So I have a chance to pick up some beat up, but allegedly straight Ronal R98 wheels for $150. Assuming they're straight, that's a pretty decent deal and as is will be quite a bit nicer than the ugly Konigs I have right now. As such, I need some opinions on how to refinish them.

Pictures of actual wheels attached to show what I'm working with. I don't really want to pay the $100/wheel to have them professionally refinished, although that might be the way to do it since some of the curbing looks pretty bad.

What say ye?

 

The centers look fine...just failing clear on the barrels. Should be a simple sand and refinish. Spend another $200 if you dont want to do it yourself, a wheel repair place could get them back to new easily.

 

You think that's just failing clear? To me it looks like a pretty severe curb rash. I've never refinished a rim with curb rash like that. Guess I can just pick up a rotary and some sand paper and give it a go... No harm in it at that price, right?

 

Looks like a pretty easy refinish, I just did the same thing on my R98s

 

Did you refinish to factory, paint, or polish?

 

Any bends or cracks in the barrels? That could be the deal killer no matter how cheap you get them.

If you're not after a polished lip, then repair the curb grinding and strip off as much of the clear coat on the perimeter. Fill, sand, primer, paint, clear and you're done. Probably going to take a few hours, but should look good.

How's the engine swap going?

 

According to seller, the only problem is the finish. We'll see, though....

Engine swap apparently wasn't needed. Dealing with the low oil pressure and then hearing a crunch and knock, I just assumed. Towed to mechanic and bought engine. He sat on it for 5-6 weeks and eventually started it up to say he couldn't replicate the noise. After another week, said water pump was disintegrated. Super weird, but I've driven it for about 1k miles since then and no issues. I'm the worst mechanic ever.

 

Well, at least now you have an elective project with the wheels if they turn out to be usable.

...and if your motor does go bad sometime down the line, you are prepared!

 

Nah - After putting about $10k into this thing in the last year, I think if something else "catastrophic" goes wrong I'm going to part it out and torch it. Much more satisfying. Then I'll pick up an econobox suv that I'll never have to do maintenance on ever.

Do Japanese/Korean cars even require oil changes these days or are those lifetime fluids!? /s

 

Lifetime.

I've been changing the fluids in my Toyota so I can get 600K. If I didnt Id only get like 100K...maybe 200K

 

There are a couple threads with how-tos for refinishing these wheels.

Here's one:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...installed.html

He mentions the retorque value for the bolts as 24ftlbs with thread lock. The bit to get them off/on is an 8mm triple square bit.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ke-wheels.html

this person said 28lbs for re-torque

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...el-thread.html

more pictures on this thread


I have a set on my car and need to refinish this summer. I intend to take them apart and likely use paint stripper for aluminum (aircraft stripper?) before sanding and clear coating with a catalyzed clear. I painted my wife's car's wheels (not Mini) a couple years ago and the paint has held up really well.

 

Browsed through that thread. Surprisingly not very many pictures... I watched a youtube video and it sounds pretty straightforward to refinish. I redid my style 5's by hand before and they didn't turn out great. Using a rotary sounds WAY easier. I'll pick up a rotary and refinish assuming these look good. I think I'll just do a straight polish on the whole thing.

 

That is NOT just clearcoat damage!!! They are lovely wheels (had them on 2 of my cars) but they are a pain in the butt to get repaired, due to the polished finish on the lip