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Are these CLK wheels salvageable?
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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2023 2:28 pm    Post subject: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Hi all,

I picked these 5 CLK wheels up a bit ago, and just dragged them out to have a closer look. With the exception of the one that was probably the spare, they are in pretty rough shape. I suspect the original pilot was only partially sighted. For those that have dealt with these before, how hard will it be to clean these up? I haven't decided if I will paint or polish yet, but depends on what can be done about the rash. Sanding? Media blast? Both? Or give up and start again? TIA.

First, the pretty one:

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Now the rest:

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squeegee_boy
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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2023 2:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Nope, don't bother, they're trash. Drop them off at my place, I'll see they are disposed of properly.

Robyn

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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2023 2:50 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

squeegee_boy wrote:
Nope, don't bother, they're trash. Drop them off at my place, I'll see they are disposed of properly.

Robyn

Wink


Laughing Laughing Laughing
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MsTaboo
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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2023 5:52 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Mine were worse than that:
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

This is after stripping the old clear coat and lower half has the start of polishing.
The inner bead had me worried, I sanded as smooth as possible.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Took some work but now have these:
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Paint stripper (the old strong stuff), media blast, polishing, and lots of elbow grease.
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Crankey
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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2023 6:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Heck yeah ! Dosn't look like curb gouging just corrosion.
A grinder will knock down 95% of it then sanding with a d.a. sander to about 320 grit then hand sand wet with 600,800,1000,1500,2000 and final cloth polish with flitz or mothers.
Tedious, get a book on tape or load up a lot of music while you sand.

If you can't find hard core stripper, heat up the area your putting stripper on with a torch or heat gun and non pro kleen strip will work faster, but you'll still need to apply it twice.
With stripper, you don't want it on the tire. If your careful you can just push the tire off the outer bead and work them like that. It'll be slightly cheaper to have them poped back on and balanced. But it's best of course to pull off tires.

Or if you like paint then just maybe scrub the corrosion with a toothbrush wire brush so it's clean, then a swipe of JB kwick and sand that down flush with like 100grit and then fully clean them for primer. Finer sand paper between primer coats. I'd probably do 2 coats. Scotch Brite pad before top coat. Pic a primer that's closer to your top color coat.
Krylon bomb cans have painted my wheels and lasted many years of daily driving. It can be sanded and polished to a flat mirror gloss if you hate the orange peel but it's a lot of work...looks great though.


Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

These BBS had harsh curb rash and a gouging in them...one needed 3 dobs of weld to fill a gouge but the rest all came out with a file, grinder and sanding. I left a few small dings to appease the curb demons, they don't like perfect things...
I do custom metalwork for a living so it's easy for me to say file and grind...there is a lot of finesse involved. But it can totally be done for sure.
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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2023 1:27 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

MsTaboo wrote:
Mine were worse than that:
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

This is after stripping the old clear coat and lower half has the start of polishing.
The inner bead had me worried, I sanded as smooth as possible.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Took some work but now have these:
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Paint stripper (the old strong stuff), media blast, polishing, and lots of elbow grease.


Those do look amazing! May I ask how they are holding up?

I asked a local wheel repair place how much to refinish, and the quote was $1200 to $1600 Shocked Elbow grease it is, then!
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MsTaboo
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PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2023 1:57 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Christopholi wrote:
Those do look amazing! May I ask how they are holding up?

Thanks.
The wheels are doing pretty good considering the gravel / rocky roads I've been driving. There are some dings and some rub marks but overall they're still looking great.

