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2 piece wheel refinishing. Need some advice!

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    2 piece wheel refinishing. Need some advice!

    My girlfriend's Mini has a set of BBS R90 wheels. 2 piece. Very nice wheels... but the lips are all corroded. I would like to refinish them, but I have no idea where to begin. The faces are in good shape, but the lips are absolutely horrible. The clear coat is flaking off in big chunks. It got to the point where the flaking clear was actually causing the tires to leak!

    The faces are removable, apparently with an 8mm triple square bit. BBS supposedly advises against re-using the bolts, but most things I'm reading say it should be fine, as long as they aren't damaged when they are removed. I've looked around for replacement bolts, and either I'm WAY off on my searching, or they're very hard to find!

    My main questions are these:
    1) Is it safe to remove the wheel faces without removing the tires? Removing the tires is going to cost about $30 per wheel. I'd rather not if I can avoid it!

    2) Once the faces are removed, what's the best method to polish the lips? Are there any tricks to it?

    Here's a picture of a wheel in a similar condition. I don't have pics of her wheels specifically, but this is close enough. Hers are a bit worse.








    #2
    What do most people on mini forums do? Maybe there's a how to?

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      #3
      They're not terribly common, as they were a rather expensive optional wheel (this car came with EVERYTHING, as it was owned by a BMW employee.)

      I looked at a few threads and got some ideas for polishing the lips, but only one thread touched on the removal of the face with the tire still on the barrel. They said it was ok, but I figured I'd ask people I trust more than random strangers on a strange forum! I know we have some experienced wheel guys on here.






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        #4
        Didn't think they were that rare. I see these wheels often in my area. If the corrosion is causing air leaks, could that warrant a recall as that would be a safety issue? I would think only whatever is exposed could be corroded, so removal of the outet lip would be unecessary.

        I guess light sanding to remove any residual clear coat followed by polishing to a high gloss finish would be the way to go. Just gotta stay on top of polishing to prevent corrosion from starting again.

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