Old Style ZQ8 center caps.

[Firm]

K, well I've decided I wanna polish my older style ZQ8 rims, like I am sure someone here has done. I've done it before so polishing the rim to a chromey shine isn't my problem, I am worry about whether I am gunna be able to get the center caps to match?? They look like they've got a metal cap over the plastic backing....but I am not sure if it's gunna polish up as shiney as my aluminium rims??? I guess the solution would be to have them chromed...but I'd rather not waste the money on that if I can just polish them.

[wesplaininsane]

dont really know about them but you could get a extra cap from a junk yard or something and try it out and see if it would polish. prolly wouldn't cost afew dollars. just incase you have to go the more expensive route.

[Firm]

Well...I've got two sets of these rims...So I've got extra caps. I figured I'd just try the edge on one of them and see what happens

[wesplaininsane]

yea see how it turns out and keep us posted.

[Firm]

Well...I gave it a shot...Polishs up fine, just like the rims. I spent about 5 hours at it today and I've got one cap done, and a little over half of a rim. Gunna be a looonnng process. But it's coming out really nice. Should be well worth it. I'll try and remember to post a pic tomorrow once I get one complete wheel done.

[wesplaininsane]

nice. lookin forward to see some pics.

[Firm]

Got some pics....Got about 20 hours into this so far...2 rims completely done. 2 to go. Plus I gotta spray some clear on them still. And paint those ugly weights silver.

[wesplaininsane]

nice. looks sweet man. good work.

[TubbD]

oooo....Those look nice!

[greencactus3]

looks damn good

[Firm]

thanks guys.....I got the two I did yesterday clearcoated today, and I am just about done the third rim right now. I'll finish that today. The fourth will have to wait for friday because I gotta start studying for my friday morning exam

[sws10]

How exactly did you got about doing this? Id like to do it to my zq8's

[smoothsdime1998]

those look killer. post pics of them on the truck

[02_Black_XBlazer]

Looks killer. Lots of elbow grease involved, but from the pics so far, looks like it's worth it. I always liked the look of my "1st-gen" ZQ8 rims, and I always wondered what they'd look like with a nice polish job.

[Firm]

Thanks for the compliments. Heres a quick how-to I wrote last night when someone else asked about it: If you've got any questions feel free to ask.

How to polish your ZQ8 rims(or any other similar finished rim)

1) Do all the obvious stuff, remove it from the truck, get any centre caps off of there, wash it off and dry it.
2) Once you’ve got a nice comfortable area to work(cuz you’ll be spending a lot of time here) lay some newspapers down cuz this gets messy.
3) Get some paint stripper and a brush that’s about ¾ of an inch wide. Starting on the outside edge of the rim apply the stripper, try and get as much on as possible without getting it on the areas you don’t want stripped. When it does get on there wipe it immediately.
4) On the older style ZQ8’s I did one half of the entire outer rim first, followed by the other half and then the spokes. This seemed to be the best way to work for these rims, but it might be different for others.
5) Give the stripper time to lift the old clearcoat….Then wipe it away, then you’ll have a gunky mess left in a lot of spots. Use either a plastic putty knife or your finger nails to scrape this off(If you've got a g/f...or even one of those 'anything goes ho's' this is where those long nails of hers come in handy ). You usually will need at least 2 applications of stripper to get it all clean off.(this is the worst part of the job).
6) Once all the clear coat is off your ready to start wetsanding. I started with 400 and worked my way up to 2000(which might be overkill). The biggest thing here is that you sand off all of those machined ridges in the finish with the 400, and then work from there. You’ll know when your done when it is all even and has a dull shine to it after you’ve done the finest grit. Use lots of water while you sand. And I like to dry the area off after every stage to look for imperfections that may need attention.
7) Once the entire rim has been wetsanded, dry it off and clean up your work area.
8) Now you can finally get to the fun part. Get some nice clean rags(I used some old cut up flannel p.j’s) and go to town polishing using mothers billet polish. I know it like double the price of the regular stuff, but it’s worth it. I am sure you could probably use a powerball or something here. But I couldn’t find a small one, so I did it by hand. Just keep polishing till you see all that black residue and then buff it off.
8) You may look at it now and see some spots that look shitty, or need more polishing. So you may have to do some more wetsanding with the really fine grit, and more polishing to get it right. It all depends how fussy you wanna be, personally it’s my daily….And I know my mom or someone gunna end up borrowing my truck and curbing them anyway, so I didn’t make it absolutely perfect. But I think 10 hours on a rim is pretty damn good anyway.
9) Once your all done clean up the tire, and if you want spray some clearcoat on it for protection. Just make sure you wipe it down with thinner really good first. Don’t want any fisheyes on your now beauty rims.

