So a while back I damaged a Team Dynamics motorsport wheel beyond repair. I have finally (hopefully) found a spare replacement and I will be refinishing all the wheels.

I have stripped the paint off of the wheels and decided to try my hand at polishing the lip. What's everyones opinion on this style wheel with a polished lip? I have a little more work to look really good and I have not polished it yet, only sanded smooth with 225, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 sandpaper.

Anyways here are the pictures. I was thinking of painting the rest of the wheel Dark Silver metallic (my car color). Or what do you think about standard OEM silver wheel paint for spokes with a polished lip?

Honest opinions please as I am not sure about how its going to turn out yet and I need input. If its a bad combination I want to know.


The pictures below are before using any kind of metal polishing compound. I still need further work by going back through the grits of sandpaper before that step. The 3rd pictures shows the rougher sand paper marks yet to be removed.

Thanks,
k

 

Bad idea I assume?

 

In my opinion it's the wrong style of lip since there is no inner edge. These wouldn't look bad with a stripe if you want some contrast.

 

Thanks for the input. That is sort of what I was thinking as well. Gonna think about it more.

 

It's not a bad idea, but it takes a great deal of precision to make it a reality with this design wheel. In many cases, during manufacture an entire wheel is painted then the lip gets machined and polished on a lathe. This gives the sharp line defining the polished area. In your case, the line is not clearly defined on the wheel itself, since it's a 'flush' design. What you'd need to do it polish the lip to your liking, mask the lip then paint the wheel. The definition in the edge then falls to how good you have masked the lip. There is no reason it can't be made to look sharp, it's now in the painting process and not a machining process.

 

I figured masking was in order for painting but what I am not sure on is how i would softly blend the paint into the polished part. I have seen on another forum where an individual did it but no details on how he blended the paint into the lip were given.