illminded's wheel refurbishment story

ill-minded · **Posted:** Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:12 pm

They're actually Volk Racing Artisan Spirits, but I'll grab some pictures in a bit.

The one on the floor in the foreground in that last pic is what's behind the aero disc. I paid $650 for them, which I guess isn't super cheap, but still very reasonable considering the condition of all of the wheels and aero discs I thought.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:41 pm

The little bit on the left of frame in the second pictures says, "Light & Tough! Volk Racing with Racing Spirit.".

tristinGrind · **Posted:** Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:03 pm

Oh, damn I thought they were SSR Aero covers... no longer interested in purchasing, but still interested in the pics you posted. They look great! I think they are a good score. I would have paid what you did; theyre pretty hard to find. Good condition too!

jace · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:29 pm

They remind me of Weds Albino Racing wheels, with the hub section black like that.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:55 am

They're pretty similar in more than just that regard, truth be told.

I pulled them all apart today. 96 bolts (80 for the centres and 16 holding the aero discs on) in total and I only snapped one, which was pretty much entirely rust anyway. Not sure if anyone else has ever noticed, but the heads on the socket caps that Rays used on these have smaller diameter heads on them. As a result, it makes them a hell of a lot more prone to expanding enough that it strips out the hex in the heads and the nuts used only have a thin hex head on them, which doesn't give enough meat to use them to loosen. The mesh that I cleaned up don't actually have any heads on the nuts at all.

Pro tip for anyone else who wants to refurbish theirs though. Get your 6mm inhex bit and make sure it sits all the way into the bolt head. If it doesn't sit down all the way because of paint/corrosion, get a plastic or brass hammer and tap the bit into the head until it hits the bottom.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:29 am

I polished one of the lips by hand. It's not a show car polish, but from anywhere over a metre away, you can't even see all the little scuffs and marks, so it's good enough for me, haha. It's a hell of a lot better than the others at least.

tristinGrind · **Posted:** Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:47 pm

I like how they progressively get better as you go along the photo. With all the wheels Ive refurbished, I always buy new hardware and never reuse the sets that come with it. Theyre always the worst part and its worth the extra cash to have nice looking and performing bolts.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:12 am

Finally fitted the original Volks in this thread to my car. See the Celica thread in my signature.

illminded's wheel refurbishment story

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