# Bringing The Old Back To Life (OZ Pegasus Refinish)



## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

For starters: I'm sorry that the picture quality on most of these aren't the best. The majority of these pictures were taken with my iPhone 5 because thats all that I have. But crappy pictures are better than no pictures I suppose.


I've owned these wheels for about a year and a half now and slowly refinished them as I had the time and the funds. At this point they are all refinished so this is more of a catch-up thread than a live build. But since I have so many pictures, I'll still update it in phases as I have time rather than all at once.

So on with the story, my first wheels were 18x8/9 Miro LM reps and then 18x9.5 Rotiform NUEs. But I knew it was time for some 3 piece wheels and one wheel I have always wanted was a set of OZ Pegasus. I never saw the fun in ordering wheels that anyone with a creditcard could go buy online the next day. I wanted something old that I could do some work to and have fun with, making them unique and making them mine. 

They had a production date of November 17, 1993. Older than half the kids in this forum and only younger than me by a few months. I thought that was pretty cool. These wheels have never been split and had the original specs of 17x8.5 et35 w/ 1" lip and 17x10 et45 w/ 2" lip. The faces were the original OZ gold with a 5x114.3 bolt pattern. For the 2013 season I was running 205/45 Achilles ATR Sport's up front and 215/45 Falken 512's in the rear. However, 20 years really took it's toll on these wheels and I knew I'd have to refinish them once i got them. They looked okay from a distance, but as you'll see, the lips didn't really shine too much and the faces were on the rough side as well. I don't think the barrels have been cleaned since they were new in 1993. They didn't fit exactly how i wanted, the fronts were too narrow for my liking and the rear quarters could only pop over the tires lip protector on one side at a time with the smallest adapters I could get. The front lips needed the most attention though, so that was first on the list. I busted out the aircraft stripper, carb and choke cleaner, and sandpaper and got to work cleaning up these wheels one at a time in between shows during the 2013 show season.


*Old wheels:*
First set of wheels, LM reps. Had these from January 2011-January 2013 (if i ever got rid of the pegs it'd be for real LM's):









then my NUEs to get away from fake wheels. Rocked these from March 2013-July 2013:












and then finally got my first set of real 3 piece wheels from my buddy Furr21 in July 2013:


























































Instead of dismounting the tires, I just pulled the valve stem core and dropped out the face. 










sanded the clearcoat real quick with 320 grit to make it more porous, then lathered some aircraft paint stripper on them. Also cleaned the barrels with Carb and Choke cleaner and wire brush.

















I thought I'd be good to start with a 320 dry sand then go 400-2000 wetsand. Well, I was wrong. I had to go all the way down to 80 dry to get through all of the pitting. What a nightmare that was.
320 Grit:










220 Grit still wanted enough:










and then dropped down to 80 :banghead::



















then finally worked my way back up to 180, 220, 320 dry, switch directions each time. then 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 wet. Used a combination of sanding blocks and old credit cards/gift cards to really dig in with the sand paper. And there really was no comfortable position...










While all of this was happening, I was also working on cleaning up the OEM hardware too:
















Let them soak in some diet coke for a week (which was most likely over kill). Shaking the can around whenever I thought about it. After that I let them soak in denatured alcohol for a couple hours. Once dried I polished with my fingers using Blue Magic polish and a rubber glove. Wiped them all down then took a Q-tip to get to whatever dirt was missed in the process:


























I couldn't believe how much Diet Coke actually worked. Needless to say, I now refuse to drink that crap. Nuts could have come out better if I cared enough, but they aren't seen so it was good enough. Bolts were very good for not having a tumbler in my opinion, however, the following winter I have all of the bolts run through a tumbler and they came out even better.


