The refinished cookie cutter project

[GTR34]

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I've been on the forum. Since the car is in the garage getting mended, I figured I'd get to work on the rather rough set of cookie cutters that I picked up for 200$. The goal is to get them to a near mirror finish and paint the centers metallic silver to have a nice contrast between polished metal and silver paint. So far, I have one about halfway done. This required stripping off the paint and clear with paint stripper (aircraft stripper, but a little less potent), and sanding with 220, 600, and 1000. By the way, if you're looking for bare aluminum polish, something called white diamond works very well and you can pick up a bottle at autozone. It works better than mother's aluminum polish imho. So this is the result! I hope you guys enjoy!



As you can see, the clearcoat is rather wasted on these wheels, and the photo I have here is probably the best wheel. The wheel I polished had way more pitting in it!













Also, what sort of tires should I get for this set of wheels? I have a late model car and YES, I KNOW these are early offset wheels, however the offset difference is no more than an inch and a quarter (and we all know late model cars with phone dials can use some beef in those rear fender wells). This has been proven on another car I've seen on rennlist that is an 87 with cookies on it. However, the car has 225/50/15s on it. Should I go with these? I used a wheel calculator and at 65 mph, I'd actually be doing 57. Should I get the 255s or go with whatever came standard on the car? Any help is appreciated. Thank you guys a lot.

[100mileperhour]

I'll be watching! I have a 84, and we're just finishing up the front of the engine oil seals, water pump and belts. I too, can't stand black wheels. I will be dropping off my Cookies at the media blaster and painting them silver, with a polished lip. I tried the stripping methods like you, but with not very good results, due ridiculous mounts of paint that previous owners have applied.

My car is bright yellow, so the black would really make the car look like a bumble bee. Silver, should be a nice subtle contracts!

[GTR34]

Don't media blast them! If you care about your wheels, this is not a good thing to do. The particles impacting the aluminum will flatten the surface layer of the molecular structure of the aluminum, making it more prone to cracking. It will only make the wheels more vulnerable to cracking. Just use aircraft stripper and elbow grease. Plus it's something that you can do manually and be proud of!

[sausagehacker]

Originally Posted by GTR34

Don't media blast them! If you care about your wheels, this is not a good thing to do. The particles impacting the aluminum will flatten the surface layer of the molecular structure of the aluminum, making it more prone to cracking. It will only make the wheels more vulnerable to cracking. Just use aircraft stripper and elbow grease. Plus it's something that you can do manually and be proud of!

I always thought media blasting helped with crack suppression, sort of like shot peening. It puts the surface in molecular compression, which suppresses crack formation and propagation (since crack growth starts at stress concentrations). I may be wrong

[GTR34]

I've read that the compressed aluminum on the surface has a more broken up structure after blasting. The surface layer then gets hairline cracks, and those cracks spread over time. If you're worried at all, don't have them blasted. Just use AA stripper a few times and polish with various sandpapers.

[100mileperhour]

You know, you don't have to use super harsh abrasives to media blast. Corncob or sand, or glass. Now, steel I could see that really doing some damage. We just want to remove the paint. I'm going to have mine blasted, as I'm not having much luck getting the layers and layers of paint of mine.

[GTR34]

I see. I think the best media is soda, it's pretty smooth from what I hear. I just used a stripper that has methylene chloride in it, takes the clear off the wheels real fast. I didn't have much trouble, but then again they were original and the clearcoat was garbage. Let us know how your media blasting goes!

Also, props to you for having a yellow 944. I think that's pretty awesome. It's not a bad color and nobody usually ever sees a yellow 944, it's unique. I think polished cookie cutters with silver painted centers will look fantastic on your car!

[GTR34]

Here's a little update on the progress. I bought some cloth buffing wheels to speed up the polishing process. It turns out that the result is much better than I expected!

[geno951]

I can't find the like button.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[100mileperhour]

Originally Posted by GTR34

Also, props to you for having a yellow 944. I think that's pretty awesome. It's not a bad color and nobody usually ever sees a yellow 944, it's unique. I think polished cookie cutters with silver painted centers will look fantastic on your car!

Dropped my wheels off at the blaster and we decided on glass beads. He said it would leave a texture, so he will not blast the outer polished lips.

NICE JOB, I can't believe how shinny they are!

Okay, where did you get your buffing wheels?

Break down your you sanding and or prep, to get that shine! I WANT THAT!!!