After cleaning the rims thoroughly I shot them with Mar-Hyde self etching primer with a cheap-o spray gun from H.F. and then let sit for a week, finished with several cans of Dupli-Color high performance wheel coating in graphite and clear gloss. Like all things, it's the prep that matters, for good results you're gonna want to pull the tires and tell the tire guys the paint is new when you have tires reinstalled and balanced.
Good luck with yours!
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coqcitywesty
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PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2023 3:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

I have refinished far more complex 'curbed' wheels than those (by the previous owner, not me Sad ) and they have come out perfectly fine. Noting your location and not sure of who quoted you the estimate AND while I have zero affiliation beyond being a satisfied customer, I would highly recommend Panther Wheels in Surrey: http://www.pantherwheels.ca/ I am currently waiting for my tires to either wear or become stale-dated, such that I have an excuse to mount my CLK's. Best of luck.
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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2023 4:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

coqcitywesty wrote:
I have refinished far more complex 'curbed' wheels than those (by the previous owner, not me Sad ) and they have come out perfectly fine. Noting your location and not sure of who quoted you the estimate AND while I have zero affiliation beyond being a satisfied customer, I would highly recommend Panther Wheels in Surrey: http://www.pantherwheels.ca/ I am currently waiting for my tires to either wear or become stale-dated, such that I have an excuse to mount my CLK's. Best of luck.


Thanks, I'll check them out. The quote I got was from Green's automotive.
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jbeaulie
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2023 2:22 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

MsTaboo wrote:
This is after stripping the old clear coat and lower half has the start of polishing.



I would have guessed those wheels were chrome plated. Am I incorrect and it was just clear coat over metal? I recently purchased a set and it looks like an outer layer of chrome is peeling in some places. Maybe it is just the clear coat peeling, allowing the underlying metal to oxidize/corrode?

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hdenter
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

There are polished aluminum with clear coat and chrome versions out there. Yours look like aluminum with clear.

Hans
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:15 am    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

hdenter wrote:
There are polished aluminum with clear coat and chrome versions out there. Yours look like aluminum with clear.

Hans


That is great news! It looks like restoring polished aluminum is far easier than restoring chrome. Thanks for the input.

Jake
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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2023 2:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

So, short answer - yes, they were salvageable! As an inherently lazy person, and as someone with no place of their own to work, I thought I would skip some steps. It was still a ton of work. I decided to go straight to media blasting to get the clear coat off. It worked, but took about 3.5 hours of course glass to get there. Had I gotten some good paint remover, it would have taken an hour total. A challenge here in Canada is it is really hard to get "the good stuff", as I guess it's incredibly toxic :shrug: On the plus side, it dealt with the corrosion really well, and I got a really good surface for paint adhesion.

I then used some JB Weld to fill in the curb rash. It worked pretty well, but I could have paid a bit more attention to sanding it a bit better. There are a couple of ridges here and there. Then a coat of self etching primer. Then shot it with some high build primer. It filled in a lot of the imperfections, but it ended up crackling a bit, leaving its own marks. May have been the humidity? Two coats of that with sanding in between, then Rust-o-leum Metallic Aluminum paint. 3 Coats of that, some sanding, then two more coats to get where I am now. I'm going to leave them for at least a week before sending them to the tire shop to get 215/65/16 Falken Wild Peaks put on. I'm hoping they survive the process.

Looking closely, there are lots of little imperfections, but they will look fine on the ground going 60MPH. I am slightly concerned about the satin finish and how durable it will be. I could hit it with some clear coat, but that will make the inevitable repairs a bit tricky.


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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 1:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Ultimately, pretty happy with how it all turned out! Tires are Falken Wild Peak A/T Trail 215/65/16. 6mm spacers up front to clear the upper control arm, and 10mm spacers and longer studs in the back to even it out. All hardware, including centre caps, from T3 Technique.


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VicVan
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 1:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

I'll go on a limb and try to answer your question: yes, they are salvageable.
Cool Laughing
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Christopholi
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 2:10 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

VicVan wrote:
I'll go on a limb and try to answer your question: yes, they are salvageable.
Cool Laughing


Whew! Laughing
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 6:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

Your hard work has been rewarded - feels good, huh?
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 12:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Are these CLK wheels salvageable? Reply with quote

They look great!
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