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Topic: Polishing a Turbine wheel (Read 5239 times) previous topic - next topic

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Hi all

Wanted to try and polish the spokes on my new turbine wheels i got from ebay.
Phhhuuu.. What a job :hick:
But i think its worth it, it should look great with the rest of the wheel painted dark argent or maybe black.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #1 –
That looks good, but you should have painted the wheels first though, would have been easier.

Check out Carmen's web site for tips on that.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #2 –
I'd go with the Argent Grey.Black hides all the detail.The dark grey wheel paint looks great.We just did a set of old school turbine wheels (aftermarket wheels from the early 80's) the same way,polish and paint.We polished first as well.After the polish,we taped everything off,trimmed the excess tape with an Exacto knife,and sprayed the paint.Excellent results.You're doing great,3 more to go.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #3 –
Good work!
I redid my turbines a while back. Removing that factory clear is the worst part. Taping them off isn't a problem, it's pretty easy actually. I have a set I'm going to do similar for my '86 with darker grey inserts.

Here's after masking off what I didn't want to paint.

Paint applied

Final product clear coated.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #4 –
Nice job there! Did you remove the paint within the spokes? or did you just take the shine of it so the new paint had something stick to

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #5 –
I`m also going to use the wheels with out the centercaps. Just the wheel and some chrome lugnuts that will shine together with the polished spokes

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #6 –
Quote from: woody76;133411
Nice job there! Did you remove the paint within the spokes? or did you just take the shine of it so the new paint had something stick to

I actually left the paint there. I used acetone and steel wool to take the factory clear off and worked it into the old painted areas to dull them.

I did it almost 3 years ago and they've held up great with only a few chips but I have driven the car a lot. I'm going to do it again when I get the car repainted hopefully this spring.

What did you use to polish yours? When I did mine I still had a few small stains that I didn't work out and I don't remember them being quite as reflective as yours.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #7 –
Nice jobs on the rims, guys.

My magic tricks for refurbishing turbines:

- One spray can of aircraft stripper a.k.a. the Can of Toxic Death™. Takes just about EVERYTHING off nicely, with hardly any scrubbing to do afterwards. It's particularly nice to get that clearcoat off. Sometimes it needs 2-3 applications per wheel but it sure beats all that sanding. I also use 00 steel wool for the machined parts.

- Surface prep...I usually tape off the machined parts (spokes, edges) and sandblast the inner parts (rough areas). Unless the whole rim isn't in that great of shape, then I blast the whole thing.

- After painting, I put at least 3 coats of Dupli-Color high temp clearcoat on everything. Great shine, great durability, great resistance to brake dust. Using this clearcoat you will get about 1 full year of simply hosing off the rim to clean it, with little or no scrubbing. You could also use automotive clear if you're so inclined, although sometimes it actually attacts dust.

- When the rims get balanced, weight always goes on the inside. Stick-on weights are a godsend.

I haven't tried polishing any yet because, frankly, I don't have that much time in my life to devote to something like that. I've seen fully polished sets of those rims (the rough part is smoothed out, then polished) at swap meets before. It's totally nuts. But  to they look good on a car.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #8 –
Oh yeh aircraft stripper good stuff.
Old Grey Cat to this.88 Cat, 5.0 HO, CW mounts, mass air, CI custom cam, afr165's, Tmoss worked cobra intake, BBK shorty's,off road h pipe, magnaflow ex. T-5,spec stage 2 clutch, 8.8 373 TC trac loc, che ajustables with bullits on the rear. 11" brakes up front. +

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #9 –
I love that stuff.I used to use it on valve covers (the old painted ones) before I'd restore tham for people.Watch that paint bubble up.Sweet,and easy.Wear hand protection.It can burn.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #10 –
I would love to see a fully polished turbine *nudge nudge* :D

Nice work. I wish I had the patience to polish.
2005 Subaru WRX STi|daily driver

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #11 –
That's a good-looking wheel!

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #12 –
I just bought some better polishingstuff today. new buffing discs and paste. Cant wait to see how that works

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #13 –
Yeah, let us know the best method - I need to do this to my gold 20th turbines, though I do not want to repaint them.
11.96 @ 118 MPH old 306 KB; 428W coming soon.

Polishing a Turbine wheel

Reply #14 –
I have a set of the gold 20th anniversary wheels on old Blue.I was about to polish them when I got the TC wheels and polished them instead.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..