I baught my 93 GT a few days ago and I decided to wash it yesterday. I used Armerol (spelling?) Wheel Cleaner on them. I followed the directions, apply let sit for 60 seconds and rinse immediatly. Thats what I did and it ate right through the finish. Now they are all discolored. And what makes it worst is that I was rubbing the cleaner around the wheel w/ my finger to get into the openings in the wheel. So whatever I didnt touch w/ my hand is also a different color. It looks HORRIBLE and these were 13 year old original 100% mint Pony's. Is there any cost effective way of fixing this problem? Thanks fellas.

Dan
W/ the messed up Pony's

 

Dan, any painted wheel, as in your ponies, you should treat the finish on em the same as the rest of the finish on the car. So that means no harsh chemicals, only soap, water and wax. As to what you can do, other than getting them refinished, you can get em chrome dipped, or go and get em bead blasted and then just repaint them. Theyre pretty much gone, hate to tell ya.
-P.

 

Same thing happened to me, although my wheels werent as nice as yours.......i was sick, and after some thought i ended up replacing them, it looks better now anyway.

 

Well, I guess you have to learn from your mistakes. Pzero.... when you say repaint them. Do you mean take them somewhere and have them paint them w/ a spray gun after they are bead blasted?

Has anyone ever had this done before? Est. price? Im just asking because I am up to my eyes in debt and I cannot spend alot of money AT ALL.

 

I took mine in and had the original Roush wheels stripped down (clear coat was starting to peal) and then powdercoated a different color. There are a few places around here (Indy area) that do it for all kinds of steels. Depending on the labor to strip them...it typically started around 400 depending on the color, textured (if requested), and a clear coat. Just another option.

 

Was the place local that you sent it to. Its probably a nice chunk of money to ship wheels out and have them shipped backt to you.

 

As for painting em, you paint em just like you would anything else. You could either have em bead blasted or acid dipped to remove the old paint off of em. Then scuff em with some 220grit, personally Id wet sand it with some 400 grit (not neccessary, but will make em smoother), then you just spray and clear. Gettin the wheels chrome dipped is pretty expensive, bout $150 a wheel, you could probably buy a chrome set for cheaper.
-P.

 

...it was a local shop (there are quite a few local ones), but I'm sure there are places out there that do that type of work. Most of them here are also custom paint shops, and they do motorcycle frames, car cages, all kinds of custom fab parts. The finish is perfect and really is maitenance free as long as u only wash em with just soap and water...;-)

 

Well, I learned that now [:@] Do you think it would be cheaper to powdercoat them?

 

...my suggestion would be get on the web/phone and find some paint shops or fab shops and see if they can refer you to someone with a powdercoating facility. It's a very expensive investment (powdercoating setup) for people to get, but once they get it up and running they can do quite a bit of work at once. The product is an actual powder they spray on the wheels, in your case, then they stick em in an oven an bake it for a certain time...the end process is an awesome finish and damn near indistructable. Get a quote from them, then check the web for wheel/tire combos...if you like the original wheels, then have them redone, otherwise you may be able to upgrade you wheels and tires for a bit more. Good luck!


(edit = added link)

Not sure how close you are to this place, but....


http://www.customcoaters.com/html/new_jersey.html