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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Bought a car - need wheel refinishing advice

March 10, 2011 1:07 p.m. speedblind Reader

After a loong search, I finally found a good-condition E36 M3. Low-ish miles, two owners, bone stock. The car's in very good condition with the exception of one wheel - and from the looks of it, a light sand/respray won't solve the problem. It looks to me like the paint's literally chipping off. Any advice on fixing this? Do I need to use some sort of chemical stripper to completely remove the paint?

At some point, I will run a square rear wheel (17x8.5) setup on 245/255 tires. At that point, I could get the wheels professionally stripped and powdercoated. For now, it just looks odd having three nice ones and one peeling/nasty one.
March 10, 2011 2:44 p.m. Rustspecs13 Reader

I used aircraft paint stripper on a pair of old enkei 16in meshies. They had like 5-6 layers of paint. They looked 100x better just stripped lol.

It worked great, but I dismounted the tire. Man I miss working at a tire shop...

~Alex
March 10, 2011 2:58 p.m. bravenrace SuperDork

What he said, or I've also sandblasted and repainted wheels like those and they came out great! What I want is pictures of the car.
WHERE ARE THE PICS OF THE CAR!!!
March 10, 2011 3:28 p.m. speedblind Reader

Pics coming! It's a 97 M3 Coupe w/ 99k miles. PPI showed basic maintenance - guibo, rtabs, various gaskets. Only downside is it's a lux, so I'm going to have to figure out how to rid the interior of the woodgrain.
March 10, 2011 3:38 p.m. killerkane New Reader

Lux is cool, I kinda wish I had a lux instead of my sport version, just add the sport lip and its good to go!
March 10, 2011 3:39 p.m. fast_eddie_72 HalfDork

I've had good luck blasting aluminum wheels with glass bead, paiting with self etching primer, then regular primer and finally color. But I'm not sure how you would match the paint with the other wheels.
March 10, 2011 4:54 p.m. motomoron HalfDork

Buy a onesie on craigslist or bimmerforums. Easier and possibly cheaper if you pay yourself minimum wage.
March 10, 2011 8:26 p.m. Rustspecs13 Reader

dont most bmw's have full size alloy spares? I know e30s have a 5th bottle cap in the back , and I think even the basket weaves had 5, not sure if an M3 would have 5 of the 17in rims tho....

~Alex
March 10, 2011 8:30 p.m. WilberM3 HalfDork

97 has different sizes. fronts are 7.5 rears 8.5
March 10, 2011 10:08 p.m. speedblind Reader

Yep - the spare is a 7.5. Might be worth just waiting and buying one of the many 17x9 options out there.
March 10, 2011 11:27 p.m. procainestart Dork

speedblind wrote:

After a loong search, I finally found a good-condition E36 M3.

Am I the only one who read this and initally thought he meant the slang term for feces? I've read so many GRM posts that E36 M3, Bob Costas, and Berkeley no longer mean what they really mean, if you know what I mean.
March 10, 2011 11:43 p.m. Chebbie_SB HalfDork

Depending on where you are, there are places like This
March 11, 2011 5:25 a.m. littleturquoiseb HalfDork

canoe!?!
March 11, 2011 6:26 a.m. Raze Dork

HAHA look at the URL name, China strikes again!
March 11, 2011 7:18 a.m. Per Schroeder Technical Editor/Advertising Director

There's a write up of the www.fixrim.com service in the May issue that's going out this week. Short answer: For $109 a wheel, they make them nearly perfect.
March 15, 2011 5:35 p.m. speedblind Reader

I'll look into that - $100 bucks is well worth it.

Another question: can chrome be removed? There's a cheap set of chrome contours locally. But chrome us nasty.
March 15, 2011 6:05 p.m. cwh SuperDork

Chrome can be removed by reverse electroplating. Look around for a plating shop, ask them.

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