Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

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Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

September 04, 2007, 08:57:30 PM

I spent some time working on one of the 10-hole wheels that came with my '86 XR-7.
After seeing the results, I decided to create a thread with some details and pictures of the process (eat your heart out, Carm.) :D

Like most 10-hole wheels you see these days, the shine has long since left the wheels while the centercap retains its shine.
Has anybody noticed this? It drives me crazy, actually. Whenever I see a Fox body Mustang with 10-holes, the wheels always look like butt.
I guess it didn't take long for the clearcoat to fail and the aluminum to lose its luster, but the centercap was somehow unaffected by the
aging and oxidation process.

In any event, my goal was to refinish the wheel to the point where its luster matched that of the centercap.

I started with stripping the clearcoat from the wheel surface by using a chemical stripper. To hell with sanding it off. The stripper I used was some kind of heavy gel stuff - pretty tenacious.

The next step was to wet-sand the entire outer surface (not the insides of the holes or the outer channel) with 1000 grit sandpaper. This part of the process took quite a while. I wanted to remove any small defects and get down to clean metal, but I didn't want to eliminate the very small grooves from the machining process. It's a fine line to walk, so watch closely as you progress.
Following this, I simply hand polished the surface until its luster matched that of the centercap. The match isn't perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what it used to be.

For polishing, I used Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish (white paste) with some rags. Simply hit the areas as equally as you can. Clean the surface well when you're done, inspect it closely, then hit the dull areas. It's not as hard as it sounds.

I'll attach some pictures of the process. Included in the pictures is an unrestored wheel with a centercap. I can't wait to do the remaining three wheels.

I haven't yet decided if I want to clearcoat them, or just to hit them with polish every other month. I'm leaning towards not clearcoating them.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #1 – September 04, 2007, 09:40:33 PM

nice! Mine look like that, but I haven't touched them yet. They are original. I might try and polish them up sometime.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #2 – September 04, 2007, 09:50:10 PM

Quote from: 1WLD BRD;174422

nice! Mine look like that, but I haven't touched them yet. They are original. I might try and polish them up sometime.

well geter done already,, and stop being a post w:flame:

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #3 – September 04, 2007, 10:09:04 PM

get a life buddy, look at your post count compared to mine..... Idiot.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #4 – September 04, 2007, 10:17:44 PM

1WLDBRD:

What car did the wheels come from? I'm curious about Ford's technique for clearcoating.
I once stripped the clearcoat from a set of factory '88 XR-7 turbines and the wheels looked brand-new. In fact, all I did was strip the clearcoat and apply new clearcoat - they looked great!
These 10-holes, though... They were pretty rough. I found that I absolutely had to wet-sand them.
You may or may not have the same result. Let me know what you find out.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #5 – September 04, 2007, 10:49:45 PM

those r some nice wheels, I need to get me a set of them, Cougar Rims to replace my hub caps :D even know I like my hub cabs :D

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #6 – September 05, 2007, 04:10:07 AM

Here is the roughest one on my '86 stang. I will try your technique on one of them this weekend and let you know what happens. Those rims look awsome. The car has low milage too, so that probably helps.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #7 – September 05, 2007, 07:05:52 AM

Go over those wheels with 220 grit until they are SMOOTH,then 320,400,600,800,1000,1500,and finally 2000 grit (all wet sanding,except the 220,which I use 5 inch discs on my drill),and then use the Mother Bilet polish.You'll be able to see yourself in them.You can do the whole set in a day.I did it with a set of TC wheels (on the blue car in the banner).The wheel you did really does look good,though.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #8 – September 05, 2007, 07:38:46 AM

My thinking is if you could put the wheel on some thing to make it spin it would go a lot faster. Maybe chuck them up in a lathe of something. Then start the sanding. Maybe use on of those Roloc Disc from 3m to start out with then on to the sand paper. Oh yeah the Mother Billet Polish make a much better shine than the regular mag/Alum polish

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #9 – September 05, 2007, 01:36:58 PM

I did basically what you did to my 8-holes on the Bird. I haven't clear coated them I just polish them with Mother's mag and aluminium polish every other month and they look great. However my car is not a daily driver and I wipe the wheels down after every trip. If you're going to drive the car pretty frequently then I would definatly clear them. If not it will be a pain to keep break dust from dulling them.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #10 – September 05, 2007, 08:59:14 PM

Thanks for the compliments.

Keep in mind that I didn't want to polish the wheels; only make them look new again.
I kept the wet-sanding stage short so I wouldn't remove the small grooves from the machining process. I just wanted to brighten them up.

Restoring 10-Hole Wheels

Reply #11 – September 05, 2007, 09:19:27 PM

Quote from: vinnietbird;174479

Go over those wheels with 220 grit until they are SMOOTH,then 320,400,600,800,1000,1500,and finally 2000 grit (all wet sanding,except the 220,which I use 5 inch discs on my drill),and then use the Mother Bilet polish.You'll be able to see yourself in them.You can do the whole set in a day.I did it with a set of TC wheels (on the blue car in the banner).The wheel you did really does look good,though.

I would do that too, except I would do the first wheel by hand to see if the "micro-grooves" still show and if so, then you know to sand in the direction of the grooves. That is what I had to do for my 85 GS wheels. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2492198

My concern with the 5-inch disc approach would be 5-inch diameter circular groove patterns. Vinnie, do you notice any micro-grooves that are the size of the discs you used?

Zach, great job though. I agree with you about most 10-holes out there.

Just realized you didn't want to polish them. In that case, stop at 1000 or 1500.

You know what, I really don't know what the hell I would do to preserve those factory grooves. Starting at 220 would kill them and stopping at 1000 would just make for dull-looking wheels that look as though they should be polished.

Good luck, dude.