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[yoogene]

So with my stimulus check coming in this week, i had planned on using it to repair and repaint my wheels back to a silver color...but with things going the way they are, i may just put it in a CD or something, and use 100 for supplies.

Anyways, the wheels are 19" IForged Senekas, 2-piece that need a little TLC. there are about 39 bolts per wheel, and after taking them apart, i'm thinking of sanding off the black paint and trying to get an anodized or brushed silver finish and repolishing the lips.

My main concern is, how much elbow grease/asspain will it be to take these apart? and then, how much elbow grease/asspain will it be to get the faces the color i want? I'm planning on spending a lot of time, so that's not the issue, but it's the issues with it coming out right that i'm worried about. Do you have any recommended tools that i should invest in? i'm budgeting around $100-200 max, but willing to spend a little money on tools if need be since you can always reuse tools  :thumbup:

anyways, here are the wheels i'm planning on working on...






and this is what i'm shooting for:




i'm getting a list of supplies together that i don't have quite yet, so far it's:

reverse torx bit
1/4" torque wrench
extension
PB blaster
WD-40
Aircraft stripper
new centercaps

maybe--gold plating kit for reassembly of bolts in gold (still debating)
anything else i'm missing?

[punkrider99]

reverse torx = 12 point

aircraft stipper requires scrapping the current paint/powdercoat off of the wheels.  scrapping could lead to gouges in the aluminum.  i'd do some looking around and find a place that does media blasting.  media blasting might actually get you a "brushed" look.  they'll look like eric's kenisis wheels. 

you want a 3/8" drive torque wrench, not a 1/4" drive.

mark how each face matches up with each barrel.  do not mix the faces up.  most times the wheels never come out true when they're assembled so they'll actually true them by machining the back side of the center of the wheel.  mixing the faces with different barrels could throw everything out of whack.

[yoogene]

hm...thanks for the info Nate. I was wondering about the faces mixing so i gotta figure out how to mark them in case i do get them powdercoated.

i'm still working on baby steps...gotta get the tires dismounted first heh

[Jesus]

Listen to Nate on the media blasting.

You're not going to be very successful sanding / scraping the finish off

[Scott]

just use a paint pen and write 1,2,3,4 on the back of the faces in the hub area...   then write the same on the tire side of the lips or maybe the valve stem...

[yoogene]

got it, my only concern is if they media blast the faces, won't the paint label i put on the back be taken off?

[yokust]

You can also use a engraving pen from craftsman and just write 1,2,3,4 that why it shows up after media blasting and even powder coating.


And without media blasting the wheels you will never end up with the finish you want


Also contact iForge for torque specs on the wheels before you put them back together, because i know different wheel companies want different torque specs and torque patterns.

iForge will most likely have the correct socket to sell you for the bolts on the wheels, they have them made to not damage the finish on the bolt heads. Some normal inverted torx will crack the finish on the bolts.

[Scott]

good idea on the engraver... makes more sense!

[yoogene]

awesome, i'll look into the engraver.

i found out that it's a normal 12point socket for the bolt head, so i'm going to head to sears to grab that, an extension and an adaptor for my cordless drill to hold a socket.

I also went to Wustefest out here this past weekend and got a nice burnt scalp out of it. anyways, i saw some slick wheels and gold bolts.

DEFINITELY gonna do gold bolts. 

[GTiGuy]

I'm usually always refinishing a set. I'm in the middle of some 18" Work Brombachers. If you get another person, you can knock all the bolts out in 10 minutes. To seal them up, regular industrial grade silicon will work fine, run the bead after you have secured everything.


E

[mikeminnillo]

Aircraft stripper

i want one of those on our c-130s. 

[yoogene]

Eric,  do you happen to know or could possibly find out the torque specs on IForged wheels? i know you're a distributor for those guys and if you could help me out, that'd be awesome. My contact at IForged hasn't gotten back to me yet, so in case he doesn't get around to it, i wanted to make sure i had a little insurance.

[yoogene]

Ok, so i went at this since 4pm this afternoon and just wrapped up for the day a few minutes ago around midnight.

Church came by and lent his almighty hand and brain to pull these bitches apart and cleaned up. without him, i'd probably be cursing a storm and spent twice the amount of time doing it. He also has some better pictures for the future DIY i will be posting, but these will suffice for now...

day 1:
pulled the wheels off the car and cleaned them up with some water and sponges. knocked off the center caps and polished those beasts up. They went from this:


to this:


day 2:
then went into the process of pulling them off. Turned out to be an 8mm 12 point socket, so luckily i had picked up both the 6mm and 8mm just in case, and the luck of the draw saved me. I also used my electrical impact wrench to pull them off from the rear. I mean, hot damn, that thing worked like a charm. it was so effortless i thought i could have drank a beer while doing it.




now came the rebuild phase, on Cam and Levi's suggestion, i picked up up some aircraft stripper and went to town.
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, what a pain in my fucking ass. I've gone through probably 6 coats of this shit and have just gotten through the face, not even the spokes. uugggghhh



so in between waiting for the paint to wrinkle up on the face, i went to town polishing the barrels. I found the PB blaster is a great way to clean up the grime and crap all over the wheels and used my MAG polish and powerball to polish the biches up

From this:


to this:





I got through fully polishing the rear wheels and i'll do the fronts later when i do the other faces.

