Here you go....the first of three posts (yes, it's that long - sorry, but you guys wanted the details....)
Smitty
Refinishing Acura Legend GS Rims
The process detailed here is exactly what I did, basically it’s a compilation of other DIYs I found on the web – I read through a whole bunch of them and decided what would work best for me and went from there.
Process set up, warnings, caveats, etc….
These are the steps I took in refinishing my OEM Acura Legend GS 16” Rims. I purchased them on Ebay – they were “B” grade (my estimate) when I got them, but the GS rims are such a good looking rim and a hot commodity for the Legend, I was willing to try to refinish them myself – I decided that no matter what I did, they would look better, and further, that a little research, perseverance, and elbow grease would go a long way. I looked for the rims for over a year, and finally found some at a good price without a lot of heavy curb rash – they did have some decent corrosion in places, but the rims were in good shape overall. To have a shop refinish the rims – you can expect to pay at least $100 per rim – at that price, when all was added up – I could have bought newly refinished ones from most any source. So, this was about saving some cash, and having some good looking rims for my Legend.
This process will step you through one rim and it will take some time and patience. Also, when polishing the rims, be sure to do only the surface areas and the outer edges. I left the inner spoke and lug nut areas alone, it creates a nice looking contrast. Last - the initial sanding can be done either by hand or power sander – I used an orbital sander – but if using power anything, be careful – I'm not responsible if you mess up or gouge your rims.
Obviously, there were no tires mounted on my rims when I did this, though I’ve seen other DIYs (links attached below) that have a “masking” step to protect the tires (specifically - see the link used for the Eagle Talon TSi wheels). This also did not apply to my situation – but the first thing you may need to do is to remove the wheel weights – you’ll either mark the tires from where the weights were removed or plan on having the tire and wheels re-balanced when you are done. My recommendation is that you do this without the tires mounted, but if that’s not possible – proceed with caution – and read thru the other DIYs. A final warning - The aircraft paint stripper used to complete this job is very dangerous, use rubber gloves, goggles and at the very least, clothing you don’t care about. DO NOT take these items off as long as the stripper is present especially when hosing the wheels off. Trust me on this, I got some of this stuff on my skin – it wasn’t 30 seconds and I felt the chemical burning me – I hosed it and washed the area immediately, and it was ok, but it’s dangerous stuff – so be careful.
Stuff to Buy (and where I found it)
-Highly recommended – Basic Orbital Sander (I bought one at Sears for $49)
-2-4 disks 240 grit all purpose (for use on metal) paper – if you can get the stick on kind for the Orbital Sander, it will make life much easier – found this at a local Ace Hardware
-2 sheets - 320 grit wet/dry paper – Ace, Home Depot or Lowe’s
-2 sheets - 400 grit wet/dry paper – Ace, Home Depot or Lowe’s
-2 sheets - 600 grit wet/dry paper – Ace, Home Depot or Lowe’s
-2 sheets - 1000 grit wet/dry paper – Carquest Auto Parts
-2 sheets - 1200 grit wet/dry paper – Carquest Auto Parts
-2 sheets - 1500 grit wet/dry paper – Carquest Auto Parts
-1 bottle of 3M Perfect-It Rubbing Compound – O’Reilly Auto Parts
-1 Can of Mothers Aluminum polish – O’Reilly Auto Parts
-1 Stick of Jewelers Rouge – Lowe’s
-1 Spiral sewn buffing wheel – Lowe’s
-1 Double sewn buffing wheel – Lowe’s
-2 Single sewn buffing wheels – Lowe’s
-1-2 Quarts of Aircraft/Paint Stripper – Ace, Lowe’s or Home Depot
-1-2 Chemical proof paint brushes – Ace, Lowe’s, Home Depot
Other stuff you’ll need:
-1 small bucket or bowl for water, to dip the wet/dry paper in
-1 simple spray bottle – filled with water
-Lots of water to fill the spray bottle many times
-Rubber gloves
-Goggles
-Paint stirring sticks or popsicle sticks
-Newspapers or cardboard to set the rims on while you’re working on them
-Electric Drill – to use with the buffing wheels (the electric drills have higher RPMs than the battery powered hand held drills we all use, the higher RPMs you can get - the better for this process)
-Shop/paper towels/cloths – something to dry and/or polish the rims with after cleaning & buffing
Stripping the clearcoat off the rims….
