The machining I removed is specific to the American racing wheels, it’s machined lines in the “polished” part of the wheel done by CNC or a lathe. I sanded this by hand with 80 and 120. And I used a coarse media, just to make it all uniform across the entire wheel. I blasted both front and back.
Yes…I just got my wheels and saw that…ughhh…I’m gonna look at surface conditioning discs to see what I can get off with those…those lines suck! I’ve got glass in the cabinet now, not course, may take em to the local blaster..and I’m gonna blue em with the gun blueing
This is a friends ET wheels..all he did was scotchbrite the lips, used a cotton ball to apply, And hit em with 000 steel wool..cars been driven in rain, snow, salt, and still look great.. issue is the Americans are painted in the center, So that will have to come off and the machining marks are pretty deep..gonna be a lot of sanding to get that area smooth..I think I’ll sand the lip first and go from there
looks like Eric Wallace’s Corvette! His car is one of my main sources of inspiration when it came to building this old truck.
So when you say sanded by hand…what did you use for a back up pad? I don’t want to finger F the lips of the wheels up..my plan is to get em straight as possible, not gonna blast, gonna use a cast paint like the ET’s come with, and blue the smoothed out lip…
Well wheel 1 has been sanded and blasted…I used 80 grade on a cut down interface pad by hand for 80 of it and a 3” DA where I could. I blasted the whole rim to make it look uniforms..I could only get the blueing liquid for steel locally…tried it anyway..not the best result…didn’t really darken it much…won’t post a pic for that reason...ordered the aluminum blueing liquid and it will be here Tuesday. I may re blast the wheel and try to start fresh with the Aluminum stuff..
Hate that the blueing for steel didn’t work…looking forward to your results with the aluminum black. Would love some magnesium rims, just couldn’t swing in dollars wise, certainly couldn’t use my wife’s dishwasher… lol.
Not claiming to be an expert but the two pic’s here are what would be most permanent…as they etch into the aluminum, and aren’t just sitting on the surface. My son’s O.T. Valve covers (Vanish) turned out “mint”, nice and dark. Trust me.
@finalxstage You seem to be proud of your truck and you should be! It's got the look! Lowered, rake, all finished nicely but still tough. I like how the mirrors sweep back to the window, too.
Thank you! It’s a fun little hot rod for me and my kids to tinker with. We drive it every day. Just put the rear bumper on last night! Thinking about making a build thread at some point for it but wasn’t sure if it would be as appreciated as your other typical builds.
The Jalopy Journal
