polishing wheels but not the usual

[sexybourbon 0]

right i have keskin kt1 wheels on the corrado but they have corroded quite badly and have white worm or whatever it is , the worst parts are near the bolts so i am going to refurb them but i have been told i cant do them because they are foil wrapped or something then laquered on top so my argument is they must be able to be polished but has anyone had this problem before ? im not saying its gonna be easy at all but surley if the wheel is made of ally then it must be able to be stripped and polished

any advice people ?? :confused4:

[leon263 0]

The Keskin KT1 is a fake split rim wheel. By that I mean that all the 'bolts' around the edge of the rim are actually plastic fakes and are only there for cosmetic purposes. The wheels can certainly be re-furbed but you will have problems. The 'foil wrapping' that you refer to is nonsense. The 'white worm' that you refer to is corrosion on the polished alloy dish and is caused by water finding its way in under the protective lacquer. The normal re-furb procedure would be to remove the bolts, strip the old lacquer off using Nitromors paint stripper, polishing the dishes, re-lacquering (optional) and then replacing the bolts. The problem is that when you try to remove the fake plastic bolts they will just snap off and will not be re-usable. You then will need to drill out all remaining plastic stumps in order to replace the bolts. I have never seen plastic replacements for sale so the option would be to use proper stainless split rim bolts or stainless Allen head bolts. The problem with proper split rim bolts will be the length. They are usually around 25-30mm long which will be too long for your job as the original plastic fakes will have been either glued or pressed in a shallow hole. If you can source short steel bolts you then have the problem of fitting them. The holes in the rim will need to be tapped to provide threads for the bolts or the holes will need to be drilled oversize so that the bolts can be glued in.

I have been down this road with a set of fake splits before and I sourced and used 12mm, M8 stainless low head Allen bolts with very acceptable results. I actually tapped every hole and screwed them in which took for ages, believe me.

All the above is probably not what you wanted to hear. The quick option is just to paint everything .......... not really an option!

Good luck in any case.

[sexybourbon 0]

yea i knew they was fake splits have already had a tester at drilling the leftover plastic fake bolts out but i cant understand why they wouldnt sell these new how daft! any ways i know what bolts i am putting back in them going for something different with black stainles bolts but instead of tapping all the holes am going to use aroldite metal glue stuff wich should hold them fine but your defo right about it been a pain to do but was unsure about this foil wrapped wheel balls id never heard of it either !

anyhows pics will be up when finished feel free to pop around and polish them if you want haha

[leon263 0]

Good shout mate, if I it to do again I'd be glueing them in too. I probably would not re-lacquer the dishes unless you want to be doing it all again in a couple of years. If you give them a quick polish every couple of weeks you should have no bother.

[sexybourbon 0]

yea i wasthinking exactly the same tbh theres no point in laquering the dish if its only gonna get shagged again