TIRE RECOMMENDATION

I'm going to use the Falken ZE-912
http://falkentire.com/tires/car-tires/ziex-ze912-tire about $65 bucks a tire!

[CHICKS]

Wow looks good. You know you can removed the valve stem right?

[dbailey1234]

Those wheels look like they are going to come out amazingly. I'll want to do something like that when my rims degrade some more. They aren't bad right now.

[emoore924]

Take a razor knife and cut the back off that valve stem from the inside (what you can't see when the tire is on the wheel...) then remove what's left from the front. They you can POLISH AWAY and the rim will have a nice even gloss.

Nice job. How much for the wheels

[GTR34]

Alright, my process is:

Strip clear off with paint stripper
Sand out all of the pits with 220 grit, we sand.
Even out all of the previous scratches from 220 grit with 600 grit.
Wet sand with 1000 grit until the surface is flat and you can see little spots, not sure what they are but the surface should be super smooth. It will almost be reflective at this point
I'm using a disc sander with the plastic disc support removed and some small assorted buffing wheels from home depot, originally meant for a drill. I bought a washer for the back and installed the wheel. I use white diamond aluminum and metal polish from advance auto parts, way better than mothers IMHO. It comes in a white bottle.

Because I stripped the black off and stupidly assumed it wouldn't be rough cast aluminum underneath, I have to prime it again. I'm priming this wheel with rust Oleum metal primer. Hey, I know it's probably not great but I'm experimenting here and it's no track car so the wheels won't experience any high temperatures. Next wheel I'm just going to wet sand the existing paint. For paint I am using vht high temp wheel paint, funny because that doesn't matter given the primer isn't high temp but oh well. It looks like it will come out nice, the spray can has one of those higher quality spray nozzles that doesn't blow chunks of paint everywhere. I'm going to warm up the can in some warm water, too, before I paint it. I think they will end up looking nice! Also, vht Clearcoat is what I'm using for the clear. You can buy this stuff at autozone. And hey, if it doesn't work, I'll have the auto body shop at my votec blast off the paint with the appropriate medium, or I might just strip it myself. I'm expecting these to last a while, though

[GTR34]

Oh, also- the rims were only 200 for a set! They're genuine, too. I got them from a real nice guy who sells 944 parts only for very cheap. I had the valve stems removed the other day while we went to the tire shop to have my dad's winter tires changed out. If that's what you were asking, dbailey. If you want to buy them, I'll only sell them to you if they don't fit my car for whatever reason (They should, it's been proven before). Now keep in mind, the polished metal will be uncoated and the paint is not professional! Although I am taking my time to sand the primer and prepare well, they won't be showroom custom paintshop quality. I'll upload some high res photos one of these days of the rims just so you guys can see that it's not a perfect mirror when viewed from a very close distance. Good from far, right? It's quite an upgrade from what they were, though.

[944tothefloor]

^ people always say that before doing an amazing job

[100mileperhour]

Good Morning Gents!

Hopefully a very productive Saturday!

Picked up my wheels from the media blaster! I wished the paint would have come off easier using the aircraft stripper, but there were layers and layers of paint on these wheels. So $200.00 was the bill! Also, in the picture you probably can't see to well by my finger, you can see a slight difference in appearance. There were two or three deep gouges, which had to be welded in and then ground down.

My wheels were glass beaded and the surface now has a uniform texture.

I'll be doing the sanding of outer polished area of the rims today and hopefully getting them primed up today too!

Question: Thinking that I may not clear the polished area, due to possible it getting nasty looking down the road, where as if I leave this area bare, I can always cleaned up. Just have to keep them waxed up! Thoughts????

Michael

[GTR34]

I think you've got the right idea! I'm leaving mine uncoated so they're always looking nice, although they will require maintenance. If I get sick of it, I'll have the autobody teacher at my school clear them with something tested and proven. Also, I would think it's gonna take much longer than what you're expecting to sand. All of those little machined ridges have to be sanded down, and it takes time, especially the 1000 grit. You will definitely want to make sure they're polished to a mirror finish before you mask and prime, because it will be tough going back in there with a buffing wheel and not removing the fresh paint. Also, pick up some real good primer. Do some reading

[100mileperhour]

Originally Posted by GTR34

Also, pick up some real good primer. Do some reading

Son, that's all I do is read, it seems sometimes!

Okay, just did some sanding: 220, 220 foam block, 600, 1,000, 1,200 and 2,000.

Off to get some polish and a polishing wheel!

[GTR34]

You're gonna be happy with those results! I can't wait to see it,