Gotti refurb and Valve question

[davebirl 0]

I got those fantastic Gotti Rims from Diesel Dave and just started the refurb process.

 

Heres how they look prior to refurb. No serious damage just general laquer yellowing and oxidation. Some minor enough curbage

 

 

Thanks to Dave for spliting them for me too! I know I'd have made a balls of them.

 

First I picked out 1 wheel and gave it a quick power wash to get off any dirt etc

 

 

Then a good coating of Nitromors, which is powerful stuff. Once the nitromors starts to do its thing I dosed the rim with the power washer again to peel off the loose paint and laquer.

 

 

Centre came out like this. Theres a few nice chips and scratches but I can easily sand/polish them out.

 

 

Once the laquer was off the lip I started on it with 1200 sand paper and some steel wool to remove any curbing. To get the shine back I used some Poor Boys SSR3 and final shine thanks to Brasso. Forgot to take a photo of this process but this is what I ended up with. Outer lip looks perfect now and I'm real happy with it. Corrosion / oxidation and curbage has more or less disappeared.

 

 

Side by side of the outer lips

 

 

 

Now the really nasty part of polishing the hard to reach places. After an hour with 1200 sand paper I was just starting to see the shine but I abandoned for tonight and will get some 400/800 paper tomorrow. I also have a few fancy drill attachments I want to try out too. Hopefully it will speed up the process.

 

 

Basically laquer removal and outer lip refurb will be easy but polishing the centres will be more of a bitch than I expected. I have sourced new centre caps and I have to order some new bolts yet. I've been on to Gotti in France and I've been told the wheel model is G1001 and the bolts should be Titanium with Aluminium Nuts. Seems these rims have been refurbed sometime in the past before as there are BBS style bolts in there already. I am gonna stick with the BBS Bolts cos I dont fancy the black Titanium look on the outside.

 

anyway

 

ahem :) after 6 weeks my fingers are f*#ked! :) but it was well worth it :)

 

 

super high res photo here

 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a368/ ... 000290.jpg

 

 

lol, dont get too excited lads, fingers were goosed and I wasn't getting the finish I wanted.

 

Checked a few of the forums and the Porsche guys swear by Mr Cecil Lane of Rainbow Polishing in the UK. Gave Cecil a phone call and after telling him how I wanted them to look he said to send them over to him and that he'd do a top job and have them finished in a few weeks.

 

Theres no way on earth you'd get the mirror finish without the proper equipment.

 

All praise goes to Cecil Lane. He is very very reasonably priced so if anyone is interested please drop me a line and I'll send on his contact details.

 

Now my problem with valves.

 

They appear to be too wide to fit through the holes in the outer rims.

 

The original valve is a different design and is a smaller diameter at the end which enters the rims. Gotti sent me new valves, which are in fact new BBS valves. Anyone ever see one like my original one on the left, I think some motorcycles and or jap import cars use them?

 

[KADVR6 0]

dont take this the wrong way but

 

I HATE YOU :(

[davebirl 0]

lol he he he :)

[KADVR6 0]

i will have these alloys soon though, so then i wont hate you :)

[BigTartanJudge 0]

I had Gotti wheels on my over 2.5 years ago on my rado, then I sold them :brickwall: currently sitting on a MK2 for sale over on ed38.

[davebirl 0]

guys, how do you polish the centre caps? I tried nitromors on them last night but it made no difference to them.

[zak 0]

you could always drill out the dish to accept the larger valves.

[davebirl 0]

Finally finished. Put them back together with the help of a mate over the weekend. Its actually very easy. Just plan everything in advance and have what you need close by.

 

I think the photos explain everything about how we done it. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I placed the spanner inside a latex glove to protect the rim from any damage when holding the Bolt in place. Torqued the inside Nuts to 23Lbs

 

 

[davebirl 0]

finished

 

 

 

[Leonard 0]

Theres no way on earth you'd get the mirror finish without the proper equipment.

 

I will cetainly agree with that, as my fingers will testify LOL

 

Wheels look amazing though, well worth sending them off. Will do that with mine next year I think.

 

Cant wait to see them on the car.

 

Matt

[coullstar 0]

Quality job but my idea of wheel hell. Bare polished metal!!!!!

[Lufbramatt 0]

finished

 

 

Oh my :notworthy:

 

they are "teh sex", seriously stunning wheels!

 

WANT :grin: