After nearly 20 years...these wheels need help!

[occupant]

I have two of the wheels off the van and plan to do them two at a time. This poor beater van probably doesn't have a lot of life left in it, but I have about a week to get it cleaned up before the title comes in the mail and I decide to keep it, sell it, or scrap it.

So there's these wheels. I think they're supposed to look like this:

I've read a little about aluminum wheels and all this is very confusing to me. From what I have read on the internet, I need to wash them thoroughly, sand with 200 grit, then 600 grit, then 1000 grit, then get some Hot Wheels polish and go to town.

Am I missing anything? Any other ideas to get the dry crusty nasty things to look like they're supposed to?

I'm also seriously considering saying, forget it, and buy a set of '98 Grand Prix 5-spoke chrome wheels with good tires on them for $80. The only thing I'd worry about is if the tires are too big. 205/70R14 to 225/60R16 is pretty close according to the Miata Tire Size Calculator.

 

[Ronkh]

Those grits sound awful coarse.

Mebbe start with 1500, then go to 2000.

 

[CharlesW]

Chances are those wheels are clearcoated and a chemical cleaner might be worth trying before you start sanding.
As far as tire/wheel sizing, a good tire shop should be able to tell you if the exchange will be practical.

 

[black bart]

I agree with Charles make sure they are not coated because sanding will remove the coating.

If they are not coated DO NOT USE 600
i WOULD START WITH 2000 AND IF THAT DON'T POLISH THEM TRY 1500 THEN BACK TO 2000
YOU WILL NEED A DRILL AND SOME GOOD POLISHING WHEELS

 

[RANDAL]

Heres what id try. 1. soak with water and spray some non-acidic wheel cleaner, let dwell and rinse thoroughly. 2. Remove valve caps, get out electric buffer such as Rotary, UDM, PC, even cheap Wally World 5 inch buffer. 3. Now the ploishing should begin after the moisture has been removed from wheels. Id start with a chemical polish such as PoorboysWorld PRO POLISH or Pro Polish 2. (if possible, remove wheels from vehichile to make the polishing easier). Some hand polishing my be necessary also. As for pads, if this bad use a used firm pad such white or orange. The pads WILL be cruddy when your done.
3. Hand buff with quality MF towel.
4. You may want to apply a wheel wax or sealant use your done.
5. Total trime could be as high as 30 minutes per wheel.

The reason I take off the valve caps is the motion of the buffers WILL spin off the VALVE CAPS!!! Ive been there and done it. Dont forget to clean off the valve stems as they will show some product residue. Good Luck, most anything will look better than the wheels do now.

 

[occupant]

OK, I rinsed one off and rubbed at it with a sponge to loosen up the brake dust and road grime. There is clearcoat loss already, it's peeling off here and there like delaminated paint on a Texas car hood. The center caps are the worst part, but everything else should shine up nice with a good scrubbing. Maybe I should just sand the wheel clean with say 1000 grit, and then re-apply the clearcoat? One of the wheels has a shredded tire on it so I gotta take it off anyway. I can test it on that one and if none of this works, I'll just buy a set of take-offs from another car and go with that. $80-$120 for a set of four street legal tires and matching wheels would probably be worth it, but I can clean these four up and sell them to someone who needs them more than I do.

Every time I see a Pontiac drive by I'm looking at the wheels trying to decide which ones to get. I guess my heart is set on 16" tires and wheels for this van no matter what. But I'll still have to clean these up to take pictures to sell them anyway.

Here's the difference between the non-clearcoated plastic center cap and the rest of the clearcoated wheel.

Here's the clearcoat peeling off in one place on this particular wheel.

And here's a general overall view, and from 20 feet these won't look too bad.

 

[black bart]

I do not envy you restoring wheels if done right is a time consuming job.
I polished the intake manifold on my car before having it chromed.

It was just a rough aluminum casting and it took me three weeks working about 6 hours per day.

 

[occupant]

I think I'm going to just do my best to get the grungies off and make sure the surface matches on all four wheels. They may not be shiny, they may not be polished, but they'll look better than they did by miles. If I own the van TOO much longer, I'll just buy a set of some other Pontiac aluminum wheels and put those on. I really like the 00+ Bonneville SSEi chrome wheels...

...but I'm not sure I want to buy expensive low profile 17" tires. The van isn't worth that...

...yet...

*muahahahahahahaha*

but seriously they put some nice 16" wheels on SE Bonnevilles...

...and 16"s are also found on many 1998-2002 Grand Prix GT and GTP models...

...and you can get nice 16" wheels on 1999-2005 Grand Am GTs...clearcoated...

...or chrome...

...so a junkyarding I will go in time...and if I can save the paint on the hood and the roof and the tops of the fenders and B-pillars...shoot some glossy black over the mirror caps and roof panels...touch up the silver cladding...I don't see any reason this van can't look like new on a shoestring budget!

So many choices...and if I go chrome, I may just paint the whole van glossy black...now THAT would be killer...black van...dark tint...chrome SSEi rims...and that raspy 60-degree V6 exhaust note...oh yeah...

edit: side note: how awful are the detail jobs on those 3 middle wheels...taken straight from AutoTrader ads from dealers...I would be embarassed! The chrome ones turned out nice, but they didn't even clean the whole tire on that one, and left grungies in the little scallops...ewwwwwww

 

[JohnHenry]

Have you thought about having your existing wheels sandblasted and powdercoated? You can do this pretty inexpensively if you can find a shop that will let you do the sandblasting yourself and share oven time with other pieces.

Good luck.

 

[occupant]

Meh, I found a buyer for the van and got $500 out of it. After TT&L and the money I spent fixing it up a bit and cleaning it out, I'm clearing $130 or so. It's going to a good home with a family and school age kids who have been walking for TOO long. They didn't want to finance anything but only had $600 to spend so I sold it for $500 so they could afford to change over the title and get it insured.

I did get all 4 wheels semi-cleaned up and put tires on the other two aluminum rims so they could go on. Detailed the front passenger compartment and the seats and door panels. The dash is now spotless. I even fixed a couple radio speakers so they could have music!

EDIT: I didn't get pictures, I'll do that when they come to pick up the other seats that are still on my porch. Their one kid's stuff took up too much room to put them all in place.