"New" Wheels (Part 1)

One of the problems with buying used, even a Certified Pre-Owned car, is that not everything is perfect, at least cosmetically.

For me, the biggest issue I spotted were the curb-rashed wheels - this was because other items like rock chips in the bumper, hood and mirror covers can all be written up as normal "wear and tear" - but curb rash signifies poor driving skills.

I get annoyed every time I see this on my car (so all the time....)

And, yes because I am sensitive to how others view me as a driver (especially when driving a nice car), I want to make sure that people don't think I can't drive without scraping ALL FOUR wheels.

So, I searched on Yahoo Auctions for some OEM wheels with as little damage as possible  - which was easier said than done, actually.

Finally, however I found a seller who not only seemed to be selling some clean undamaged rims (one small spot had some rash), but also was running on almost brand new tires (Michelin Pilot Super Sports) - he claimed only 4800 kms on them.

From the photos, it looked like a good deal - even the tires alone would be expensive (if new) and so I figured that together it would be a decent deal (i.e. get clean free wheels for the price of the tires).

From the Yahoo Auction page

From the Yahoo Auction page

When I got them, however, of course they were not as perfect as the seller claimed. Good condition yes but some light scrapes were visible so I had to buff those out using a combination of PoorBoys 2.5, 3M Perfect-It, and some good old elbow grease:

Before

After

Have to give credit to not just this 3M product, but some PoorBoys 2.5 vanishing compound too... oh and yes my PorterCable machine!

Still, they look great from a few paces away and clearly way better than the wheels on my car now.


Also, it appears he was truthful about the tires - the tire code shows that the tires were manufactured the 8th week (last week of Feb) of 2015, so these tires are relatively new and 4800kms - in Japan - makes sense especially if these tires were manufactured overseas (so if imported, would be on the car around late March, and I bought these wheels in August, so about 800kms per month?)


I noticed, however that there was still some brake dust hiding between the spokes and even though I used some clay to try to remove, it just wasn't going as quickly as it could:

Not very efficient...

So, I decided to try a chemical solution:

The purple stuff is the melted iron/brake dust, apparently...

Truth be told, the chemical did not remove all of the brake dust, so check back in Part 2 for my additional efforts. The wheels are presentable, sure, but not perfect... yet...