[Billfrombyron]

Scored, and scored big with a set of Energy Motorsports Individual wheels that I picked up about 2 weeks back.

These things are in need of some love and are blessedly crack free. Just some curb rash.

I'll be pushing my limits in the powder booth with a slick 3 color combo.

Illusion berry on the face of the spokes, ink black on the sides of the spokes and Cadillac grey inside the barrels and rear of the spokes. Prismatic powders is who I sourced the colors from.

These are super light forged japanese goodness. The brand isn't really known much outside Japan and some european countries, but they are really quite nice in person.

I did a few videos on my ETA Wheels channel about what to look for when inspecting wheels and how to do a dye penetrant test for those who have never see one done.

They weigh in at 9.8kg in 19x8.5, 5x120 square and are 72.5mm center bore.

Here are a few pics of what's been done so far as I get ready to begin powder coating them.

From pick up, to removing the stretch tires, to degreasing and dye penetrant test to curb rash repair.

I'm considering a set of the floating Cadillac logo center caps when everything is complete.

-Byron

 

[Billfrombyron]

All damage repaired and ready for chemical stripper.

Next step will remove the remaining clear coat. Then sand blast and powder

 

[Billfrombyron]

All stripped down and back home. Ready for the fun part, sand blast and powder coating!

-Byron

 

[Billfrombyron]

5 hours of blasting later the first wheel is done.

I'm going to outsource the remaining 3. The cabinet at the tech shop is barely big enough to properly blast them and whatever the heck they used as a base coat was unaffected by the aircraft stripper used in the previous steps.

I'll let a local company handle the heavy lifting so I can focus on powdering the first wheel tomorrow afternoon.

-Byron

 

[AAIIIC]

I've never heard of that brand, but that's a good looking wheel. I'm definitely interested to see the final product!

 

[Billfrombyron]

I'll pick them up this afternoon and hopefully get 1 or 2 started.

Plans got derailed after I had to get yet another Covid 19 test. We have to do them every 2 weeks as part of the vaccine trials. Some days it goes quick and some days it drags. Yesterday took me 3 hrs so I scrubbed the day and went home after.

I genuinely felt bad for the workers at the sand blasting place, so I went and bought a box of N95 masks for the workers. They are using regular desert sand to blast the wheels and just wrapping a head scarf over their nose and mouth.

That's a huge no-go in the safety world. I know it won't last them long, but at least I feel better inside. I'll be bringing them another box when I pick them up.

For those who don't know why it's dangerous, google silicosis and sand blasting.

-Byron