As far as the center caps go….I just followed the same steps on them. EXCEPT I didn’t wetsand them as they seamed to polish up really good without sanding because they don’t have any of that ribbed finish.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Theres alotta playing around to see what works best for you, so be patient and it’ll work out. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, or pm me.

[beandip]

looks good! what did you use to clear coat them?

[sws10]

hmm... i may be doing this, those look ****ing badass.

[Firm]

Quote: Originally Posted by beandip

looks good! what did you use to clear coat them?

'Duplicolor performance wheel coating'. I get it from Canadian Tire, but you can probably get it at any similar place in the U.S. I've used it on my Camaro rims when I refinished them about 3-4 years ago and it's held up very well. Only thing this time around was I had some runs because it didn't wanna stick all that well to the polished finish, so make sure it use very light coats. And just as a warning, if you do clearcoat anything follow the recoating instructions(1 hour or 5 day...not in between) or you'll regret it.

[556mm]

[gbones]

maybe ill try to bring these back to life. clear is flaking rite off.

[Firm]

Go for it man...they don't look too bad, other than the clear coat. And Irocs look awesome polished like this.

[Tha-BlackDog6]

Firm ... you're my inspiration to strip off the paint on my Camaro Z28 wheels & just see IF they'll polish up even remotely close like yours . I have 2 of'em stripped but I'm gonna get all of'em done before I start the process of polishing'em. I have to x2 on the elbow grease :O

[frankie413]

have any pics of them on the truck yet? can't wait to see em

[Firm]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha-BlackDog6

Firm ... you're my inspiration to strip off the paint on my Camaro Z28 wheels & just see IF they'll polish up even remotely close like yours . I have 2 of'em stripped but I'm gonna get all of'em done before I start the process of polishing'em. I have to x2 on the elbow grease :O

Thanks...I've actually stripped and polished the unpainted part of my Z28's on the camaro....I just looked for some pics....but I lost them with my old puter, and the cars in storage ........No pics of the wheels on the truck yet, not till the spring cuz theres salt and snow everwhere here right now. But as soon as the snows gone i'll get them on....I can't wait to get them on there now.

[Tha-BlackDog6]

Firm ... I was originally going to do that as well but I'm hoping they'll polish & buff out pretty good. Do you think I should sand the center of the rims (in the 5 star spoke) part to kinda remove a little of the aluminum texturing in your opinion??? Right now they don't look too BAD but they definitely need tobe polished in person

[Tha-BlackDog6]

Also ... If Anyone Has The Black 5 Star Caps That'll Work With These Rims Let Me Know B/c People Keep Poppin' Mine Off Or If You Have A Set Of The Zq8 5 Stars Let Me Know Thanks

[Firm]

You can get repops of the Z28 caps off ebay pretty cheap and they're actually pretty nice. As far as sanding the center part it's up to how perfect you wanna make it. I am pretty sure the unpainted part is machined so you'll have to sand that either way, I might try polishing the center part without sanding and see how it looks, if it looks shitty then sand it. I say this because to sand all of that evenly(especially down near the bottom of the spokes) will be a pain in the arse.

[greencactus3]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tha-BlackDog6

Firm ... I was originally going to do that as well but I'm hoping they'll polish & buff out pretty good. Do you think I should sand the center of the rims (in the 5 star spoke) part to kinda remove a little of the aluminum texturing in your opinion??? Right now they don't look too BAD but they definitely need tobe polished in person

make a new thread if you do this. i also wanna clean up my 2z8s but havent decided how yet

[Tha-BlackDog6]

Quote: Originally Posted by greencactus3

make a new thread if you do this. i also wanna clean up my 2z8s but havent decided how yet

Will do man just for the sake of trying it b/c I've got American Racing Ventura wheels now & REALLY would like to know something to make them stand out (other than the ZQ8 center caps). It'll be a little while but stay tuned to the same Dime Channel & same Dime Time LoL

[DMP]

Wow...those turned out nice. Do you think it will work if the rims are kinda "pitted"?

Thanks.

[stalephotograph]

damn those look good man. itll look a hell of a lot cleaner if you remove those weights from the front and haven them mounted on the back side wall or lip.

[Firm]

'pitted' should be ok as long as you wet sand out the pits(that'll mean more work). And yes those weights are coming off once I need new tires on them(which will be soon anyway)for now I've painted them silver so they don't look so gross.

[556mm]

let's see them on the truck.