[AzimuthAviation]

Hey guys!

Last night on the drive home at almost midnight I hit a chunk of concrete in the highway and took out the drivers side wheels. The front got bent far enough to unseat the bead and I wound up getting towed off the highway when I somehow failed to have a keyed socket for the security lug The good nes is the damage is to the inside rim of the 17" chrome AMG mono-blocks but I'm screwed for 7-10 days and +$300 to fix the wheels. Right now I'm running my two spares on the driver's side of the car.

Here's the question! I've got the 16" "pentas" from the pimp car and today I went into emergency mode to get them refininshed so I have another set of good wheels. I got two stripped of paint and started sanding the minor curb rash. I'm going to epoxy the inner bead surface of the wheels and the backs for corrosion protection. What do you think would look best for the refinish scheme. I'm going to paint the centers the 172 anthracite like both cars are painted. Should I go high gloss, semi, or matte on the clear coat? Also, should I go mirror polished, high, or satin polished on the outer rims? I keep going all over the place and it's driving me nuts!!!!

Any pics or comments are appreciated!!
AA

 

[jralex]

I think the matte finish would blend better with an older paint job. Too shiney in one area gives the impression of an unfinished total package. Pentas are a work of art so the form itself stands out.

 

[HeirKranz]

I painted the set I have for sale all mercedes rim silver high gloss (base/clear mix) and they look great--- for rims that small, the rubber is so big that 2toning them makes them look smaller than they are In my opinion

 

[Chadahar]

HeirKranz,
Those look GREAT. I didn't know you had any for sale.
What size are they? Tariff?

Those would look awesome on"The Bluebird or Mariah for that matter.

 

[AzimuthAviation]

I painted the set I have for sale all mercedes rim silver high gloss (base/clear mix) and they look great--- for rims that small, the rubber is so big that 2toning them makes them look smaller than they are In my opinion

Good point! I might just do two of each and put them on the car and see how it looks. I've gotten used to seeing the 17" chrome mono blocks on the SD and I'm a little sad to put them back on the 500sel.

 

[mramay]

IMHO, high gloss looks the best.

I'm not a fan of chrome, but gloss paint looks very sophisticated, keeping with the overall theme of the W126.

 

[AzimuthAviation]

I was able to strip two wheels and clean up the curb rash. I stripped with the sprayable stripper and then wet sanded the outer rims in the polished areas with 220grit to remove the curb rash. Make sure you don't just sand the blemish but rather go around the entire rim an equal amount to prevent a flat spot at the repair. One wheel is stripped and sanded with 220grit to get the rash out and is next to a untouched rim. One wheel I took the time to hit with 400 grit in a portion and then down to about 1200 grit and then hit it with some Mother's Billet polish.

 

[AzimuthAviation]

Got a few more pic's up

 

[and007ca]

NICE

Like them a lot:thumbsup:

 

[420 SE]

I sooo much like those wheels....

 

[AzimuthAviation]

Well I had a few hours to mess with the wheels. I took two of them and wet sanded from 220 grit, 400, 600, 800. I finished one off with a wet sand using 1000, 1600, 2000, 2500 grit. With the 2000 and 2500 I also used a little baby shampoo in the water to keep the paper lubed and prevent it from loading up. I then finished polishing with Mother's Billet polish. I could have done more initial sanding with the 220 grit and might have been better served using 180 to start with. The final polish has a little bit of cloudiness that if I had taken a little more off with the initial sanding it might not be an issue. I'm not going to complain because unless your down there with you face in them you can't see it. I'm freakin' knee deep in stuff to do right now so this will do for now. I've got to get things moving and I'm running on two spares right now while the damaged 17" monoblocks are being repaired. I'll finish off the other wheel tomorrow and paint the epoxy sealer on the two of them and might even shoot a brilliant silver on the centers with a gloss clear. Here's a few pic's with an 800 finish and final polish. One shot is an untouched wheel with it's 25 years of weathering.

