Ronal Turbo wheel resto - aka - El Rabbito gets new shoes

So I had been hunting for some new wheels for El Rabbito for a while now. While there are a million nice lightweight 4x100 wheels they are fewer that keep the old school Euro feel.

I found some Ronal Turbo's in 15x7 with a +37 offset on my local Cincy Craigslist. In typical CL fashion the ad had no pics or details other than Ronal turbo. Asking price was right so went to check them out. They were in good shape with two camber thrashed tires and two good tires. Two wheels had some light curbage but were really nice overall. Two of the wheels had no flaws. A quick negotiation brought 4 wheels and two nice tires for $350. Given the wheels normally I'm feeling great about them.

amazingly good score!

As per normal there are no tire stores employing guys that care about not destroying their customers wheels. I normally drive 2hrs to my buddies shop Heston's in Lancaster Ohio outside Columbus to use his tire equipment. Alas I did harbor the thought that someone I was paying could dismount four tires without Berkeleying anything up. As per normal I was wrong. One more wheel now has "curbage" and the others all look to have been manhandled. After some frustrating banter with my super talented Tire Discounters I roll out and start thinking thru how to make them perfecto again. After a few hours of ADD detailing and rubbing they come out pretty nice.

Pretty psyched that some scrubbing and then rubbing with mothers polish left the barells and the accent black looking great.

So as I start to sand out the first curbage I'm curious about the aluminum filler putties I've read about. Apparently Lab Metal filler putty can blend in perfect and even match the surface finish as long as long as it isn't a full mirror polish. Anyone use these products?

In reply to JThw8: Thx was psyched as they are kind of a classic that I was never willing to pay for...

Those are super cool!

Oh man... if they ever come up for sale... let me know. I need a set of turbos for...reasons.

84FSP wrote: In reply to JThw8: Thx was psyched as they are kind of a classic that I was never willing to pay for...

Yeah, I'm familiar with what the should sell for, I'd have been psyched too. Hell Id have bought them and found a car to fit them later :)

There are as two sets of driver quality Ronal Turbos on Fleabay currently out of Indianapolis at really reasonable prices. They are +28mm offset perfect for early Bimmers but not so much for vw's.

those are beautiful! I am sure you will make them even nicer. I would like those on something of mone.

Realizing I'm pretty anal and expect perfection...

Center caps too . Agree with the above statement, buy the wheels, find the car later.

Amazing, those are some of the best looking wheels ever on the right car. Congrats

Just clean them up, throw some wax on them, and run em.

I did a perfect resto, on some ls world challenge wheels, it was a pain and they didn't even have a machined surface, which yours look like, I don't know how you'd duplicate that.

The first time I got ran off the road and scrubbed one up it was a horrible feeling, so I'm over perfect wheels now

chrispy wrote: Center caps too . Agree with the above statement, buy the wheels, find the car later.

I've done that!

I always keep an extra set or two of Porsche wheels around. Lots of guys take the Fuchs of of 911s and then try to sell the car without wheels.

Excellent score! I wish I'd have been buying these as an investment all these years.

In reply to Opti:

I've got the urge to have these perfect. Hopefully I can keep them that way for longer than 5 minutes. Hoping I can match up the machined finish around the lips.

Hitting the KOI auto body supply shop this afternoon hoping to find the Lab Metal Aluminum filler.
Lab Metal Aluminum Filler

Anyone used any of these fillers?

Damn if the local ones in Indy weren't only 7" wide....

I've used All Metal for curb rash repair with good results, but the wheels were painted, not polished.

Excellence magazine had a very good article about wheel repair about three years ago. I'll try to find the issue.

Those are sharp. Good score. Definitely nicer than any used wheels I've ever bought

I haven't used Lab Metal but my boss has and he says it works well.

April 2009

http://www.excellence-mag.com/issues/172

In reply to Woody: Thanks sir! Digging in to that now. I've refinished wheels before, just never nice ones

In reply to Swank Force One:

These are only 7's as well but they're really just a street setup and for days when the autox course is too cold for slicks.

Going to put some 205/50/15 bf goodrich gforce rivals or the dunlop direzza 2 star specs. Should buy me a few less rpms on the highway as well as improve my sticky!

The R10 series Ronals were only made in 15X7 ET37. If you ordered the other offset Ronal just sent spacers with them. They were a particularly nice spacer that had an O-ring so it snapped into place on the wheel.

I remember when those wheels were regularly $99 each and went on sale for $79 4 times a year. Then they discontinued them and folks got interested all of the sudden and used sets started trading for $200 more than you could have purchased them new just two months earlier.