Wheels pitting/scratch removal?

[dalpoas83]

What’s the best method to try to clean this up for a low budget do it yourself guy? The powder coat is pretty flawless but the polished lips are looking a little rough

 

[cobrajeff96]

There should be shops around that do CNC milling, that'd be the best way. With a shop that does this sort of thing day in and day out they can get something like that cleaned up pretty quickly. Otherwise, you'll have to buy some good polishing compounds and go to work with felt tip dremel bits. Concours polishing compounds would be the only ones I'd trust for metal work like this.

 

[Slice]

Looks more like clearcoat deterioration than the metal oxidizing (?) though that would be next.

I refinished wheels once myself. Very tough work. You have to SAND the finish off and cut through any pitting. Next comes steel wool from coarse to superfine. Then real polishing with a 5" wheel and those compound sticks that look like plastic - three cutting grades. Finished it with wax and buffing.

It looked fantastic - mirror finish but took me over TWENTY HOURS per wheel!

Never again. I would rather just get them sandblasted and have a matte look.

 

[Daryl]

+1 what CobraJeff said. I took a previous car to a wheel shop. They can mill it smooth and they also offered a clear coating. Wasn’t cheap, but cheaper than new wheels for sure. Only pitfall is I’d have to bring the wheels in off the car.

 

[Slice]

Unless they look nasty might be better just to live with it for now. Neither solution is cheap and my method was extremely labor intensive.

 

[Daryl]

Unless they look nasty might be better just to live with it for now. Neither solution is cheap and my method was extremely labor intensive.

… always an option, too!

 

[ttocs]

this looks like the perfect reason to upgrade them

 

[joemomma]

That definitely looks like failing clear rather than actual metal issues.

 

[ttocs]

you can always try testing them to see if you like them painted with plastidip. A black rim might not look too bad.

 

[Slice]

Plastdip comes in colours other than black.