Cleaning Turbine Wheels

[DonRich90]

Hi! I'm a "Newbie" to this site and I think it's great. I just bought a '90 Grand Marquis LS to use as a daily driver to save my "toy" ('00 Mustang GT vert) and now I think I'll need a "driver" to save the GM. It's turning out to be another fun "toy".
My GM has 92K on it but it's in almost mint condition. White/blue vinyl landau roof and blue velour interior. Really drives like a new car ('90 new car). The only thing that needs some attention is the OE turbine wheels.
The wheels are in real nice condition but really need to be worked on to get rid of the half peeled clearcoat around the rims and some darkening of the metal from age. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Don

[Tiggie]

One of the options I am aware of is to strip the clearcoat off with some paint stripper. Tape off the center to avoid getting the stripper in the "turbines." You then have the option of reclear coating it with some wheel paint or just occasionally polishing the rim. I did mine on my '87 almost a year ago and didn't put any clear back on them. They haven't corroded yet which surprised me since I haven't been polishing them.
If you've got corrosion like I had on mine before I redid them, you might need to take some superfine sand paper to them. I think I used 1500 grit, followed by polishing compound.

The other option is to send them to a wheel resto shop which can be expensive or find another set in the junkyard.

[gadget73]

Moving this over to the appearance section.


Unfortunately the clear that was used on the wheels kind of sucks. Not much to be done short of sanding it and having it re-applied. I was going to strip a set totally bare of all paint and clear using some sort of paint stripper, sand the corrosion off, then paint the whole "fin" area black. After it dried, I was going to polish off the raised machined part of the fin, leaving the inner parts black. Painting it the color of the car would look sharp too. My car happens to be black so it would work for me. Some of the 70s Lincolns did that, mostly the Diamond Jubilee model comes to mind.

[Blaze86Vic]

Sand blast it clean, polish the front surfaces, tape them off, paint the insides, put new clear coat on. Should be able to take them to a body shop and they'll sand blast em for ya. Shouldn't cost too much.

[88MercWagon]

Chrome Turbines...hmmm...



Just throwin it out there

[Mr. Land Yacht]

to GMN!
Tiggie painted his with a nice gloss black with the outer ring a Aluminum color..looks great.
sounds like you have a nice lookin' Box MGM...pictures would be nice!

[Tiggie]

Tiggie painted his with a nice gloss black with the outer ring a Aluminum color..looks great.

(Click for larger view)


Thanks Mr. Land Yacht! I could have sanded off the tips of the turbines, and no doubt it would have looked good. But they didn't look bad and it was about 120 degrees the day I did it so I left 'em.

Total investment = $15

[gadget73]

(Click for larger view)


Thanks Mr. Land Yacht! I could have sanded off the tips of the turbines, and no doubt it would have looked good. But they didn't look bad and it was about 120 degrees the day I did it so I left 'em.

Total investment = $15

Basically what I had in mind, but I wasn't going to paint the raised portion of the fins. Looks pretty decent all black too tho.

[Mr. Land Yacht]

yea, that's what I was talking about....I'm still considering doing that to my stock Turbine, they're my winter wheels...would look nice...it would contrast with the blacked out bezels/grille and window tints...hmmm...it would look something like this and I like it...what do you guys think? yay ro nay?

[gabegt90]

do it colin looks good like that I would do that but I'm pretty bad when it comes to painting stuff I tend to over paint

[boXman]

That looks fuckin' bad ass!

[Mr. Land Yacht]

thanks guys...that's the encouragement I needed
even my friend's GF said that would be awesome...and she's a girl no offense RideIt...

[91LTDProject]

heres how mine turned out after some sandblasting, priming, painting, and clearing. look great from bout 10 feet away, but my sandblaster sucks balls, and left alot of clearcoat(hand held, would have taken a 10kg bag of media to get everything off on each rim) may in the future have them powdercoated. Got 3 painted, 1 more to go then there goin on the 88. Now I got to figure out how to get the damn center cap off without prying on the rim. I hate these center caps.

[Tiggie]

Now I got to figure out how to get the damn center cap off without prying on the rim. I hate these center caps.

I took a torch to an old flat head screwdriver and put a 90 degree bend in it. Works perfect with a little peice of cloth to protect the wheel.

[boXman]

I use a pry bar, doesn't hurt the wheel none.