[pj's 850]

The wheels I have arent actually Volvo oem wheels. Im curious why so many of you try to keep oem volvo wheels. Im not saying its a bad thing, but I assume there is a good reason. Anyway, the rims I got are Mille Miglias. I know little about the brand, its hard to tell who is a good wheel company and who isnt. Basicly I know BBS and OZ to be two good companies, but they are a bit more than I could spend. Anyway, the finish is all messed up on my wheels now. It looks like oxidation maybe, but im not sure, so ill just explain what it looks like. The wheels are a bright silver color, with I believe a clear coat, but I dont know that. Anyway, the edges of the wheel spokes have a lighter color to them. It almost looks like something corrosive was sprayed on them and it ruined the finish. I could be the wheel cleaner I used, I dont know for sure, but I can figure out how to fix them. Any ideas on what to do. If none of your DIY suggestions work, I guess Ill just go to wheel collision center and have them refinished. The thing is it makes no sense to spend 100 dollars a wheel when they only cost 150 new. If its simply because they are crappy wheels, and Mille Miglia doesnt make good wheels, can you guys recomend good quality brands that are somewhat affordable. K thats all I have to say, thankyou.<BR> -Matt<BR>

 

[[email protected]]

Uggh, I think I know what happened. There are wheel cleaners out there that are for chrome wheels and not for painted wheels. You are exactly right. It oxidizes the surface. You could try to buff it out, but you may end up needing to refinish them.<P>There are companies out there that do this. We refinished a set of Volvo Volans in our 854R Project Car series. It went over well. It's cheaper than buying new wheels, but that's not saying it's exactly cheap. However, if little repair is needed, unlike our Volans which were shot, it may not be that bad.

 

[pj's 850]

Thanks, i will say as far as the crome part goes. I have always read the bottle carefully, but I found a product once that worked well. It was that summer season, if you will, that I noticed it all. I figured that no company would sell a wheel cleaner that did that. I dont remember the company, maybe mothers or maguires. It was in a yellow bottle, and had a picture of a wheel on it. Ok, so can you fill me in a little on refinishing. They have virtually no damage, they are only 2 years old, and my tires have a good protection ring. Anyway, they would only need refinishing. Is the prices lister per rim or for a set of four. Thats what gets me, I dont know what Volans cost, but if its say 200 a wheel. Seems like new ones would atleast be a safer option.

 

[Buzz]

I have a set of MM11's on my 240. After 3 years, many miles of gravel roads and a worn out set of Bridgestones I thought I should get the wheels refinished. Wheel Collision quoted me a price of $600+ to get them refinished. F**k that. I took them to a local industrial sandblaster and had them blasted through the anodizing for $25 each (had to go that deep to remove 90% of the nicks and gouges). I then had them reanodized and two coats of dark silver polyester powder coat for $200 and they look absoulutely killer on a grey 244.<P>Getting (lots of) wheels refinished over the past 20 years (mostly horendously expensive Porsche magnesium alloys) has led me to believe that while most wheel shops do a decent job they'll rip you off for anything thay can get away with. If you send the wheels in to a shop make sure you have a firm price beforehand or they'll give you this sob story that the wheels need more work than what they can offer for their quoted price and if you don't agree... well, they're holding your wheels.<P>Mille Miglia is a very respected, very Italian alloy wheel manufacturer. As for quality of an alloy wheel look for the "TÜV" stamping on the wheel (usually on the back of a spoke). <A HREF="http://www.tuvglobal.com/frame.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.tuvglobal.com/frame.htm</A> <P>

 

[[email protected]]

Yeah, that's not too off par of what we paid for our 854R wheels also, but we had them replace a cracked one, so ours was more. There are other ways to go about it, as you post above. It's also worth checking around to more than one shop. These wheel repair and refinishing companies are all over the US, so finding one closer might make sense also.<P>Still, I was pretty happy with our setup. I'd have paid a lot more to buy new Volans, and I got mine in a custom finish, so I was pretty satisfied.<P>Still, it sounds like your finish might be oxidized. If you are considering refinishing, you may want to first try to buff that oxidation out of the finish. You have nothing to lose at that point, and it just might work.

 

[towerymt]

I'm a little bit cheap and a little bit poor, so once again I'm prepping and painting a set of wheels myself. This time I started off with a wet 220 paper, and then finished with a wet 400. I'll be spraying about 4-5 coats with Dupli-Color wheel paint. Total time spent will be about 5-6 hours and total cost is less than $10 per wheel. The first time I painted a set of wheels, they came out very well, so I'm expecting great results again.<P>If all goes well, they'll be on just in time for the Volvo Ocean Race show next Saturday.<P>

 

[JHEIII850Turbo]

Hey guys,<P>This might be a LITTLE off topic, but why not? There's a place called Wheel Max in Miami, FL. Who has GREAT prices for rims+wheels <A HREF="http://www.wheelmax.com" TARGET=_blank>http://www.wheelmax.com</A> they have great deals, of course they do not sell Mille Miglias... Just thought i'd throw them in there! good luck<P>

 

[Jay]

I once refinished a set of wheels myself. They were really clean to begin with but had oxidized really bad. It was an 82 244 GL, and had the 25 spoke 14" mags. <P>What I did is I bought an aircraft paint remover from my local autobody supply shop an sprayed them with this (I don't know why it was called "Aircraft" paint remover). After a few hours all the paint came off by wipeing it with a cloth. I then sanded the wheels to remove any chemicals etc, and cleaned them with alcohol. Then I bought wheel primer and grey/silver wheel paint from the same shop. I applied the primer, then the paint and finally a clear coat. (All these products were in spray cans)<P>The finished product was fantastic, I couldn't have been more pleased. They were only to be used for winter tires, since I had 15" Turbo mags for the summer but I was thrilled none the less. Took me a weekend and a couple of days to let it set and dry, then they were on the car and I sold them for $300 a few years later. <P>I'm not reccomending you do this yourself, but someone with a cheap set of mags who is on a budget may want to try. <P>Jay<BR>--<BR>83 242 Turbo<BR>98 S70 T5SE

 

[[email protected]]

That clear coat probably helped. I think we've decided upon what we'll be doing wheel-wise for the Project 240, and it will probably involve a home-done refinishing of the wheels also. We'll see how that goes.