Restoring '91 Talon Aluminum Wheels.

[LandonMuzio]

This season I had an unexpected blow from an ice rock that bent both of my '93 Gun Metal Rims. I knew that this spring would suck if I planned on getting my Federals and had to use the shot wheels so I decided to take the 91' wheels from the Talon Brett and I salvaged from Mikes Towing in Kamloops and use those as a substitute. This is what they looked like when I got them back from Kal-tire.



At first I was like "No way. I'm getting new wheels." But then I realized how poor I was so I decided to get 'er done...




After hours of sanding my hands became so sore that I knew that all of this work will soon pay off. The masking was the fun part.




Now that I had the power to decide what Color I wanted my rims I thought it would be easy to pick a color. Man I spent almost an hour in Canadian Tire contemplating what color I wanted to go for. After all that time I decided that the Gun metal I had on my '93 rims was gonna be the choice of color. It was almost sad to see the sanding job get covered up but in the end the finishing result was beautiful.




While I was in Canadian Tire podering on what color to go for I stumbled upon a $12 Blue Caliper Paint kit so I decided hell if my wheels are off I might as well paint my Calipers as well. Heres the end results.



I would like to thank my pop for taking the shots. Now I can ride in style.

[Graeme H Burvill]

looks nice man, my rims look a lot like yours did before.

what grit sand paper did you use? Also was the paint just labled like "wheel" pain or what?

thansk man

[LandonMuzio]

Thanks man.

Ya I used a 40Grit for the rough corrosion only. You don't want to use to much of it or you will put grooves in the rim. Then to a 80 Grid for the initial paint removal and then sand it down with a 160 or 180 i can't remember. Then finish off the sanding with a very fine grit. That will remove all the scratches.

I used a paint called Dupli-Color. Pick up the clear coat as well.

[Reggie Gergely]

very nicley done!!! and i definately like the blue calipers. did u have to do anything special to the calipers before you painted them, besides taking off the old paint?

[John Hartman]

Looks good man.  Lots of work eh?  I did mine about 3 or 4 years ago.  I removed the tires first and had em sand blasted.  Then I sanded out the blasting marks and filed off casting flash etc.  3 coats of black, wetsanding inbetween and 2 coats of clear(IIRC on the numbers)  I also painted the lip silver to cover the bare aluminum.  Seems to be holding up.

[luis Barbosa]

im thinking of doing that to my gsx rims but I dont know what color?
anyone got any pics of the gsx rim thats been done b4?

[Graeme H Burvill]

Depends on your colour really, i'm thinking of going with the stock shiny silver but maybe a little more bling ya know, accent the champagne.
I think for you paintmatching would be best in my opinion, cause if you throw dark coloured rims on there it will probably clash to hard with the lighter silver bling paint. Maybe instead of the metallic/sparkley paint use like glossy silver and clear coat it, make it look sort of like polished rims or something.
I dunno thats my suggestion.

[Brett Haviland]

Looks Good landon!!!  nice job!! those look a hell of a lot better then they did before!!...


Now you have to do my rims for me!

[PaulBratina]

Looks beauty!  Those pics of you sanding reminded me of the time I took a spare set of those exact same type stock rims and sanded them ALL THE WAY down.  All the way down to polished.  Even buffed them and everything.  'Course, I didn't do it all in one go.  I took the whole winter.  You know, a little bit every chance I got.  This was a few years ago.  Gotta be something like 10 years ago.  I ended up never using them on my car.  I sold them to a fellow (ClubDSMCanada) board member.

Btw, that's quite an elaborate setup you used to paint them.  Building an inner garage wall to have the rim poke thru while having the tire sit in the space between the two walls.  That's what I call going above and beyond! (kidding, I realize it's some kind of cardboard treehouse-type setup).

[Edit: After looking at those pics again, I realize that you DID build an inner garage wall.  That's no cardboard treehouse.  It's at least a cork-board or particle-board treehouse.  WOW, that's what I call dedication!  I feel so inadequate. I have to sign off now.  I have to go crawl into the corner and curl up into the fetal position.]

[Jared Grant]

looks like some nice federal rubber, how do u like em? i have em on my talon, there great for summer. not so well the rest of the time. the rims look really good by the way

[Graeme H Burvill]

Yea, I have fresh federalies on my talon, people call me down for em though because they are the kal-tire special. My dad put a dent in the back of my talon so he bought me a new set of tires?? They look like they have a good street tread in them, definitly summer tires. Interested in others opinions as I only put a few days on these tires.

[Rob Armstrong]

Fed's are the shit. I have had "better" (more expencive) tires that were not as good. But I would really like to try some of them BFG G-force but there hella pricy.

Your rims look 100x's better.

[LandonMuzio]

I agree. Feds are wicked.

[Artem Goloubov]

who is the girl?

[LandonMuzio]

ahha! Someone notice the hands of my lovely assistance. Thats Ashley. She wanted to help so I put her to work.