4 a tube) on a buffing wheel
Last thing Brasso or t-cut to finish - laquer if you must but degrease again before if you do
It all sounds long winded but the trick is to maximise the buffing wheel time and minimise the use of wet and dry (the boring bit!!!)