This is where one wheels stands...


i'm about this -> |    |   fooking close to saying screw it and sending the faces into powedercoating or just media blasting to the base metal, which looks flipping awesome and the exact look i'm going for...

We shall see if i pick up more of the aircraft stripper to try to soak inside the trash lid....

as of now, i'm about $100 into the project. Spent about $60 at Sears on random tools, and another $50 at autozone and supplies...so far so good...

[Jesus]

You're wasting time with stripper.
Just get them media blasted already

[LOS]

looks good so far mang.  Im actually lookin at new rims for my car... maybe I'll find a set of something that needs tlc and do it up thanks to you. I remember taking my rxII's apart to polish the lip and it was a pain, but on the rxII's the faces dont have anything to do w/ holding air so it really wasn't that bad.  I was just cursing how long it took to polish the lips.  LOL   Looks like these are the same in the way that the face bolts dont have anything to do w/ holding air.

Scan the tex about the bolts, I bet its like 20 or 30lbs... but you'll probably find the answer in the wheel and tire forum.

[punkrider99]

eugene i highly suggest you check out a product called zoops seal.  it's actually an aluminum sealant.  it bonds with the metal to seal off all of the pores.  this prevents oxidizing and mag chloride from occuring.  it also means that you don't have to polish your wheels for 2-3 years.  i used it on lips before i put my rm's together.  stuff is awesome. 

[yoogene]

You're wasting time with stripper.
Just get them media blasted already

i know, but the sense of accomplishment after it comes out is really nice...not to mention i'm cheap. i'm looking into quotes for media blasting right now though...

looks good so far mang.  Im actually lookin at new rims for my car... maybe I'll find a set of something that needs tlc and do it up thanks to you. I remember taking my rxII's apart to polish the lip and it was a pain, but on the rxII's the faces dont have anything to do w/ holding air so it really wasn't that bad.  I was just cursing how long it took to polish the lips.  LOL   Looks like these are the same in the way that the face bolts dont have anything to do w/ holding air.

Scan the tex about the bolts, I bet its like 20 or 30lbs... but you'll probably find the answer in the wheel and tire forum.

i'm looking into it, but the IForged guys like to keep their stuff hush hush since they want everyone to send their wheels back to them to refinish, but hopefully i'll get an answer sooner than later...

eugene i highly suggest you check out a product called zoops seal.  it's actually an aluminum sealant.  it bonds with the metal to seal off all of the pores.  this prevents oxidizing and mag chloride from occuring.  it also means that you don't have to polish your wheels for 2-3 years.  i used it on lips before i put my rm's together.  stuff is awesome. 

definetly will! is it widely available at autozone, pep boys, etc?

[punkrider99]

no but you can find it online.  it's kinda pricey for what it is but it works amazing. 

btw the torque spec for those little bolts is like 12-15 ft lbs.  those little m7 bolts don't like a lot of torque. 

[yoogene]

no but you can find it online.  it's kinda pricey for what it is but it works amazing. 

btw the torque spec for those little bolts is like 12-15 ft lbs.  those little m7 bolts don't like a lot of torque. 

i know the torque rating is low, but i have yet to get a concrete number. i keep getting different ranges, but it seems like 18-20 ftlbs is the generic median...

[yoogene]

ok, so i finally got a response from IForged regarding torque specs...they said 28 ft/lbs...sounds a little high to anyone else?

so i called around and las vegas powedercoating plus wants $85 a face to media blast, so $340 for the set. fuck it, i guess i'll be sitting on my ass scrubbing these bitches with steel wool and ac stripper...

[Jesus]

so i called around and las vegas powedercoating plus wants $85 a face to media blast, so $340 for the set. fuck it, i guess i'll be sitting on my ass scrubbing these bitches with steel wool and ac stripper...

That's high for just media blasting 

[yoogene]

so i called around and las vegas powedercoating plus wants $85 a face to media blast, so $340 for the set. fuck it, i guess i'll be sitting on my ass scrubbing these bitches with steel wool and ac stripper...

That's high for just media blasting 

yea, no shit.

[LOS]

is there no other place that can do it?  There has to be a ton of places there...

[yoogene]

an update...

I'm about 20 hours into this project so far and it's so incredibly time consuming. i've gone through about 6 cans of aircraft stripper and will probably be able to get by with 1 more. here's a couple updated picts..



inner spokes are a humongus pain in the butt



got through 3 after 5 hours...


and guess what! they actually look like expensive wheels again. haha

[yokust]

Looks way better now, go man go