Refinished my T Wheels myself

[ALBERTAN]

I bought a blast cabinet for my shop, and was itching to try it out. So I spent last weekend blasting a spare set of T wheels I had lying around, followed by a polish of the fins and outer & inner lips using the following grits of sandpaper: 80, 180, 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500. I jacked up one of the Buicks and pulled a rear wheel to use it as a lathe. It worked great, and I only had to exert some manual labor on the inner fins. I'd say each wheel took 90-120 minutes start to finish. A friend runs a powder coating shop and offered some expertise and the opportunity to have them PC'd for a good price. I took him up on his offer, since clearing them isn't as strong and yellows over time. I haven't seen them in person yet, but I have the tires in for them so I should have some pictures of them mounted and out in the sun sometime this week. I'll take some before and after pics with the typical aged wheels currently on the car for comparison.

Before the bake...

Fresh out of the oven, like cookies...

I was going to do a how to. But I'm busy trying to get one of my cars ready to sell it. You could take your wheels in to be blasted and still do the rest yourself if you clear coat paint them. I figure I saved around $600USD compared to having them done professionally. If you want to tackle it and need some help, shoot me a PM.

 

[larrym]

How about I just ship you my wheels

 

[ALBERTAN]

I could probably blast them for you, if you pay for the ride here and back. But then that's probably more than it would cost you to have them blasted locally.

 

[ALBERTAN]

Before pics of the car I was going to put them on. Not the same wheels, but the same general condition. It'll be nice having easily maintained inner barrels.

 

[larrym]

Lol thanks for the offer I'm just lazy I need to redo mine soon yours look great. Buddy of mine is doing his with talystrip it's a tedious process.

 

[Jerryl]

Looks great.
What blast media did you use?

 

[ALBERTAN]

Looks great.
What blast media did you use?

It's called Starblast. It's basically 80 grit aluminum oxide.

 

[ALBERTAN]

I'm working on the second set now as the spare set I originally refinished are going out the door on the red D84 Limited shortly. The second set are off the white Limited, and are the worst of the four sets I have. That's a front off the same car with the tire mounted above. I thought I would show some pictures of a grungy rear wheel off the white Limited, the other rear wheel off the white Limited after blasting, and a wheel from the first set with the refinish completed and the wheel powder coated. Just some reference/info since I had the camera handy in the shop tonight. And more wheel porn for the new owner of the red Limited to tide him over until he gets his new car in a couple of weeks.

 

[626gn]

Nice job Dean!

 

[BobbyBuick]

Dean what brand or kind of blast cabinet did you buy?

 

[RUDE DOG]

Good job, aluminum oxide does a great job and leaves a smooth surface.

 

[ALBERTAN]

Thanks guys. The cabinet I bought is from Eastwood. It was relatively cheap since you have to build it yourself. I've been really happy with it so far, and the fact that its top load instead of side load let me put it up against one of my storage racks. If you have the room and a compressor, I highly recommend getting one. I've found lots of uses for mine already.

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-abrasive-blast-cabinet.html

 

[Mark T-TB]

Those look fantastic!
I did a set 2 years ago and put them on my GN, they are "5 footers" - all masked & painted with the Eastwood Satin Black wheel paint spray cans. This let me keep the project cost very low.
I'm lucky to have a guy at work set me up with a "fixture" to use an actual lathe instead of a Buick

 

[ALBERTAN]

Yours look great too Mark. Having the lathe would be nice. Although I don't use the car as a lathe so much as just something to make the sanding go faster. Oddly enough, if you don't get too crazy with the sanding, the original lathe marks will remain visible. I find that odd since they aren't that deep.

 

[79transam]

great look they look awesome

 

[Mark T-TB]

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with them. They won't rust and the car lost about 30 lbs
The photos basically give you that "5 foot view" where they look their best.
I basically used the lathe just for sanding and Scotchbrite, you can still see the tool marks from the original factory work. We found 1" wide Scotchbrite belts for a small air powered belt sander here that was a huge help on the spokes.

 

[ALBERTAN]

I basically used the lathe just for sanding and Scotchbrite, you can still see the tool marks from the original factory work. We found 1" wide Scotchbrite belts for a small air powered belt sander here that was a huge help on the spokes.

I bet. I do my spokes by hand. That's probably the most labour-intensive part for me.

 

[ALBERTAN]

Some nice professionally-refinished wheels here for comparison.

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/t-type-lightweight-aluminum-wheels.426109/