Thread: New Shoes For The GMC

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Man, that is pretty crap of them to send those out like that! Your repair sure is nice though! Great work!

Thanks guys! I posted this stuff on ARW's FB page... I got a bit of a response. They put me in touch with their PR people... We'll see what happens. I'm not holding my breath.

I worked on the rim today. Finished the sanding process. I took the whole wheel out to 2000 grit.


Once that was done I cleaned it up with mineral spirits and fired up the electric drill with a buffing cone in it. Loaded the cone with red rouge and gave the whole wheel a once over.
This is starting to look pretty tasty...

I again cleaned the wheel with mineral spirits and changed over to an unsewn buffing pad with the same red rouge to get down into the space between the rim and the center. This is quite deep... I also used the unsewn buff to really clean up the wheel bead.

Once that was done I re-cleaned the wheel and swapped to a new unsewn buff and white rouge. After about 15 minutes this is what I have.

This is almost there.

It is still a bit swirly looking but THERE ARE NO WAVES!!! This is where a couple of deep hand polishing's will finish it off.

I'll use Mother's Billet Polish first and finish up with White Diamond.

Came out really nice Mark! Lots of work but the results are worthwhile.

It looks really nice! It's really too bad you had to repair and polish already polished wheels!

you ever use Mx wheels they work very good. rims look good did alot of that stuff for Ted. we took it to 600 grit after they cnc a rim out of a 450 pound block of 6061t6 them need alot of step sanding and blocking . when your done with them rims . i have the hals off the 50 chevy you can do. i like to do iron myself

Thanks guys, yea, it's a lot of work and I am kicking myself now. I posted the rim pics up American Racings FB Page a couple of weeks ago. They offered to do a warranty return on the rim but I declined as it was already well on it's way to being repaired...
I just got another email from Wheel Pro's PR Dept. (they own American Racing Wheels now) offering me a T-shirt... I said thanks but no thanks...
Pat! Did you shine up the block for the '50? I may need to do a road trip to check that out... (and to return your battery terminal crimper!)
Mark

Originally Posted by astroracer

Thanks guys, yea, it's a lot of work and I am kicking myself now. I posted the rim pics up American Racings FB Page a couple of weeks ago. They offered to do a warranty return on the rim but I declined as it was already well on it's way to being repaired...
I just got another email from Wheel Pro's PR Dept. (they own American Racing Wheels now) offering me a T-shirt... I said thanks but no thanks...

Mark

Maybe you should have accepted their T-shirt to use as a polishing rag!

LOL Randy! I thought of that after I had sent my reply... I should have asked if they were all cotton as cotton is a better polishing rag then polyesther,,,

Call them back and tell them you have reconsidered their generous T-shirt offer.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Call them back and tell them you have reconsidered their generous T-shirt offer.

Check out the American Racing FB page. I hinted at needing some new polishing rags...
I got the ratty rim finished up tonight. Looks good now. It is not perfect but it's a far-cry from what I started with.

This is a side by side with one of the other sets. The "refurbished" one is on the left.

I did a quick "let's see" polish with the cone on one of the rears. The outer rim came out great but I will have to run the red and white rouge on the centers to get them up to the shine of the one I just did...
You can see how hazy the center is compared to the fixed one.

No biggie. I am glad I don't have to do the sanding steps!
The rim part shined up nicely.

This will take about a half hour a wheel to get them into shape.

Their quality control definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

Originally Posted by astroracer

Thanks guys, yea, it's a lot of work and I am kicking myself now. I posted the rim pics up American Racings FB Page a couple of weeks ago. They offered to do a warranty return on the rim but I declined as it was already well on it's way to being repaired...
I just got another email from Wheel Pro's PR Dept. (they own American Racing Wheels now) offering me a T-shirt... I said thanks but no thanks...
Pat! Did you shine up the block for the '50? I may need to do a road trip to check that out... (and to return your battery terminal crimper!)
Mark

no that engine is plan B but not to worry the 548 bow tie block thats in the chevy looks the same i do not know the roads need the get some sun on things to warm up the asphalt dry the parking lot up before i fire off that thing . my luck has not been very good with you and tickets ? not to fear Ted had the caddy coup back down to the big D she is pushing over 650hp to the tires so we can find you a ride

Nice truck, I use to have a 95 model like that, I loved that truck.
here's a dirty cell phone pic of it.

Godspeed
MrC.

Originally Posted by MrC.

Nice truck, I use to have a 95 model like that, I loved that truck.
here's a dirty cell phone pic of it.

Godspeed
MrC.

Thanks MrC.!
I like mine too! I haven't done anything to it since I built it in '01 so I figure an update is in order.
I worked on one of the other rims today. I will end up sanding the centers with 2000 grit. I can't get the haziness out with just the red rouge so it is back to the elbow grease...

Got the other three rims sanded out and polished last night and today. Wet sanding with 2000 grit eliminated the haziness. Polishing with red and white rouge and the Meguires cone kit brought the shine back.
Some of the "stuff" I was sanding out of the rims, yea, they were all like this... You can see the gouges and cut lines left after the factory polishing job. This is why the rims are hazy.

I dry sanded that same spot so you can see what I was dealing with.

A little WD40, 2000 grit wet/dry and a small foam sanding pad and those cut lines yielded to my will.



About an hour later the rims looked like this.

After 5 hours of work today they ALL look like this.