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Polished my factory TBSS wheels


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It certainly can be done but lot of upkeep once you do it.  I have stripped and polished TBSS wheels and they looked great when done but I did not re clear them.

 

Buying replicas from Tony is an easier option.

 

 

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Yeah, the hang up for me is buying the same wheels I already have...but they are in much better shape when new!

 

I’ve been eyeing the snowflake wheels he has too. Either way, my factory wheels will be my winter set so I’m not too overly concerned about how flawless I can make these. 

 

Are the center caps also capable of being stripped and polished? Or does anyone have a good part number for new ones?
 

 

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  • 2 years later...
On 3/22/2012 at 10:31 PM, Team Adam's said:

This was a little project I began last fall when I pulled these wheels off in order to swap my winter set on...for the winter we never really had here in Northern Indiana.

 

It ended up being a pretty tedious process and overall, I spent about 10-12 hours total to get them from the factory finish to the polished finish that you'll see in the pictures.

 

The process I used was as follows:

 

I began with aircraft stripper applied with a paint brush. The first coat of stripper was blasted off with the fire hose nozzle opened all the way up. That was enough to get the majority of the clear coat off.

 

I then used a different kind of sprayable stripper and applied another full coat of that. Agitated with a VRT block sponge, then sprayed off with the hose. That got 99% of the clear off, and I just spot treated any left-over stubborn areas with the sprayable stripper and some #0000 steel wool.

 

Once all the clear was gone, it was time to polish. I used an un-named red ball on a cordless drill with MP #1 for the majority of the heavy lifting. I did 1 wheel with MP #1 by hand and it nearly killed me, so that's why I switched to the ball. ;)

 

After everything has been hit with MP #1, I started with MP #2 and a blue MF applicator. This step made a HUGE difference! They looked nice after MP #1, but they really popped after #2 did it's work!

 

After the MP combo was done, I did a quick IPA wipe down to remove and left over polishing residue, then applied two coats of QS with an Americana applicator. I also put one nano glass coating of QS on the barrels of the wheels, but didn't do any polishing on them. Followed that with a coat of Americana and some VRT on the tires. On to the pictures....

 

Before:

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/094.jpg

 

In progress:

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/161.jpg

 

Bottom two spokes are polished here:

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/100.jpg

 

Here's a pretty good illustration of what the Adam's Metal Polish combo is capable of. Bottom three spokes are finished and you can see the half-finished, half-not line at the 9 o'clock position:

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/110.jpg

 

Finished!

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/167.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/178.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/179.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/184.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/190.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/193.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/194.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/195.jpg

 

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/nmcqueen469/TBSS/Polished%20Wheels/191.jpg

That's great!!!

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