I used less than one quart of stripper (total) for all four rims – but depending on how liberally you apply the stuff, you may need more. NOTE: I’ve seen recommendations and DIYs on using Easy-Off or some other oven cleaner to do the stripping – I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT – that stuff is caustic, and even though the Aircraft Stripper stuff is nasty and will chemically burn you, it won’t wreck or destroy your aluminum rims like the oven cleaner will.
Clean the rim completely and allow it to dry. Some chemicals like Armor-All or Eagle One wheel cleaner may react with the stripper and will not allow it to work properly. I did this in my garage with the door open, but if you attempt to do this indoors, make sure you have plenty of ventilation. Place the rim on cardboard or newspaper and apply the stripper to the rim with a decent (used if you’ve got one) bristle (i.e. chemical proof) paint brush. Saturate the rim – don’t be shy. Then, sit back and allow stripper to soak for a GOOD 10 to 20 minutes. Use a popsicle stick or old paint stirring stick to scrape the clearcoat off. Take the rim outside and hose it off (and watch where the run-off goes – some places even have laws about “dumping” chemicals into the sewer system). After you hose the rim off you will notice that not all of the clearcoat is removed. Use your paint brush and apply more stripper in those areas. Again, wait about 15 minutes. Use the other side of whatever stick you’re using to keep scraping the clearcoat and / or paint loose. Hose the rim off and dry it again. Do this as many times as you have to until the clearcoat is gone.
OK – first mission accomplished, all the clearcoat is gone. Next, wash or wipe the rim with mineral spirits and then wash it with water. This will ensure that all the paint stripper is gone. I’ve seen some DIYs that recommend brake dust remover (wheel cleaner) to do the cleaning, I used only mineral spirits, water and the shop towels. Dry the rim with the cloths or towels.
Now, the sanding process…
If you have any imperfections, curb rash, or corrosion on the rim (I had both corrosion and a few areas of rash on mine), now is the time to get rid of them. Use the Orbital Sander and the 240 grit, all purpose paper – I guess you can use wet/dry paper, but I couldn’t find any that was stick-on for the sander, so I went with the stick-on multi-purpose paper to get the rash and corrosion off. Make sure you get it all off, this is your only chance – and you may have to “go deep” to get all of it out, but do it. Once the major areas of the rims have been addressed – the rash or corrosion is gone, and you just have “clean” aluminum rim showing, start hand sanding with the 320 grit wet/dry paper. I really took my time on the first rim – the first one probably took me 4-6 hours total to grind out the rash/corrosion and sand it with the ever-finer grits of paper – it’s been 30 years (or so) since metal shop in Jr. High School and I wasn’t feeling too sure of myself – so I used the first rim to learn on, assess at each step what looked good and then proceeded carefully to the next step. You might want to take digital pictures of each finished step on the first one to use as a comparison point for the others (I didn’t, but depending on how serious you are about doing this, I could see the value).
Fill a small bucket with water and use this to clean your paper. Also, fill the spray bottle with water. You will use the spray bottle as your main source of water. If you use your bucket each time, when you get to the finer grits of paper (600 and above) you will be picking up sand from the 240 paper and it will leave scratches and streaks. Therefore, only use the bucket to clean the coarse paper (320 & 400) and use the spray bottle after that.
Cut up the wet/dry sandpaper into small sections – I found that sections 3”–4” by 2”–3” were just about right. They were small enough to fit in my fingers and yet didn’t bunch up around the lug or spoke holes. I used two or three sections of paper for each wheel – a total of 8-12 sections of each grit paper in total – hence, I only needed two sheets. Outside of the 240 grit, I did the rest of the sanding by hand – move from 320 to 400 to 600 to 1000, then on to the 1200 and 1500. I did not make any attempt to sand in a circular motion or anything – I probably stayed basically parallel to the outer edge of the rim in most of my hand sanding, but the motion wasn’t specific or designed.
