Up here in Canada we get to put snow tires on each winter.
I use that 4 months to repaint my wheels.
I have done this the last 4 winters on my summer wheels and starting to get a process going.
Bought a set of OEM original GM "5 star" wheels for 2000 Grand Prix.
These wheels had neve been looked after for 17 years and were pretty rough (no curb rash but lots of wheel weight damage).
It is really not a detailing process but I thought it was worth mentioning it's not that hard.
Mind you it takes me a month to do, so no way an enterprise.
PS just finished them and they are SPECTACULAR.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like they could never turn out ok. When I hear refinished wheels, my mind goes to the car dealer refinish guys that just spray them in a trailer in the parking lot (as a general rule, those turn out so poorly!) or even some of the "professional" refinishers in town. Maybe we've just got a bad pool to draw from, but so often the "professionally" refinished wheels I see have huge variations in finish, orange peel, dirt in the clear, or other flaws. It's also very common to see the clearcoat flaking off from simple things like removing wheel bolts or having tires changed. Really a bummer when you know people paid $125+ to have them repaired.
Any pics of your wheels? I'd love to see some well done ones!
OP: For my winter wheels, I: Washed, Iron x'd, quick clay job, polished with Griot's Complete compound on a 3" orange pad w/ Griot's 3" DA, then coated with Optimum Gloss Coat. Only had time to do a single coat of gloss coat, then topped with Opti-Seal to protect the coating while it cured.
They went from this:
View attachment 57290
to this:
View attachment 57291
Still have chips and curb spots, but overall have such a shine/pop that your eye isn't drawn to the flaws. In my case though, those are my snow tires so I'm not super critical about them.
One other refinishing idea comes to mind: I have seen really good results with powdercoating. Not sure what it runs, but wheels that I've seen done that way have really turned out nice (and durable). If you only have a couple wheels with damage, maybe put them on the same side of the car if you didn't want to do them all at the same time.
