Has anybody on the org refinishing there factory sawblade rims to a chrome or machine finished? I've seen some painted black sawblades before. I contemplating dipping my factory wheels to a machine finish or chrome. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

I am considering repainting mine, I am unsure about bathing them, but I bet I am gonna either polish them with my air grinder and dremel or sand blast em. I may have them powder coated too to get the perfect color, thickness of paint, and the nice scratch resistant coating. Luckily, the sandblasting would have to be done by the powder coating specialist, so I imagine he wouldn't charge me more than $50-75. He has done some really good work for me in the past and is the only guy around who can do it, so I feel blessed. Wouldn't most bathing solutions be problematic due to the alluminum? Or is that only when cleaning up metal with acids n such? I know the machine shop here had a hot bath, which they used to clean my block, and an alluminum only washing machine which used different chemicals. I never got a thorough answer out of them , aye someone here can enlighten us all. I am happy you posted this up as it is something I want to do soon.

 

theres alot of prep involved when doing these things man. patience is a must

 

Indeed so, but it seems the two options at hand for me, are reliant on only one major factor: money. I would spend probably $30-$40 minimum to get all the accessories so that I could do it myself, or nor more than $100 to pay someone to blast and powder coat.

My wheels work fine, but they are missing some freshness, which may be necessary for the ole' girl before the summer hits. One road block for the powder coating would be the wheel covers; I would like to be able to match up the colors, but I am unsure if it possible. All decisions on this, for me are delayed until she gets moving. Enjoy the forum, hope you can learn and contribute openly, but respect goes an incredible distance here as well.

 

i was going to paint mine white, but honestly it looks so dam sh1tty if you dont do alot of prep its not worth it. after i go turbo i'll just get some mad offset rims

i do have some Momo rims laying around, but the rears are hellawide (295's i think), a guy imported a 300zx TT from Japan and the rims came on it. got a good deal at least ($180 for the set, with Falken rubber but the rears were bald from burnouts ). saving them for when i get a R32 GTR or something else that can take the width.

fronts are 235's though i believe but if theyre JDM rims only or something good luck for me finding another set of fronts, if i could find 2 more fronts they would fit my Max

 

curious why you'd want to put so much effort into a not-that-attractive-even-when-new 15" wheel that's only 6 or 6.5" wide depending what your car came with

 

I agree. Why not get some 4th gen SE 5 spoke wheels? They look great on 3rd gens.

 

or better yet some 5th gen 6 spokes like i had, or some 17x8 Cobra wheels like Jeff92se had. Perfect fit and they look great (alot better on 3rd gens than they'll look on my z31 )

 

You'll probably spend more money and time trying to refinish your sawblades than it would be to go get a new set of wheels in decent condition.

You can usually find 16" wheels from a 97-99 SE for a decent price, and they will look better even without refinishing.

 

The reason why I suggested the 4th gen SE's were that they can be found at a good price as opposed to the 17" 5th gen wheels (Although they do look great on 3rd gens also). 16" tires are also quite a bit cheaper than 17" tires.

Whenever said and done I had 5th gen 17's on my 3rd gen when I had it, but if i had to do it over again I would go with the 16's from the 97-99 SE

 

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any particular reason for the 16's? ride comfort due to taller sidewall? I would like the 97-99se ones if they weren't so high offset and didn't have convex-angled spokes (rising toward the center of the wheel). If they had 15mm less offset and the spokes somehow managed to angle in toward the center of the wheel i'd like them.

 

It was just an option when I was looking at when I was looking at wheels. nothing I was going to pursue seriously. Iaccount for how much time and money it would cost me if I had to do. I didn't see anything on the search forumns on it so just put a thread out there to see.

 

I had Eibach springs on and it was a DD so yea, it was a comfort thing at that point. 17's were not that bad however but everything felt like a luxary car compared to my play car (DSM on coilovers).

To the OP. If your not interested in changing wheels, a good sanding with respray is good. I dont think you need to sandblast or anything like that. I did a set of wheels with good sanding, duplicolor wheel paint and good clear and they came out awsome and held up pretty well.

 

I am looking at overall cost as well as something I find attractive. It's all a matter of perspective when it comes to looks anyways. I know I can either pay someone to blast the crud off, which is pretty thick nowadays, or sand em down and spray myself. I have found some 2005 wheels for around $200, but I don't know if they fit, and probably wouldn't consider them if I had some money. I don't think I would want any other setup, these are fine, they work great, and tires are cheap for em. I am looking for longevity not short term performance. I may change my mind though if a steal comes around.