Once I hit the lip with 2500 wet, I then wiped them down with some denatured alcohol and got ready for my compounds. I bought the drill attachment, pads, and compounds from Ace Hardware. First I used Tripoli on a medium pad then Jewelers Rouge on a softer pad, cleaning with denatured alcohol on a microfiber between each compound. I then polished with Mothers Billet polish and was amazed by the end result:

This was a later picture of one of the rear lips, the split between wetsanding and buffing with Tripoli:











and the final results:



















Pretty much the same story for the other front lip so I won't waste your time. Here's a few pictures of the 1" fronts a few months later after I split them and got ready to sell and some nicer pictures of the car with the front lips refinished and the rears still untouched:










































And that brings me to H2O 2013. More updates of refinishing the rear lips, bigger lips upfront, powdercoating the barrels, and a new finish for the faces coming up soon opcorn:


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## NOpassattimmy (Oct 13, 2011)

Mmmm shiny :heart:


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## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

Funny I almost tried to buy these from you to put on a foxbody mustang I almost bought 

in for more opcorn:


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## BT12 (May 25, 2012)

I like. :thumbup:


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## DUTCHswift (Feb 22, 2012)

:thumbup: Nice. Glad to see you captured some of the history of the wheels too. I always like that stuff.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

passattimmy said:


> Mmmm shiny :heart:


i like shiny



03_uni-B said:


> Funny I almost tried to buy these from you to put on a foxbody mustang I almost bought
> 
> in for more opcorn:


that woulda been sweet. When I do sell these wheels, I hope it's to someone that will take car of them like you would :heart:



BT12 said:


> I like. :thumbup:


thanks man!


and added a picture of the production sticker to the first post :thumbup:. I thought that was pretty cool to find when I dismounted the tires.


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## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

Ugh. Wish i would've gotten a shot of the stickers on the ronals. I thought this was really cool about the silverstones. 











Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## The_Blackened (Sep 23, 2008)

opcorn: 

Subscribed.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

Alright phase 2!


at H2O 2013 I picked up two 1.5" lips to make the fronts a little wider since I hate 8.5" wheels with a burning passion. So of course now I was selling those 1" lips that I worked so hard on. Oh well, at least they looked nice for the half a season they were on the car.









Then come november I had a buddy dismount my tires and I began to split the fronts.


























I left the rears together since it's easier to sand the lips when they're on the barrel. But my old room at my moms house began to get a little cluttered with wheels and car parts and quickly turned into my storage room :laugh:










this is about the time I began working on my shaved bay, so wetsanding the rear lips only happened on the engine bay downtime or when i needed a change or scenery.










Finally got around to finishing up the first rear lip. sanded from 220-3000. Didn't really see a huge difference from 2500 to 3000, so for the last lip I decided to stop at 2500 wet.
































(just to remind you where the rears started)


Mid February I planned a trip up to Connecticut to see a good friend of mine, Lucas(DuB fresh), who also happens to do powdercoating. So I took some aircraft stripper to the 3 barrels that were split at this point and had my barrels powdercoated Satin Black to give the faces a nice background.


























and while on the topic of wheels, this happened on the way home 










and the wheels then sat for another month while I continued on my bay. trying to get it finished before I left the country for 3 months on April 1st for a study aboard program in Bochum, Germany


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## MK3 LUV (Nov 23, 2012)

opcorn:


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

I don't feel like ending my lunch break just yet, so I guess i'll update this a little more.

So at this point I was in Germany, spending 3 months there for a study abroad program. I dropped my faces off to be refinished right before I left and got a few update pictures while I was there.

custom CNC cut center caps:

















and brushed faces. They were polished up to 1000 or 1500 grit, then taken back down to a lower grit and spun for a brushed finish. then hit with a clear powder.


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## The_Blackened (Sep 23, 2008)

Man, those look really good!


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## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

Don't stop now! 

opcorn:opcorn:


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

The_Blackened said:


> Man, those look really good!


thanks dude! 



03_uni-B said:


> Don't stop now!
> 
> opcorn:opcorn:


okay okay fine. i guess i'll wrap this up.


so June 18th I got back from Germany and I picked up my faces immediately after arriving at the airport :laugh:
right away I assembled one of the rears and I fell in love with these wheels all over again .


