Your goal with each finer grade of grit is to get rid of the surface from the previous, rougher, grit. One way you can tell you've done a good job and are ready to move on is, if while using the current grit, you make new scratches every time you sand....this means you're creating a new surface with each pass, and the surface will also look smoother and more mirror like than with the previous grit. Make sure you either dip the paper (320 or 400) or spray the paper AND the rim with the spray bottle (600 grit and finer) almost constantly, every 30-45 seconds or so...it helps wash away the sanding residue and keeps the scratches from getting too deep. Make sure that both the paper and the rim stay completely wet – not damp, not moist, totally wet and soaked. Use this same procedure all the way to the 1500 grit. Before you proceed to polishing...wash the wheel off as well as you can. Again, I’ve seen it recommended to use brake dust / wheel cleaner, I just used water and dryed them with the shop towels. But, you do want the surface as clean as possible before polishing.
A quick note on the outer edges of the rims – I did hit all of them with the orbital sander and the 240 grit paper to get the corrosion off, I didn’t spend much time on this – I made sure to get the corrosion off (I didn’t have rash on the edges), and I did use each successive grit of paper on them as well – I just made sure to go around the rim edge with each grit in one direction only, stopping only a couple of times - cause my arm wouldn’t allow me to go all the way around in one motion.
Clean up…
Basically, aluminum isn’t good for your system – I did most all the hand sanding without gloves or anything. If you’re like me, when you’re done with each rim, your fingers will be basically black – you need to get it off as best as you can. I used Soft Scrub Cleanser with Bleach – it didn’t take long, the outside of my fingertips and the fingernail areas were the hardest, but the Soft Scrub did the job. Also, the smell of the aluminum being sanded won’t be overly pleasant, but you’ll get used to it – again, ventilation of the area is a good thing.
You’re ready for the polishing…
Get out the 3M Perfect-It Rubbing Compound, this is really good stuff – I put a nice even thin coat of it directly on the rim and worked it around with my fingers. Put the Spiral Sewn buffing wheel on the electric drill – I used one side of it for two rims, and the other side for the other two. Start buffing the rim out with the rubbing compound – you want higher RPMs on the electric drill, the faster the drill goes, the better – you’re going for RPMs and heat here. When you first start buffing, there will be a black residue built up on the rim – continue buffing with the drill, the residue will come off and you’ll start to see a nice shine. If you put the rubbing compound on too thick, it will take longer for the residue to go away (and it’ll probably spatter all over the place) – keep the coating thin, and the compound can do its’ thing.
Note: you can repeat this step multiple times if you need to…if you've done a good job sanding, there should be a minimal amount of black residue coming off with the polishing...if you did a mediocre job, you'll have heavy black residue and because mediocre jobs leave plenty of pits in the aluminum, the dark residue will fill in the holes and your wheel will look more smoky, not shiny and chrome-like. The key is the sanding process and going slowly with each grit of paper – if you’ve gotten all the way to 1500 grit paper and followed the sanding process above well, you should be in good shape – I did have to re-do one of my rims because it just wasn’t as good as the others. If you have this problem, decide where you started to slack off with the sanding and start over from there...be it 600, 1000, or even all the way back to the 320.
I did not do this, but depending on how you feel about the outer edges of your rims, you may want to put duct tape on the outer edge portion of the rim if you don’t trust yourself and your grip on the drill. The key with the buffing wheels is to generate heat – especially with the 3M rubbing compound. It’s made to smooth out 1500 grit lines – keep a good grip and steady arm and you’ll be fine. Again, I approached the first rim as an opportunity to learn, once I figured out how to hold the drill and how to keep it steady – the whole process got better and faster with each subsequent rim.
Optional step – I couldn’t find a Double Sewn Buffing Wheel – if you do/can, switch to it, reapply the 3M compound and polish again.
Next, switch to the single sewn buffing wheel, apply that same thin coating of Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish – again, I applied it directly to the wheel and worked it around with my fingers. Then, once the Mothers is in place, go at it – the heat buildup is less important with the Mothers than with the 3M – you’re going for shine at this point. The Mothers may start to cake up – the rim will look marred or you’ll see a buildup of the polish – just take a cloth or a shop towel and smooth it out, you have to work at it to get it out, but it will come out.
Last, switch to the other – new, clean – single sewn buffing wheel and get the Jewelers Rouge stuff out. Put a coating of it directly on the buffing wheel, not on the rim – it’s like a heavy wax – and go over the rim again.
