As most of our cars grow older, the hour hand on the clock slaps it a bit to help show the age - my rims are no exception. The body of my car is mint, almost brand new-looking, but my rims look really sad. I've been thinking about having someone sandblast them to get all the finish and grime off of them so I could maybe refinish them. I wonder if it would look good if sandblasted them, put a bunch of primer on it, then painted them a silver color that's close to what they are now. I'm a college student, so buying new rims is not an option for me. Boy o boy, is this a ghetto fix or what?! LOL!

 

The question seems to be how to turn nasty rims into nice ones without spending a lot of $$.

Things that I'm considering:

Getting the rims sandblasted and polishing them myself.
Actually, you should be able to strip them yourself, but sandblasting would probably be worth the theoretically small fee since you don't have to clean up

Painting or powdercoating. I was given high quotes on that, but was given 2 shops within driving range that should do them in the $60 range.
I think that priming and spray painting them (if that was your plan) is not a good option, as the finish supposedly turns out poor.

The cheapest, look good option seems to be to borrow a heavy duty, variable speed drill (and a dremel for the tight spaces), buy a wire brush (< $10), and strip off the paint by hand. Then get a polishing pad and compound (<$20)
and go to town. Assuming that all went well, you _may_ have some nice looking rims, but if nothing else, they won't be peeling .
The only remaining problem is protection, which means some kind of clearcoat, which may or may not be easy to do via a spray can

for possible outcomes, check this thread out, and help me out with a vote
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....703#post372703

 

KC, is your max white? if so, your rims would look really good powdercoated white! if not, just get them professionally painted like they are now.

 

I was using sandpaper and a dremel tool with a wire brush to strip the old nasty clear coat which was pealing around the edges near the center caps.... I then spray painted the wheels but didn't clear coat the paint, it faded fairly quick and also ran off with some water and mild rubbing...
I think I'll try the polishing thing... But I don't know if I can go through the painful process of sanding them down again... uhhhhh good thing I have some aftermarkets.

 

I went to Home Depot (Motorsports to ask about this kind of project, and I got lucky in that the clerk I had was into cars. He suggested the drill + a wire brush attachment for the drill. He said that it would get to the metal no problem. He suggested the Dremel for tight spaces like you did, such as the lugnut holes. The buffing wheel + compound was supposedly the last piece. I doubt that I can escape without sandpaper and hand polishing the last parts though.

 

Hey guys. Sorry I didn't write back sooner, but I've been sittin on da beach in North Carolina for the past week w/out a computer in sight.
Anyway, I have a charcoal grey max and I like the polished look a lot better than the powder finish. How does yours look so far Phil? Any pics? I could do all that stuff, but it's a risky thing. If it looks like $hit, then I'm doomed to ride around on crappy looking rims for the rest of my college life. Show me some pics of yours and maybe a few more pointers on how to do it. I like the polished look though!
My car goes in to get a new rear bumper on Tuesday! They're going to blend in the rear pannels so it'll cover up some scratches back there and my car is going to look almost new!

 

I don't have either set of wheels yet. The guy w/the powdercoats has disappeared. I was hoping that he'd get me in touch with his shop to get my 2nd set sandblasted.
At this point I'm going to try polishing my set on my own.

The powdercoats aren't served justice in the pics with those completely grey tires.

Since posting the poll, IMHO, the powdercoated wheels are _very_ unique, but would only look good on certain cars:

White exterior (maybe w/tint or black interior)
This is the kind of car it came from. Polished would look OK, but I think black would look better.

Black car (for a total blackout look). Polished looks good, but black would be distinctively unique. If the car had black calipers, like the wilwoods or 300zx, it would be all the better.

Dark grey cars, but polished or white would look great on this as well. The interior color (or if it had tinted windows) might be the deciding factor for me.

As far as risk of looking bad, you know that the peeling paint looks bad, at least stripped metal is a consistent color. The problem w/3rd gen wheels is the large center cap, which is painted plastic. You're almost forced to get a quality paint job. If you manage to get them polished, the relativey dark grey cap would ruin the look. There _may_ be a last way out though. Mustangs have split 3-spoke and split 5spoke wheels on v6 and GT models. They also have a similarly large canter cap. It's worthwhile to note that they have the same bolt pattern as the Maxima. If we're lucky, the centercap is the same size and will fit 3rd gen wheels. The last hurdle is that you need to find chrome centercaps (to more closely match the polished look) _and_ you need to find it as a knockoff, without the pony running across it.
With the 300zx rims, besides chromed 300zx caps, the 15" slanted 7 spoke Maxima rims have polished, Nissan hamburger caps, which I'm hoping will be a great match.

I'll post back as I make progress.

 

Take a look at their website. They have wheel buffing and polishing kits

http://www.eastwoodco.com/photos/p2076b.JPG

 

I'm thinking about painting the hood of my car. My car ran mostly highways her whole life and the lil rocks are getting to her. She's got a lot of tiny white chips on the front of the hood as well as the two front fenders. How much are u paying for the paint job? And do u think they can just paint the front half of the hood and blend the rest? If I paint the two fenders, u think they'll have to blend into the doors as well inorder to make it look one-piece?
Btw, I have a black max so the chips really SHOWS!

 

Try using a rim repair specialist.
More and more rim or wheel repair shops are sprouting up.
One shop I know of repairs curb damaged rims and even paints rim with the factory paint or customize to your needs.

Check in your phone book or call a couple of good tire shops to see if you can locate a rim/wheel repair specialist.

 

Konan,
I'm not repainting the front of my car, just the rear. I'm not doing it by choice either, some **** busted my rear bumper. What they're doing is replacing the bumper, painting it, then blending it in with the quarter panels. It's hard to gauge how much it would cost to have the front of your car painted, but if you have a "Z-Bart" near you, it won't cost too much (ie. $X<$800). I had a friend have his 72 Dodge Duster repainted completely for about $700 and they did a really good job. The expensive part is the clear coating that HAS TO GO ON AFTER THE PAINT ITSELF. If you have the car repainted then don't put clear coat on it, it'll look weird b/c the rest of your car will look different b/c it's shinyer. DON'T, for God sakes, try to paint your car yourself - it'll look terrible! I hope our cars aren't getting to that age where that stuff is seen on the road b/c I think I'll get rid of mine. LOL! Anyway, go and get some estimates and look for that place in your phone book. Good luck!

 

my wheels use to be silver and really nasty lookin so i had them powdercoated white but that costs some dough....i think it was close to 85 bucks a wheel but i think it looks pretty sharp. pics at

http://photos.yahoo.com/maxfanatic93se

 

KCMax - Dude what are talking about. (what are you smokin?)
I believe the thread is talking about painting rims.
Your going off on paint your bumper....yeah, guy...uuuh... bumper and rims are two different topics.

Earl Shieb's havin a special....

 

konan, i believe kcmax was just replying to my post about painting the front hood and bumper... i just drifted off the topic, and wut's wrong with smokin' *&#&? =)

 

I stumbled across this write up the other day, sounds like the author got good results. It was hard to view untill I printed it out. Also the link at the bottom of the first page was hard to click on at first. Its right at the bottom. I guess there are a lot of us in this boat!
Steve