Wheel Refinish pics

[turbodig]

Before: (I stripped the clear from these)

After:

Before:

After:

The stuff that looks like scratches in the after pics isn't, it's just the reflections the camera generated.

Twin City Wheel in White Bear Lake, MN did the work. There are a few tiny bubbles in the clear if you look close... I suspect outgassing in the powder coat bake.

My goal with these was to have a set of rims that I could drive around on that looked presentable on an 18k mile truck, so that I could pull my original rims and OEM tires. (Which need re-clear themselves)

The ride difference is amazing... I never should have driven on the stockers that long, they're borderline dangerous. The overall smoothness, handling, and ride quality are dramatically improved. When the interior is about 1/2 quieter from a tire change, it's a big difference.

Side factoid... the stock OEM Firestones are ~3 lbs heavier than the Kumho Ecstas that replaced them.
This is a 12lb reduction in rotating mass overall.

 

[syclone rider]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Man those look awesome!

 

[nallj92]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

they turned out good
how did you get them back home?

 

[Peter]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Really nice, Dig. I like the polished look at the edge of the rim.

 

[Norm]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Looks pretty sharp Bart!!

 

[turbodig]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

they turned out good
how did you get them back home?

The wonder-van. We took the trans from the GN down to John, and stopped in to get the wheels on the way through. Made the whole trip in about 10 hours, including lunch/beers and a bunch of gum-flapping with John about the trans.

Trans broke the ears off the pump rotor, BTW... nothing for the TC to drive. Boogered up the TC snout, that's being sent back to TCS for repair. I suspect that when the TC bolts got loose late last year, the vibration and hammering from that weakened the ears on the pump rotor.

 

[turbodig]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Really nice, Dig. I like the polished look at the edge of the rim.

Thanks.. The outer rims really didn't need much machine... they were more or less just hit with some polish.

It's hard to see the detail, but I think the machined look of the rim was replicated pretty nicely. A couple of rims, you can see some coloration differences across the face, but I sorta noticed that on my stockers, too.

My stock center caps look pretty yellow against the new clear on the rims. The clear is also quite a bit more glossy, so I'll have to do up a set of centers to match the clear up.

Should be a lot easier to keep these clean with the clear powder.

 

[95xtreme]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Wheels look great, now I suppose I need to talk to the shop about the centers.

 

[turbodig]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Wheels look great, now I suppose I need to talk to the shop about the centers.

That would be really helpful... I have 9 center caps just waiting here.
Once they had the profile for one, the rest would go quick.

 

[T-Bone]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

Those turned out remarkable. Jimmy located a place in Nashville (I think) to do his and they turned out really nice as well. The center caps have always been the challenge though so do lket us know how that develops.

Regards, Shaun

 

[WyoSyclone]

Re: Wheel Refinish pics

They look great, Dig. Nice to know there is a method for returning out wheels back to factory-fresh looking!