For the outer edges – I didn’t directly apply any 3M rubbing compound to the edges, I just used whatever built up onto the buffing wheel and made sure to go over it as best I could. I couldn’t get to the lower area of the outer edges on the rim – I just didn’t trust myself to try that with the electric drill and not mark up the top outer edge. So, after the sanding (those were not the problem areas of my rims, so I kept the sanding to a minimum there), I just used the Mothers polish and did the best I could with the shop towels and clean cloths.
The Center Caps….not addressed in any of the DIYs !!
As you might have guessed, the center caps that came with my rims weren’t in great shape either. They weren’t pitted, they were just kind oxidized and looked kinda dingy. I took some old No 7 Clearcoat Polishing Compound – that’s the name, sorry but I bought it maybe 8 years ago. I put it on the caps, light coats at first, then heavier ones – and polished them up, circular motion as best I could….I did this probably six or seven times total for each of the center caps. They look tons better – a major improvement, and again, much cheaper than going to the Acura dealer and dropping upwards of $100 for new ones (my estimate, but I'm sure it’s not far off).
Clearcoat or not….
Because of the ultra smooth and now very shiny surface, to this point, I’ve chosen not to clearcoat the polished area – though I may rethink that position over the next few months – I'm still researching whether the clearcoat will adhere to the smooth surface, how much it’ll reduce the shine, how much $$$ I'll need to spend to do the clearcoat, and whether the maintenance of the shiny wheels is going to be too much of a hindrance (PITA). There are many schools of thought on this – some are detailed in the attached DIY links, read and assess for yourself.
The recommendation from one of the DIYs that I'm going with right now: To maintain the shine just wax the rims periodically. It only takes about 5 minutes to wax all 4 rims so do it frequently. If they get dull or have excessive caked-on dirt, use the Mother’s polish by hand then wax them again. Contrary to popular belief, aluminum rims are easier to maintain than chrome as they will not rust and can always be re-polished if they get really bad.
Porsche 924 wheels – also a much flatter surface area than the GS rims, but it has a few decent pics, he used the oven cleaner to strip – there is a good section on what happened when he left it on too long.
Another one is for Pontiac Fiero wheels – it recommends different rubbing/buffing compounds, good for alternate ideas – and maybe good for folks in the northern areas, and this was done by someone in the Michigan Fiero club.
This one tackles Toyota SR-5 wheels – no new info except the following tidbit:
Care and Maintenance:
I chose not to re-apply a clearcoat because it reduces the shininess and I feared aftermarket clearcoats would easily flake-off. With no clearcoat, the aluminum is exposed to the air, which means it will oxidize with time. I use Mother's Aluminum Wheel Polish once every six months when I wax the truck. The wheels always look very shiny, even after the six months before I apply the polish.
If you’re thinking about painting or leaving the tires on for the refinishing process, read this one – good info for both of those areas. Excellent pics too. Eagle Talon TSi wheels.
__________________
Legend owner since '98, lovin it more & more
94 Pearl White LS Sedan
Eibachs & Konis w/ Ingalls, GS Rims, RangerJoe CAI, MLS copy bar
Alpine 7892 HU, S694 CD / MP3 Changer (factory location), 10" Type R Sub, Kenwood Amps
Focal 690 CA & MB Quart PCE216
New 2-tone leather, Tint - 35% all around, DEI keyless / remote start
Roof wind deflector, Clear corners & bumpers
Mike - go ahead and move it. Matt and I've traded emails on this, he wanted it here first - so I went ahead and broke it up into multiple posts.
smth_hckr - look in the LINKs reply - my Imagestation link is in there, there are some b4 and after shots - they don't really do them justice tho. You can't see the corrosion that was on them before I started (I didn't do a good job of documenting with pics, sorry), but the shine if awesome afterwards.
Smitty
__________________
Legend owner since '98, lovin it more & more
94 Pearl White LS Sedan
Eibachs & Konis w/ Ingalls, GS Rims, RangerJoe CAI, MLS copy bar
Alpine 7892 HU, S694 CD / MP3 Changer (factory location), 10" Type R Sub, Kenwood Amps
Focal 690 CA & MB Quart PCE216
New 2-tone leather, Tint - 35% all around, DEI keyless / remote start
Roof wind deflector, Clear corners & bumpers
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