 

[a3jeroen]

Drool....

gr J:thumbsup:

 

[AzimuthAviation]

Well today is a day for some more work to get done on the wheels. They have all been stripped of all paint and all the faces have been sanded down to at least 800 grit to prep for polish. Today will be the big day to get materials to paint the wheels at least to primed.

I'm still fighting if I go silver on the centers or go with the anthracite grey of the body color. I'm fighting this because I don't know how the final paint scheme of the car is going to come together. I need to shop around but I got a quote from a chrome shop of $1000 per bumper to re-chrome the euro front and rear bumpers going on the car. They do show work but damn that's harsh! This is leading me to consider painting the chrome bumpers body color, leaving the grill surround chrome with black insert, and either going black or body color on the trim around the front and rear windshields. The trim around the windows then becomes an issue! Do I paint the trim surrounding the glass and leave the drip rail polished and the strips on the top of the door polished and keep the stainless strips in the side panels?

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I'm keeping a lot of bright work I want to go silver on the centers of the wheels. If I reduce the brightwork on the car then I think body color centers would look better. Do any of you photoshop gurus want to play with some combinations of paint vs bright? Here's a side shot of the car with the old pseudo centra's, US bumpers, and untinted windows.
http://www.benzworld.org/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/47980/size/big/cat/

 

[a3jeroen]

I think painting the centers in bodycolour will work great anyway.....

gr J

 

[Dr.Grillz]

Yea, paint those wheels body color! I'm in the process of having my Aero I 16's on the 190E AMG done.... same ordeal, having the lips polished and then center painted body color.

 

[AzimuthAviation]

Yea, paint those wheels body color! I'm in the process of having my Aero I 16's on the 190E AMG done.... same ordeal, having the lips polished and then center painted body color.

Well I'm going body color. Just got back and dropped $150 on the materials for the wheels and will have leftovers for other task. I went with a pint of PPG Omni in the DB172 Anthracite for the centers, and a two part epoxy primer to seal the wheels after a chemical prep wash. I hate going outside of paint sytems but I was happy when one of the guys at the counter overheard me talking and did the exact same thing I researched. I'll use POR-15's Glisten Clear over the base color and on the bare polished areas. He said it worked great for him and not a single chip yet after redoing his wheels after using a conventional clear and getting chips.

GLISTEN PC-POR-15 Inc.

 

[Dr.Grillz]

Sounds good! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

As of now, my wheels only have the lips polished up. The car was turned in yesterday for the respray preparation and the wheels were given to them as well to paint. Should have the car back in a couple of weeks.

 

[AzimuthAviation]

I freakin' hate how my time gets eat up at times!

I came down with a summer cold and it slowed me down quite a bit. Prior to that I had two days of flying pop up. I also had a flight to Orange county come up for tomorrow so I'm now on hold until next week to make any more progress on the wheels. All paint has been stripped and the wheels have had a heavy phospheric acid wash to kill any corrosion cells that might be present. I found it a pain to keep the treatment off the polished portions of the wheels so I went back and resanded from 1000 grit down to 2000 grit and hit the wheels with with Rolite Supra 90 aircraft polish (thanks United!) and have them sitting in the living room until next week. The plan now will be when I get the time I'll then hit the polished areas with Rolite AP-300 polish for a final finish and then wash the wheels with mineral spirits to remove any polish residue. Then the wheels will get hit with POR AP-120 prep on all surfaces and shoot the epoxy primer to all surfaces not polished. Then it's the color coat to the centers and the Glisten clear coat on all surfaces. It's a matter of timing and the preimer needs to be top coated withing 24 hours unless scuffed and the polished metal should be top coated ASAP after polish. F'ing pain in the arse to try and do things right!!! Here's a few pic's of the wheels read for final polish. These aren't going to be perfect but they are going to be looking extremly nice for a driver. I didn't get too agressive with my sanding and there will be a slight amount of scuffs in the final finish. Unless you're the one washing the wheels you'll be challenged to find the flaws. That works for me!

 

[Teutone]

Drool + 1

 

[420 SE]

want...those...wheels....

must...have...those...wheels...