I then picked up some GE Silicone II from Home Depot (IIRC, i'll double check the bottle this weekend) and sealed up the rear and assembled the two fronts. I believe I used up just over 1 tube. I ran a nice thick bead along the seam then spread it with my finger and a rubber glove to make sure it was completely covered and then some. Also tried out these cheap "hidden" valve stems I got and really wasn't a fan, so I just went with stubby valve stems.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Silicone-II-9-8-oz-Window-and-Door-Black-GE5030-12C/100126591


















a week or so later I finally finished up wetsanding the last rear lip up to 2500 grit. This picture was before any compounds or polish.










and after Tripoli, Jewelers Rouge, and Mother Billet Polish:


























Over the winter I ditched my 205/45 Achilles ATR Sport tires that were in the front on my 8.5's and replaced them with two 205/40 Ohtsu FP7000's that are made by Falken and very similar stretch compared to their old 512.
I then loaded up my Rabbit and drove back up to Connecticut to hang out with some good friends, get my last barrel powdercoated, and mount my tires.










These barrels were strange, i'm not sure if they are al like this, but there was a second step on them that the tire kept beading on leaving a huge gap. But with some soapy water and about 90psi of air, it popped over that and beaded properly. Definitely made me feel safer about if it ever decides to debead itself, looks like it would reseal on the secondary bump in the barrel. But here's the 205/40 Ohtsu FP7000's on a 17x9


























And side-by-side with a 215/45 Falken 512 on a 17x10. All 4 tires were mounted by the end of the weekend, but this was while the silicone was curing on the last rear.










And of course buckling up for safety on the drive home :laugh:











Still a few more things I can update for this. Hopefully I'll get around to that by the end of the week :thumbup:


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## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

Really love how they turned out. We clearly have very similar taste lol.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

03_uni-B said:


> We clearly have very similar taste lol.


headlights, wheel finish, black mk4 jetta, i have no idea what you're talking about


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## DUTCHswift (Feb 22, 2012)

What didn't you like about the hidden valve stems? I was planning on getting the flat head ones with the knurled sides and polish the top.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

DUTCHswift said:


> What didn't you like about the hidden valve stems? I was planning on getting the flat head ones with the knurled sides and polish the top.


I just wasn't a fan of how the ones i ordered looked. there are definitely ones nicer than mine, but I personally did not like how they looked on these wheels. But if you like the ones that I have in the one picture, you can come pick them up or just pay shipping and they are yours.


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## Dr.AK (Jul 17, 2007)

I think I'm in love with the finish of those centers.


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## brandonioyo (Jul 5, 2013)

Digging this thread! In the process of re lipping my 18s. How much were those center caps?


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## 03_uni-B (Sep 6, 2005)

I demand to see pictures of them mounted!


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## DUTCHswift (Feb 22, 2012)

:wave: Just found this on Tumblr.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

Dr.AK said:


> I think I'm in love with the finish of those centers.


i've always been a sucker for brushed faces. that was my plan ever since i bought these wheels.




brandonioyo said:


> Digging this thread! In the process of re lipping my 18s. How much were those center caps?


I honestly don't remember. I paid for them along with my faces. and 18" pegs are sweet!




03_uni-B said:


> I demand to see pictures of them mounted!


calm yourself sir :laugh:




DUTCHswift said:


> :wave: Just found this on Tumblr.
> 
> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hrny/16120219770" title="h2oi by horny, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8624/16120219770_f28fc1ed11_b.jpg" width="1024" height="682" alt="h2oi"></a>


Nice! my buddy from German took that while he was at H2O this past year. one of the few pictures you'll find of my car with a hood on :laugh::laugh:



I'll get around to posting more pictures of the wheels eventually, but for now, here's a video that i forgot to post. Dominic at Dominant Engineering taking 2mm off my rear faces. he's also the one that made my billet caps, check out some more of his work on his IG


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## brandonioyo (Jul 5, 2013)

carlhuebner said:


> I honestly don't remember. I paid for them along with my faces. and 18" pegs are sweet!


