Restoring aluminumn wheels.

[Moist]

I know my car is an absolute bucket when the joke "The wheels are just gonna fall off the thing." proves to be true. It's funny for a minute, they it hits you how close you are to something terrible. Ideally I'd like to keep the car in a state where my engine duct tape job and 2x4 hood prop are the laughable bits, not the lurking danger of rusting wheels.
Twenty years later, my 4runner's stock aluminum rims are seeing some pretty bad corrosion, with bits of aluminum flaking off to reveal some worrying rot. On one rim the corrosion ate through the rim and wound up bursting a tire. At that point I looked at some new rims, however, recently I've been wanting to do a full restoration job and would like to keep the original rims. I've heard of restoring aluminum rims, but there is nothing on how long they last after a restoration. I've heard of people doing it, but never actually seen any restored.
Unless it's a quick procedure to do it myself I really don't have the time to do it all on my own, and I have more important things to fix on the 4runner (I'm looking at you frame rust and exhaust holes). So that leaves bringing the rims into a shop, where I'm not sure the quality I'm going to receive.
I'm not even sure if they can be restored with the sorry state they are in. I'll attach images later, when I can get taptatalk working.
Any feedback help a ton. I just want to know if it's worthwhile to restore the rims, shop or by hand. How long they last, and if mine can even be restored.

 

[y=mx+b]

I know my car is an absolute bucket when the joke "The wheels are just gonna fall off the thing." proves to be true. It's funny for a minute, they it hits you how close you are to something terrible. Ideally I'd like to keep the car in a state where my engine duct tape job and 2x4 hood prop are the laughable bits, not the lurking danger of rusting wheels.
Twenty years later, my 4runner's stock aluminum rims are seeing some pretty bad corrosion, with bits of aluminum flaking off to reveal some worrying rot. On one rim the corrosion ate through the rim and wound up bursting a tire. At that point I looked at some new rims, however, recently I've been wanting to do a full restoration job and would like to keep the original rims. I've heard of restoring aluminum rims, but there is nothing on how long they last after a restoration. I've heard of people doing it, but never actually seen any restored.
Unless it's a quick procedure to do it myself I really don't have the time to do it all on my own, and I have more important things to fix on the 4runner (I'm looking at you frame rust and exhaust holes). So that leaves bringing the rims into a shop, where I'm not sure the quality I'm going to receive.
I'm not even sure if they can be restored with the sorry state they are in. I'll attach images later, when I can get taptatalk working.
Any feedback help a ton. I just want to know if it's worthwhile to restore the rims, shop or by hand. How long they last, and if mine can even be restored.

I'd buy a set of 5th gen takeoffs for a few hundred bucks and toss the old ones in the garbage. will probably cost the same and be much less headache

 

[Moist]

I'd buy a set of 5th gen takeoffs for a few hundred bucks and toss the old ones in the garbage. will probably cost the same and be much less headache

They look pretty nice on the 4th gen. Ideally I'd like to keep the original rims just to keep it original. Otherwise, I love the look of the 5th gen rims, and I'll keep it in mind in case I can't restore them or if a restoration just not financially worth it. Thanks for input.

 

[rdruss]

I don't know what style rims you have but if you google Toyota wheels you should get a few sites that sell restored stock rims. Might be woth looking into instead of doing yourself.

 

[spartacus]

If thé wheels have aluminium chunks falling off. Time for new take offs, off of Cl or Fb

 

[Moist]

Photos

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[jambone]

IMHO, you're going to spend more refurbishing those wheels than buying 4th or 5th gen wheels in good condition. You'd need to media blast yours and then polish/paint.

 

[MikeinNH67]

Those look just like mine, I think what you are seeing is the coating coming off not actual aluminum. One thing to note when this starts happening, it seems to be typical that you start having slow leaks as it's also happening under the bead. I popped 2 of mine off the bead so I could wire wheel that section to remove the flaking coating.

 

[miller507]

Common issue, just sand away and paint it with your preferred color. If you take your time with the prep work they come out really nice.

 

[Moist]

Those look just like mine, I think what you are seeing is the coating coming off not actual aluminum. One thing to note when this starts happening, it seems to be typical that you start having slow leaks as it's also happening under the bead. I popped 2 of mine off the bead so I could wire wheel that section to remove the flaking coating.

That would explain why my tires lose pressure so fast. The one that is not attached to the car is the one that blew out while driving, For some reason that one is particularly bad, I'm not entirely sure why that one rotted as bad as it did. Glad to know they are still salvageable.

 

[MikeinNH67]

That would explain why my tires lose pressure so fast. The one that is not attached to the car is the one that blew out while driving, For some reason that one is particularly bad, I'm not entirely sure why that one rotted as bad as it did. Glad to know they are still salvageable.

Can you add a picture of the blowout?

 

[Moist]

Can you add a picture of the blowout?

