Pirateslife4me

Bought a second set of CCW's for my new flared rear fenders from a fellow forum member. They are CCW T10 the rears are in pretty decent shape but need to re-polish the barrels no biggie. The fronts however were pretty rough much more so than they looked in the pictures. The insides were nasty and covered/stained in what looked like tar. Curb rash on both wheels outside lip, scuffs and scrapes. In all fairness though I did feel that pretty much stole them for the price I paid which was not what a set of CCW's in pristine shape would go for so I was expecting and was told they would need a little work.

The beauty of the CCW wheel though is that almost anything can be easily fixed. This is just another reason they hold their value and are worth every penny.

Here are the before pictures, no amout of scrubbing would make even a dent in that mess inside the barrel. That road rash is yeah... nasty looking.























I decided to tackle the barrels first and hit it with 800grit wet/dry sand paper. This knocked that stuff right down to nice silver aluminum.









Can see what a huge difference it's making already





Bam look at that all that crud is gone!









Now that the damage is taken care of its time to bring these bad boys back to life next up 1000grit wet/dry











Looking great!!! Time for 2000 grit wet/dry











They are starting to get a little luster back, so next 3000 grit wet/dry













BAM!!! Look at that! I actually really like the brushed look of 3000 grit and thinking bout maybe trying that look on the front centers with polished lips for a more aggressive look. Eh maybe later let's get that road rash fixed up.

So here we go first 150 grit wet/dry... This is kinda scary but have I got to lose right?













Ad you can see I sanded that road rash right out. There is still a little bitty nick but it's not noticeable and it's getting late (almost midnight) the steps that follow are exactly the same as the barrels I did go 400 grit between the 150 and the 800 so... it was 150, 400, 800, 1000, 2000, 3000 and now the fun part of making them (hoping they) shine again.

I love this stuff! Super easy to use by hand or machine and leaves a silicone protection layer behind to help keep your polished parts looking nice for as long as possible. I used it with my Porter Cable polisher. This made quick work of it.
















I started by just smearing a couple fingers full of blue magic around the area to be polished and then slowly went over the area 3 times sideways and 3 times up and down (roughly) and then wiped off the black residue with a nice new microfiber polishing towel.



And here is the fished product. I'm very pleased just look at what those barrels started out as and now they are a mirror! Road rash gone! Scuffs and scraps gone!

I spent roughly an 45 min to an hour per wheel but like said it well worth it cause I got a very fair deal I can now feel good about putting these on the car and putting my other set of CCW SP16A's up for sale :-)

1Willy1

Good job man

I saw that blue magic stuff at my hardware store I almost bought it , but went with mothers instead.

Im going to try the "adams" polish a few guys have strongly recommended.

why is the site forcing us to post these little dinky thumbnail photos now?

I tried to upload a few yesterday and it did the same thing?

Evil-Twin

You did a great job... Ive been down that road several times... not as bad as your but bad enough.. I spend about 8 hours a year keeping my CCW's looking brand new.. 2 four hour sessions, one hour each wheel in the spring, then again in the fall. My 12 year old CCw's look as good as the day I bought them. I've had several curb rash issues as well and with a little work you can make them disappear..MY one tip would be , don't bite off more than you can chew at one time...just focus on doing one and making it perfect... if you try to do all four at one time, you will spend 1.5 hours on the first one 40 min. on the second, 30 min on the third, and then 20 minutes on the fourth...
Nice job.. it just goes to show that you can keep your CCWs looking brand new even after 12 years like mine and get 80 % of your investment back if you decide to sell them as I did.. so I could get wider wheels. I didn't even have to put them up for sale... some one saw I was getting wider wheels and convinced me to sell my 12 year old wheels to him.. I was not going to sell them, because I didn't need the hassle of negotiations, shipping etc.
some of my curb rash


After



Again great job..
Bill aka ET

NVTHIS

Those look great man!! I knew it would take a little work, to get looking back to new. And yes, you did STEAL them, lol.

Vetteman Jack

Great job getting the wheels back in shape. They sure look good and CCWs are excellent wheels.

Koufax

I take it that there was no clearcoat removal in your process. Did you remove the tires or do your work with the tires on? If there were clearcoat, would you remove the tires to get rid of that? How difficult is it to remove tires and put them back on?

I'm new to this, as you can tell. I'm thinking of re-polishing my stock aluminum wheels, which have clearcoat and have never removed a tire from a rim (or put one back on). Should I go to a tire shop to get that done?