Thanks man! :beer: Just kinda hard to find information/parts for them.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

well not much left to update besides shots of the wheels actually on my car:


by JustinLipsky Photography, on Flickr


by JustinLipsky Photography, on Flickr


by JustinLipsky Photography, on Flickr


by Matt.Wilson, on Flickr


by Matt.Wilson, on Flickr




Overall pretty happy with how they came out. Only thing I don't like is how they look gray if the sun isn't hitting them. I was hoping for a more defined brushed finished, like how CCW does theirs.










and here's some rollers:

by JustinLipsky Photography, on Flickr











by Evans89411, on Flickr


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

And a picture from yesterday. They're torn apart again :facepalm:.










Lips got pretty beat up from sitting outside for the past 6 months. Just polishing wouldn't get all of the water marks out and theres minor pitting. I'm going to try wetsanding at 2500 again then buff with Tripoli and jewelers rouge and hope that's all it takes to get them back to a mirror.


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## 87vr6 (Jan 17, 2002)

I can easily get OEM OZ center caps... if you're interested.


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## brandonioyo (Jul 5, 2013)

87vr6 said:


> I can easily get OEM OZ center caps... if you're interested.


I am! PM me.


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## [email protected] (Aug 18, 2011)

Nice refurb!


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## Algeria (May 8, 2013)

Wow. I am completely blown away.

I have never seen such an example of knowledge, patience , dedication to detail and respect for craftsmanship as I have seen in this thread. To top it off, you're barely adult-aged. This thread is exemplary of what a car enthusiast forum ought to look like. ****ing respect. :beer:


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

Algeria said:


> Wow. I am completely blown away.
> 
> I have never seen such an example of knowledge, patience , dedication to detail and respect for craftsmanship as I have seen in this thread. To top it off, you're barely adult-aged. This thread is exemplary of what a car enthusiast forum ought to look like. ****ing respect. :beer:


Wow dude thank you. That means a lot. I'm glad that you can appreciate the work I put into these wheels and the car.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

bought some White Diamond polish and couldn't believe what it did for my lips. before pictures are from the wheels sitting outside all winter and after attempting to clean them and polish with Mothers and blue magic. they looked even worse before that.

Hopefully i'll be polishing the bolts throughout the week and reassembling this weekend.


before:

















after:

















and an after shot of one of the fronts:


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

Started polishing all 140 wheel bolts one by one while i'm away from the car










100 bolts to go :facepalm:


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## DUTCHswift (Feb 22, 2012)

Just got 161 original OZ bolts to replace the BFI ones. Once they are cut down to length (to clear the R calipers) I'll have to go through the same thing... :banghead:


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## DUTCHswift (Feb 22, 2012)

Ooohh pretty...


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## pootey (Nov 12, 2006)

What did you do to get the lips so shiny. For some reason I can't get them to shine . It's still a little dull


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## MNShortBus (Mar 14, 2008)

Any tips on doing the brushed finish? Attempting to this to my new set.


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## carlhuebner (Jan 10, 2010)

DUTCHswift said:


> Ooohh pretty...


:heart::heart:




pootey said:


> What did you do to get the lips so shiny. For some reason I can't get them to shine . It's still a little dull


dry sanded with 220 and 320 grit then wetsanded from 400 to 2500 grit. then buffed with tripoli and jewelers rouge on the appropriate pads on a drill, then white diamond or Mothers Billet Polish. My old 1" lips i had to start at 80 grit dry because they were so bad 




MNShortBus said:


> Any tips on doing the brushed finish? Attempting to this to my new set.


unfortunately thats the one thing i did now do myself . i had the faces brushed and cleared by someone else.


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