Rim Repair

Last spring I decided to take care of a problem that had been bothering me for quite some time. I had not been taking care of my rims very well, and the aluminum was getting pitted and corroded around the edge. I decided to try to fix the problem myself. It turned out to be a bigger project than I had planned.

Corrosion

It was all over

I tried polishing and buffing out the corrosive stains, but the problem was right down in the metal, not on the surface. I ended up going to Parts Source, and getting a wire brush to go onto the end of my power drill. I figured that this was a quick way to get down to the problem. Well, turns out it did get down, but it wasn't fast, nor was it easy. You had to push on that wire brush hard to get down to the metal, and it took forever. What was worse was the clear coat that was the first layer to get through before you even started with the metal. Then, once that was done, I had to sand out the wire brush marks with some very fine grit sand paper, which took even longer to do. Finally, I polished up the metal with some metal polish and a foam brush that also worked on my power drill. Add some clear coat, and this project was done. 

Grinding away. For hours. You can see how small the brush wheel is getting at this point.

Prepared for the clear coat

 

All in, it took me two weeks to get this done, which is a lot longer than I was hoping for. I probably wouldn't have done it if I knew how long this would take, or how tired I would be having done it.  Saved me some money (or the embarrassment of driving around on bad rims). Plus, this was one of the best workouts I have ever done.

Nice and Shiny

I did learn a few things. One, using a metal brush on a power drill will wear down the brush pretty bad. I now have a stubbin of a brush. Two, the black enamel paint on the rest of the rims is pretty easy to brush off along with the metal you are aiming for. Using regular painters tape is useless for stopping the metal brush, but Duct Tape is perfect for it. Three, it is a lot harder to get your clear coat to look like the one that was in the factory. I may want to touch-up the clear coat this upcoming spring to deal with this issue - and prevent worse corrosion. Four, this is a great application for a power drill with a cord, not so much for a cordless. I now have a corded power drill on my list of tools to obtain.

As an aside, if anyone is wondering, I have 4 original Tiburon stock rims for sale. One may have a bit of a dent in it, but otherwise they are pretty good.

For Sale