Evil-Twin

Not sure if you just want an answer. or you want a specific answer from the op... Its his thread and not mine so I defer to his experience.
short answer is: no there is no clear coat on CCW's
Your wheels are clear coated, you don't want to try to remove it.
If you have run flats on your wheels , they are too hard to remove without proper machine and specific training.
You can PM if you like or I will offer more information later.

My 12 year old CCW on the left with over 60,000 miles... and a brand new CCW on the right... Car has 100,000 miles

12 years old........................................ ........................................ ..................................... Just out of the box

3318C5

Great job on the wheels OP, they look great!!!

6speedsteve

I brush finished the rear of mine & use Blackfire metal sealant, much easier to take care of.

DevilDog II

Wow! Those look awesome. You have a lot more patience than I do, which is probably why I have chrome wheels.

Black 03 Z06

That is a true labour of love. Great job on returning the wheels to all their glory.

I appreciate the photographic journey, nicely done.

My CCW sp16's are only a year old but I already have some significant time invested cleaning them.

IMXCITD

wow...those came out great!!

meflyfrc

Beautiful job!!!

colderbythelake

mrr23

great work.

jeffieg

look new again, great job can factory rims on 2000 be done that way or are they clear coated thanks for any help don't want to mess mine up any more

Pirateslife4me

Thanks guys! Evil Twin is spot on as always... There is no clear coat on CCW wheels they are bare polished aluminum (unless you special order a different finish) if you have curb rash on stock/painted/clear coated wheels its quite a bit more involved and your best bet is to find a local wheel restorer. I did restore and polish these myseof with with the tire mounted by the way.

I know I stole them lol you posted them for for sale and I was surprised you still had them. You made me a great deal and since nobody else stepped up I jumped on them. You told me they needed finish work and were totally upfront and honest and did one absolutely amazing packing job which kept them totally protected from the shipping gorillas. No complaints from me so I hope my post did not coming off as complaining or anything cause im anything but. I'm a cheap *** and therefore never mind doing a little work to save a few bucks.

I looked into having them refinished as the seller told me but figured wth I have nothing too lose so let's see what happens and once again saved a few bucks... :-)

Evil Twin.... your totally right about how doing all 4 wheels at once goes. The fronts were my main concern but I'm sure I spent a little less time on the 2nd one than I did the first. I was rushing to get car ready for a show/club cruise this weekend but now that it's over I'm going to take them back off and get the one or two little nicks that I didn't get out. Probably nobody would notice but they bug me. And yeah ET like you I bought these to replace my spa16a ccw's that I ran with my stock rear fenders hoping that I could pretty much pay for the this second set (which are wider for my newly installed petes carbon fenders) gotta get some pics taken and post them up.

I see (not so much here) people complaining about the price of new CCW'S so thought I'd give anyone wondering just one of the reasons why we love them so much. Also to show that hey you can get into a used set and get a great deal and make them good as new if your willing to do a little work that's really simple and anybody can do it. I would highly recommend a decent polisher though it makes your work load a ton less.

Evil-Twin

I did not want to appear to be hijacking your thread.. I just wanted to add my support for CCW's and their worth.. After 12 years my wheels look as good as they did when I bought them even after 60,000 miles of road time.

I highly recommend anyone doing this to focus on one wheel,, and not try to get to the second one... ( its a mind set ).. If you don't try to bite off more than you can chew, you wont be disappointed..
I take off one wheel.. and only worry about doing it until it is perfect.. if it takes 40 minutes or an hour an 20 minutes... At my age.. that's about all the gas I have in the tank.. but after an hour of rest, Im ready to do the second wheel. when I do the second wheel , I make sure that I'm doing the other wheel on the same side of the car... so at least one side of the car look perfect. ( if you can get the point.. )
When I do my wheels It usually takes two days, I do two a day... which includes detailing the rotors calipers, suspension, and the wheel wells.


Before... no garage queen here.. that's road salt all over the car.



After




12 years and 60,000 miles rotors are also 12 years old with 60,000 miles on them.

j84buick

I love the fact that you can cleanup nicks and road rash. I have had mine for 6 years with no regrets. The guys at CCW are great to work with and took care of me far after they had too.

For mine I do a wheel off polish once a summer mainly to focus on the barrels. Outside gets a quick polish 3-4 times a season usually. I like the Adams #1 and #2.

mrr23

factory are clear coated. you can remove the clear coat and polish. not a fun job removing the clear coat.