It's not as spectacular as it sounds. It looks like the rim cut into the tire when I went up my driveway curb. Wasn't going fast at all maybe 5-10 MPH+, just heard a loud pop and watched the front end drop. I'll attach an image later.

 

[Ed_C]

IMHO, you're going to spend more refurbishing those wheels than buying 4th or 5th gen wheels in good condition. You'd need to media blast yours and then polish/paint.

I paid about $70 per wheel shipped for 5th-gen takeoff wheels, and I like the style better than the originals like OP has. Powdercoaters charge close to $100 per wheel last time I looked

 

[MikeinNH67]

It's not as spectacular as it sounds. It looks like the rim cut into the tire when I went up my driveway curb. Wasn't going fast at all maybe 5-10 MPH+, just heard a loud pop and watched the front end drop. I'll attach an image later.

Ah, I misunderstood completely. I thought you meant the rim has a corroded hole in it. This makes more sense as that wheel metal is pretty thick.

I'm contemplating these for mine. 5 Toyota 4runner rims and tires - auto parts - by owner - vehicle...

 

[Moist]

Ah, I misunderstood completely. I thought you meant the rim has a corroded hole in it. This makes more sense as that wheel metal is pretty thick.

I'm contemplating these for mine. 5 Toyota 4runner rims and tires - auto parts - by owner - vehicle...

Sorry for the delay.
I definitely coulda worded that better. My bad.

Otherwise those look dope!

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[jbtvt]

Pretty rough. Do they salt the roads that much in Nebraska? I resurfaced a set of free rims that were in worse shape once, three years ago and they still look like new. Beads were leaking so I took the tires off and did that area as well. Many years ago I stripped another set using a wire wheel, probably steel, and it galled up the aluminum, so if you're going that route it'd probably come out better if you can find a brass wheel or a sanding mop. Some chemical strippers react with aluminum but are another possibility for the painted areas. Last time I used a sandblaster and glass beads, and finished with a three part Limco paint (urethane, hardener and reducer). Made a short video, mostly about the support method but there were some before, during and after shots. Took quite a while, a day to blast and a day to prime and paint twice (including dry time between coats) and around $100 in materials if I recall, although probably much more these days

Support rims to paint all surfaces at once - YouTube

I'm contemplating these for mine. 5 Toyota 4runner rims and tires - auto parts - by owner - vehicle...

Fair price. Are those chrome though? Kinda looks like it. I just bought a set of painted alloys over the winter to replace another set of chrome rims, because the NH salt was making the chrome flake up badly and look terrible after 5 or 6 winters here. From what I read, stripping chrome is even worse than stripping paint because it can't be cleanly blasted since it's harder than the substrate, so they need to be stripped in acid which creates a toxic acid-chrome soup, then sandblasted. Chrome ones look nice and would probably have held up better if I was better about rinsing the salt off them, but once they start to go, they're done.

 

[Moist]

Pretty rough. Do they salt the roads that much in Nebraska? I resurfaced a set of free rims that were in worse shape once, three years ago and they still look like new. Beads were leaking so I took the tires off and did that area as well. Many years ago I stripped another set using a wire wheel, probably steel, and it galled up the aluminum, so if you're going that route it'd probably come out better if you can find a brass wheel or a sanding mop. Some chemical strippers react with aluminum but are another possibility for the painted areas. Last time I used a sandblaster and glass beads, and finished with a three part Limco paint (urethane, hardener and reducer). Made a short video, mostly about the support method but there were some before, during and after shots. Took quite a while, a day to blast and a day to prime and paint twice (including dry time between coats) and around $100 in materials if I recall, although probably much more these days



Support rims to paint all surfaces at once - YouTube







Fair price. Are those chrome though? Kinda looks like it. I just bought a set of painted alloys over the winter to replace another set of chrome rims, because the NH salt was making the chrome flake up badly and look terrible after 5 or 6 winters here. From what I read, stripping chrome is even worse than stripping paint because it can't be cleanly blasted since it's harder than the substrate, so they need to be stripped in acid which creates a toxic acid-chrome soup, then sandblasted. Chrome ones look nice and would probably have held up better if I was better about rinsing the salt off them, but once they start to go, they're done.

Aye, we get a lot more freezing rain than snow. And when we do get snow it's usually on top of a layer of ice.
Thanks for the reply, It's very helpful, I'll take note once I get around to working on the wheels.


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[Direwolf82]

Those aren't too bad. As stated above is just a coating. If there are actual large pieces of metal missing then junk all of them and replace. If they just look like the picture then sand and paint. I did one of mine last year and it looks fine, even got some spray paint that's almost a perfect match. I did spend an hour and a half sanding and scraping before I painted though.

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[rdruss]

Photos

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I have those wheels on my '03 and they still look pretty good, but you have to clean them often, in the spring after winter road salt, wash and wax, keep the brake dust off monthly or so, backside too, brake dust eats aluminum rims. I've had to sand and repaint the backsides on all of them as previous owner wasn't that concerned and touch up a few spots on outside as well.