Volvo V70 R 17" Pegasus rims that have been neglected

[jakebvrs]

Hello everyone, here are my pretty abused rims off of my v70r, and I was looking for help. These rims were sadly dipped in some plastic dip or just had a terrible black paint job, and while I've been stripping the black away, it seems that some of the clear coat or whatever is just disappearing. Sadly, the only thing that has been working in my dad's old Camaro is the gasoline that takes it off, and then I use a steel wool pad, which removes it with ease. I've been taking my time, so nothing else gets ripped off in the process, but it has happened on the other two rims I have done. Am I looking to wet sand these rims and then spray some clear coat, or should I do a full makeover on them since they have some bad curb rash?

IMG_3953.jpeg (871.05 KiB) Viewed 2636 times

[scot850]

Have you checked first that the rims are straight? The one in the picture looks like it has had some intimate contact with kerbs.

At his point you have 3 choices:

Pay to have the professionally refinished and they will strip the rims back to bare and then paint and clear coat, and they should fix the kerb rash while at it. This is not cheap! Up here it is the equivalent of $100-125/rim last time I had one done.

2nd option will or should be cheaper but not original is to have them powder-coated, then you can have them done any color you like if you don't want silver,

3rd and most work and cheaper is to strip back, primer, top coat, and then clear coat.

Check what a set of copy 'R' wheels cost from IPD or look on Ebay or the like as there are companies refinishing rims and re-selling them.

Good luck!

Neil.

[- Pete -]

It might be a good idea to see if they are bent before you refinish them. Chuck them on a lathe or balancer & spin em up.

For the rash, I’d just use a flap disc to take down the high spots & blend the lows. Hand sand for the small stuff. After that, the longest lasting option for refinishing would be to have them powder coated. They would bead blast them prior to PC’ing. This is the route I would go.

If you hand prep/paint them, future tire changes may be worrisome considering all the labor you poured into them.

I actually got a price for blasting/PCing a set of 4 wheels recently. Of course you’d have the rubber already off, but bare wheels to bead blast & PC is around $400 usd. Pretty inexpensive considering they’d have a perfect finish that would stand up to the abuse from the tire gorillas.

[Faust]

I got a little crazy about refinishing rims a few years ago, even to the extent that I accepted a free brake lathe so I could spin them. I already had a bead blasting cabinet. In short, I found that "aircraft" paint remover would remove most finishes. Being able to spin them made short work of sanding down curb rash. As to brake dust on the inside of the rim, bead blasting is really the way to go. A good job can be done with cleaners and a rotary brush (stiff but not metal) mounted to a drill or die grinder. A piece of luck there, I also acquired a large stainless steel sink, that also eased the job. I have been told, but never attempted this, that spinning the wheel can be accomplished on the car by lifting one of the driving wheels off the ground and letting it idle in gear. High speed is definitely not required. I think there are YouTube videos on that.

A thought for anyone dealing with wheels with a "polished" rim. I found, with most, the "polished" rims had been cut with a lathe, and not all that smoothly. Most of the "polish" was achieved with very thick application of clear coat. With the advent of 3000 grit wet paper, and the ability to spin them, I found that a finish almost indistinguishable from polishing could be achieved. If the madness is really upon you, spinning the wheel while holding a buffing wheel (running in reverse) will give a perfect finish. There is a term for this. but it escapes me. A note, many times the "clear coat" for polish is so thick, if you have the ability to spin them, it can be sanded off more rapidly than any "remover" will work.

Lastly, if you can have them glass beaded and powder coated for $400, I would pursue that. As to the curb rash, a very good result can be obtained by filling with "liquid steel" of your choosing, then sanding them.