Best way to clean corrosion off of bolder alloy wheels before mounting new tires.

[LowMilesLesabre]

I decided to purchase used alloy wheels for my upcoming new tire change. I’m changing up from the fifteens that the LeSabre originally came with up to 16 inch wheel which was an option package for the same car. There are so many more choices in tires and brands in the 16 inch size than there are in fifteens and I really want the Michelin cross climate to all weather tires that I’m going to mount sometime in October. There are no dents or cracks in these wheels but not surprisingly, there is some corrosion. I would like to have these wheels refinished or if I do it myself, what would you suggest? I have zero experience when it comes to refinishing wheels and so thought I would put this out there to see if any of you have ever taken the low budget route and refinished used wheels as opposed to purchasing brand new ones. I really don’t want to invest $1000 in new wheels for this car but I’m willing to buy high quality tires given the winter conditions that we have here. Here are some photos of the wheels which came off of a Pontiac Grand Prix. They are the same size in bolt pattern as the upgrade 16s would have been on the Buick.

 

[TCL]

Those don't look too good. Especially the one with the wheel weight on it. The corrosion on that one, if it continues into the bead wall area, will be a beeech to seal.

 

[Rand]

oof those are more than abit rough.

 

[sk_pete]

ton of sandblasting, bucket of putty. lets hope alu rot is not under tyre

 

[dishdude]

I would probably recycle those and get a set of steel wheels. You can get new steelies at a reasonable price. As mentioned, the bead area is probably corroded and will cause leaks.

 

[Trav]

Scrap price is $0.85 a pound, throw them away they are way beyond normal inexpensive DIY reconditioning.

 

[Astro14]

Those look awful. You need a company like this.

Refinished / Used Factory Alloy Wheels Sales & Repair - Wheel Collision Center

Wheel Collision Center straightens, welds, polishes, repairs, refinishes & recycles damaged bent OEM alloy wheels and custom aluminum alloy wheels rims, and sells refinished remanufactured recycled factory OEM aluminum alloy wheels.

www.wheelcollision.com

 

[RDMgr]

They are rough but if you want to try and restore them there are a lot of videos on Youtube. I don't know if they work or not.

 

[atikovi]

Those are winter beater wheels not worth refinishing. I told myself after refinishing these BMW wheels, I would never refinish another set again,

 

[thunderous1335]

I hope you got those wheels for free, because they're basically trash at this point.

 

[ecotourist]

I had a set of cheap winter wheels bought new, that eventually corroded (though not as bad as those) for the Accord. They were always leaking, I suppose at the rim. I checked into getting them sand blasted and repainted but that would have cost more than I paid for them originally. When the tires wore down a bit I recycled the whole lot.

My advice - Don't buy cheap new alloy wheels or corroded alloy wheels either.