 

i actually want my factory machined face sawblade wheels refinished to look like new again too

 

I like the way they look. 16" tires are cheaper than 17". Also, the 5th gen 17s are boat anchors. IIRC, they weigh significantly more than the 4th gen 16s. I do like the way they look, especially the TE (and the AE, to a lesser extent)

And for my sig pic, I never saw that before, but now that I have, I can't un-see it. Thanks a lot.

 

yea my 5.5's are about 27lb w/o tires... compared to 15 or 16 for 3rd gen stockers and about 20 for the 300c wheels i had (offset too low so the fenders rubbed )

 

at the moustache sig, never noticed that

 

While on the topic of rim selection, I imagine that I may end up with some BBS rims eventually. They stunned me on BMWs while I was in Germany, and I have always loved the look they provide, especially with the big offsets. So, there is some room for change I guess.

 

You can actually buy refinished OEM wheels from Rock Auto for about $120 a piece

 

OH MY GOD those prices are pretty good... you have definitely made it easier for me to get nice OEM wheels on my Z!!!

i'm thinkin c4 or c5 corvette wheels.. hmmmmm

 

Vette/Camaro/S10 etc wheels are 5 x 4.75" bolt pattern, isnt the Z 5 x 4.5?

 

yep. but they're such high offset that i'd need a 1" spacer anyways, which allows me to get a pattern adapter/spacer all in one.

 

You can get brand new 3rd gen SE rims from Andy's AutoSport for $75 each.

 

my brother knows a guy who can get my sawblades refinished for a few cases of beer

probably wait, and see if I can get some better wheels that need a little work, for a price that good.

 

^
Thanks, I saw that a couple of months ago and been contemplating it. the place around here that fix and refinishing wheels prices start at a 100.00.

 

Sawblades are so-so, but they really scream "stock" and the 15s are pretty crappy for performance tires. They really don't add much to the look of these cars like a lot of other wheels do.

I went with the 4th gen 16s because I got the wheels for free. They aren't my favorite, but I like them better than stock.

Recently, I found some 6th gen 17s that I paid -$122 for (I bought them for $100 and sold the tires that were on them for $230 -$8 to dismount). I will probably just sand them down and paint them gunmetal, since one has a bit of curb rash.

My point is, if you do some searching, you can pick up wheels cheaper than you can make those old sawblades look new.


That being said, I still have my sawblades and I want to keep them -- stored in my garage -- along with all of the Hot Wheels I had as a little kid and my box of original Star Wars figures.

 

heck i got the 300c wheels for $75... plus another $75 to get the bent one fixed. sadly the offset was too low to fit inside an unrolled rear fender but if they had had another 5mm or so of offset i'd have never gone to the 5th gen wheels.

 

Chroming of wheels is nice...But consider painting it...

 

I am going to repaint mine, will repost here probably months from now when I get around to it. I am sure I won't have to spend more than $50 on everything. Granted if I found some decent rims with tires for less than $150, there's a possibility there, but otherwise, all stock baby. These aren't too far away but I fear the price of tires after I start to feel funny about the two that are burnt out.

http://bham.craigslist.org/pts/1577331317.html

 

Refinishing factory wheels is easy. I've done a set of '85 300Z wheels, and recently a set of Xterra wheels. Strip off the clearcoat 1st. From there keep changing your sandpaper grits til you are at 2000 wetsand paper. This fine grit and PLENTY of water will leave the aluminum smooth. From there use 2, maybe 3 coats of Mothers. Or, you can buy a can of spray on clearcoat for around $15 a can, you will only need one can.

Second option is buying a "kit". I can't remember the site, but I was googling Datsun stuff and stumbled across a company that makes a 6 or 7 step kit for exactly what you're wanting to do. It's a chemical stripping type of kit. It also has the clearcoat included to complete the package. IIRC it was right around $169 for everything.

 

last year I painted mine in gunmetal

 

Do you want it to be in chrome?...But it's already looking good.

 

chrome wheels are ugly tho... and the one time i tried to use "spray on" chrome (for headlight housings) it turned out like crap anyways.

 

that looks sick, how long did it take to do?

 

Any pics of them on the car?

 

I have a set of 17x8 cobra 5 spokes for sale if anyone is interested. Not perfect but in pretty good shape for their age. PM me. These are perfect, clear bbk with no spacers and have that classic 5 spoke design.

 

Repaint it man.

 

You still have those? Tough to sell I guess. By now you should just throw em on CL and some Mustang guy will pick them up.

I found a set of 2006 Murano wheels (chrome ick) with snow tires mounted on them, so I am no longer looking for 17s that might clear the FX brakes.

 

I actually bought some for my Z a while back... but if i had known you still had some i would have been interested.



the emblem even kinda fits...