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      03-05-2021, 03:26 PM   #1
mad_hatter
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BBS LM Refinishing

You know that feeling when you find a way to get something that you've been lusting after for a long, long time? Well, that's how I feel. I've wanted a set of BBS LMs for probably as long as I've known they existed, but I always figured they would be out of reach... until now.



I was cruising Kijiji looking for options for some lightweight wheels for my STX build, and stumbled across this set of LM133s. Originally the front pair to a staggered set for corvette, but someone over the years had managed to make a set of 4.



Specs are: 17x9 +52



I picked them up for a song, knowing they would need a complete refinish and have the 70.3mm hub bore opened up. The faces had peeling coating, and what was there was badly scratched; and the bolts had some rust in the heads:



The barrels are just as rough, years of grime and debris inside



Disassembly is pretty easy. The bolts are 8mm 12pt and the nuts are 10mm 12pt. I used the impact driver and got to work. 80pcs later, you're left with this.



So the plan is essentially a two-phase situation. This year, I'm sending the faces out for machining to be reverse mounted to gain some offset, and to have the hub bore opened up to 1er-spec. I'll clean up the barrels, and polish the lips and hardware, and reinstall it all. In the future, I'd like to get black hardware and red centre caps to complete the full hot boi look; and get the barrels recoated factory gray, and clear the polished lips.

In the meantime, here's a quick preview of the reverse mounted face:



Final specs will be 17x9 +36-38ish, I'll know better once I get them back from the machine shop and can measure up the faces. It's right on the line for fitting in the back, I'll have to roll the fenders completely flat, and intend to run -2.5deg camber... and it will still be down to the mm for the tire to miss the fender. Thank god for camber gain!



While the faces are out getting machined, I've got work to do, so I'll update as I go:
-Lips to strip and polish
-hardware to polish
-barrels to clean

Stay Tuned!

-Alex
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      06-24-2021, 07:34 PM   #2
mad_hatter
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Well - sorry it took so long to get here, and also for the phone pics... honestly, I just couldn't be bothered to digout my big camera while I was elbows deep in the project and under the gun to finish.

So the centres went out to my long-time powercoating shop Stripping Technologies, in Kitchener, ON (West of Toronto). They arranged the machining for the reverse mount, opened up the centrebores, and did the powdercoat on the faces.

My portion was:
-Cleaning the barrels, soap and water to wash. Then I used WD40 to clean off all the old wheel weight glue off.
-Stripping the bolts, I soaked them in coke for 3 days and then wire wheeled all the loctite off the threads and debris out of the heads.
-Stripping and polishing the lips. I used this stripper, from Rona (in Canada)



I masked off the barrels, and applied it pretty heavily with a brush and let it dwell for 24 hours. This was right after applying. It bubbles the clear and I could strip it with a rubber putty knife. I should've then reapplied, but I was rushing so I went right to 120grit sandpaper to clean off the remaining stuck clearcoat.



From there I did 120, then 180, then 400. I could've gone higher, but ultimately these are for an autocross and track car. So good enough! I went to polish from there, Diamond Brite truck box polish was a trick a friend had used and it worked great! Unfortunately, the 120 did leave some deep scratches, so that's user error on my part.



Sanded in 400 below right, versus polished on the left:


The result in the sun:


For polishing the bolt heads, I found the best method was to chuck the threads in my drill, apply polish to a rag, spin the bolt head into the rag, then use a q-tip to polish the inside of the head, and lastly buff it in a clean rag.

When reassembling, I put the centres in the freezer (my fiancee loved that), and heated the barrels with a heat gun. Put it all together and torque the bolts to 264 in/lbs.

And here's the result!!!
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      06-24-2021, 09:33 PM   #3
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These look FANTASTIC! LMs have been a dream of mine also....so I will live vicariously through you.

Track and autocross though? It hurts me to think of the abuse on these babies...but hey use them for what they're made for. Bravo, great work!

Post pics once on the car...
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      06-25-2021, 01:17 AM   #4
nebrilon
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Excellent job! They look much better now.
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      06-25-2021, 01:33 PM   #5
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Those look great, I cant wait to see them on the car. LMs have been my dream wheels but I've never had a car they would fit properly without giving up tire size for fitment.
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      11-09-2021, 12:24 PM   #6
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They look amazing, in for pics on the car!
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