SupraDan24

There use to be an old couple who lived round the corner from me a few years ago, they were in the 70's easily and drove round in a red lamborghini on nice sunny days

I've just spoken to a guy who will be able to blast them for me Dunk, and he's fairly local. He blasted a set of chrome wheels for a bloke a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to take them down to him in a couple of weeks for him to look at (i go away offshore for 2 weeks tomorrow). He's quoted me £15 a centre over the phone but wants to see them first as he said the wheels took him ages to do and he lost money on them. I think this route will end up cheaper than chemically stripping them, the only thing that worries me is the condition of the ally after the blasting process.

No problem Dnk, i'm in no rush. I think it has something to do with the pressure you need to blast them at to remove the plating, the guy at aerocoat said he couldnt do it as his machine didnt have the pressure output.

I havent weighed it but it is pretty heavy, heavier than the rest of the wheel put it that way. Is there anyway to tell for sure? If you say it could be cast aluminium then that leaves me a dilema as it rules out any chance of me having it cheaply blasted off as it would ruin the ally from what i can gather. Could you ask your chromer guy for a price for just the removal of the chrome. It will be 2x Centres, but i may do all 4 if the cost isnt too high.

Good to see you have your Trader status Si

Cheers dunk, its amazing what can be achieved with a powerdrill and a couple of flapper wheels I've polished one section up already just to see the finish, and it came up a good 95% mirror polished, i just need a couple extra wheels to go up through the grades better

I probably am going to sell them to tell you the truth, i made a mistake buying them and the whole situation has left a bad taste in my mouth so i'm just going to sort them out to the best of my abilities then sell them on. They're pretty rare wheels at the end of the day. If i can get the chrome off i'm confident i can have the wheels looking as good as the day they were made. One spot of good news is i found an old speaker which i subsequently canibalised for the magnet and there was no magnatism from the centre at all so i'm guessing it is decent grade SS? Should polish up nicely

Here's a couple of before and after pictures of the first barrel i've started. It's not finished yet as i'm waiting for some higher grade flapper wheels to arrive so i can go over it again, then hand sand it up to around 800grit, then try again with the compounds and finishing wheels. The after pictures are the finished i got with an 80grit flapper wheel, ive ordered up to 320grit. Before After

Ibrar is very good at what he does, but he also isn't very cheap so he's a last resort at the moment. The whole point of me refurbing the wheels is so that i can either get them to a point where their useable, or sell them back on and not be out of pocket. So far all i have used is electricity, some wet and dry and some cutting pad, all of which i had in my garage. There's a place down the road from me called Aerocoat that strip and refurb wheels, i'm going to take the centre down there and see what they can do for me. They're also pretty cheap I'm also looking round my house for a magnet so i can see if whats underneath the chrome is stainless or not. If it is then i can just polish it to a mirror shine and be done with it.

I like the horse wisperer one pmsl.

It's just the centre piece i need re-chromed Dunk, i'll go take a photo now. Tbh though, i imagine it will be more money than i am willing to pay so i may just go all out and strip the chrome and see if i can polish up the metal underneath using one of the methods i found on the internet. If i can't then i have the option of painting them.

Cheers fella, yours look pretty decent so maybe the spraying them wouldn't be the end of the world. I think i would go either white or gunmetal.

The actual refurbing isnt the problem, ive already removed the curbing and mirror polished the barrel, i'm just not sure what to do with the centre. I'm trying not to waste more money on them which is why i'm doing the work myself. I really like the chrome look on the centre's which is why i'm umming and arring about removing it. I'm thinking i may have too though, as i'll never be happy with the finish if i dont, it just seems like a massive waste to remove the chrome off the two wheels that are perfect

Edit:

Well, to cut a long story short a few months ago i was pretty much ripped off on a set of wheels. They were too far away for me to go view so i trusted the guy was open and honest about them and turns out he wasnt...not even remotely. I have them now so thats all that matters. I have been trying, unsucessfully, to resell them on Driftworks but haven't been able to as of yet, probably because i was trueful about the condition. Yesterday i decided to bite the bullet and give it a go at refurbing them myself, herein lies the problem. The centres of the 2 rears are perfect, the front two, not so much. There is some chrome peel/lift around the centre near the bolt holes. Now from say 6-10ft away its hardly noticeably, but pretty obvious from any closer. Also, when i masked up the wheel to spray the inner lines black in an effort to make them blend in better with the wheel, piece of the chrome came off with the masking tape. I knew this was a risk before i did it but i didnt have any other choice. I've included a photo of the chrome lift. It seems to me i have a couple of options, i'm just not sure which to go with so this is where i would like peoples opinions. 1.) Carry on refurbing them, and just put them on the car with the chrome peel present and ignore it. 2.) Take the plunge and totally remove the chrome (no going back once i start though) and hope i can polish up the metal underneath. Judging by the weight of the centre, i'd say it was Steel and not alloy as it's quite heavy. There's a chalky white residue under where the chrome was, it doesnt appear to be rust. 3.) Spray the centre in white with Plastidip and see how it comes out. I can always remove it if i dont like it. 4.) Any other suggestions??

Well i got my car up on my ramps yesterday to have a good look at the exhaust and to potentionally fit my 1st Decat. Once under there i can see that it looks like i already have a first Decat, and the 2nd but i still have a CAT in place I thought the first and second decat was supposed to reach straight from the downpipe to the Cat back exhuast. This is how it goes, First Decat - 2nd Decat - Aftermarket CAT - 2 hole to 4 hole X-over - Cat back exhaust

How much realistically are you looking for a set of these?

I have both, brand new that i wont be needing now. They come with the optional extra of the gaskets. I want close to the asking price though, as they're brand new.

Mr Wonder has the cure for what ails ya.

How about this one then Cool: Being able to pay as little as 5k for a very reliable, very beautiful 400bhp car that looks like it's worth twice the amount to the casual eye.

Cool: Knowing your Supra is better than every other car you'll see on the road, because they're not Supra's. Uncool: People thinking Supra's are boy racer cars.

Is that the right link fella?

If you squint, they kinda look red....maybe.

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