Hey I bought my 4runner used and who ever had it before me didn’t take care to the rims, they are pitted with lots of corrosion. What’s the best way to make them look new again. Bead blast, sand and polish? I really don’t know what I should use to fix them without destroying them.

 

Well you have a couple of options on refinishing you rims:

1st If you like the rims and dont mind spending some money getting them professionally done. This way you can also choose the finish you want. From a polished to a painted maybe even chrome.

2nd Sanding and paniting.... . I did that before and it was a lot of work. Mine rims were machined and clear coated with some black. Sanding through thick coat of clear and black took some time( i acually went out and bought a power sander for it). Then after using 100 grid on sanding down paint and oxidisation the finish is pretty scrached up. This is where the fun starts. I went from 100 to 320 to 600 to 1000 or 1200 to get the finish nice, shinny and scratch free. All those steps took a lot of sanding and time. Then I masked polishe parts and painted the rest black. When the paint was dry I took some alloy polish, polished it out and it looked pretty good. I found that the paint doesnt hold as well as when a wheel shop does it.

3rd As for sand blasting, might wanna try on the back of the wheel see how it works and go from there. Paint or polish.

 

I found an article on polishing Aluminum. Its about model airplane screws but wheels shouldn't be too different.
Check it out.

He used sandpaper in 240, 400, 600, and 1000 grit; and then cream Aluminum polish and a felt bit on a Dremmel. That's a lot of tedious work to finish 4 wheels but the results look great.

I freshened up some steelies with 400 grit and $2 worth of spraypaint. Then I scratched them up on big orange granite boulders so they look more like they fit the scratched up and dented truck.



Anyone tried powdercoating wheels?