No more Polished Wheels
 

For those of you fortunate to have ordered factory Polished Wheels, hold on to them because they will become collector items.
The factory has dropped the Polished Wheels as an option due to vendor delivery problems. Instead, they will be offering chrome wheels soon.
Let's start an Exclusive Polished Wheels Club...Yuk, yuk...:D

Chrome??? Egads, sorry to those of you wanting the car that won't be getting it soon :( Or maybe it's just time for some of you to start wheel shopping :)

my dealer wanted 4k for them so I had them swapped
no way are they worth 4K

I think they are very nice on black rx8's

This is a good thing. One less option for me to worry about - makes choosing my ideal RX-8 even easier! :D

Back when I was paying attention to Miata mods, there were some owners who went ahead and polished their own stock wheels with dremel tools and various pastes/rouges. It might be in one of my old issues of "Miata Magazine"; I can look it up and put more details here if anyone is interested in the procedure. The end-result was quite nice.

Nubo,

I'm interested in polished wheels, I'm more worried about the time & effort involved..

OverLOAD

There MUST be some wheel shops that will polish and clearcoat them for you for a decent price. Right? :D

I'm with Qhris...this saves me 2k in options when I purchase.

$4k for polished wheels??? Above the sticker price or what?

Nubo--yeah, I'd like to see the how-to article if it's not too much trouble.

I'm kinda surprised there are virtually no aftermarket polished wheels. Unless I'm just not finding them for some reason? Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but if I'm paying $1000+ or whatever for a set of wheels, they damn sure better shine. Silver paint or powdercoating just doesn't cut it for me.

But if you want shine, it seems like you have to buy either billet wheels (cool for trucks and street rods, but too over-the-top for an RX8 if you ask me), or you can get chrome wheels (which are TOO shiny for my tastes, and far too delicate and unrepairable).

I'm seriously contemplating getting this kit, and trying it out on a junkyard aluminum wheel to see how it looks:

http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/itemd...5&Dep_Key1=mfb

I mean how can I go wrong, the kit is $50 and a junk wheel can't be much. My only real question is, will this kit take the powdercoating off, or would I have to get a wire wheel and grind it off.

yeah, does anyone have the write up on how to polish the wheels?

Hey Mikeb,
There is a place (MAG MASTERS) in Santa Ana that polishes wheels (on the car).
Ive had numerous wheels done over the years and they do a great job! Prices may have gone up slightly but I estimate that they will charge about $30.00 - $50.00 per wheel. They will need to keep the car for the day (obviously) and you will need to make an appt. They have a website for more info. (magmasters.com) I think. Thats where Im headed as soon as I figure out the "what do I do while im waiting" part.
C-YA

thanks
I plan on putting 19s on my 8 though we I can afford it

Boo! (No pun intended) :D

Argh! I must not have kept that issue. Well, nowadays we have the internet - here's a site that looks to have a reasonable description....

http://www.finishing.com/183/52.html

boowana,

I saw you at Texas Motor Speed Way during the IRL weekend.
The 8 looks great. Didn't you have a miata with that plate for awhile. You must live or travel around the Lewisville area, because I've seen that plate quite a few times.

I wrote this for an Fbody site 3 or 4 years ago. It works for any surface basically. Whatever the case, I don't recommend a dremel. It will leave marks when you view the wheel under a certain light

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/te...umpolish.shtml

by the way, I heard most shops will polish your rims for $750/all 4. IMHO it's worth it instead of all the work that's involved

Here is another writeup about polishing rims. Sounds like a pretty involved process...

are you sure?
 

I just called my local dealer (great guy!) and asked him about this...said he hadn't heard the rumor. I plan to order my RX-8 in the Spring, and really want the polished rims. He said he could sell me a set now just in case for $1600. Is that a good deal?
I might just get them and store them in the basement until I get my new car...
Thoughts?

are you sure?
 

I just called my local dealer (great guy!) and asked him about this...said he hadn't heard the rumor. I plan to order my RX-8 in the Spring, and really want the polished rims. He said he could sell me a set now just in case for $1600. Is that a good deal?
I might just get them and store them in the basement until I get my new car...
Thoughts?

About 7 months ago I wrote Mazda about chrome wheels and they said they would not be offering them. They never mentioned polished ones either though. I don't understand their pricing on this. I got Mazda chrome wheels on my 2001 Millennia S for $300 from the dealer (the retail was $600 for 17"- all 4) They seem awful pricey for the RX8

For 1600 you could get a really nice set of aftermarket wheels, and I'm sure by the spring there will be some guys selling their OEM wheels should you get stuck with the chrome and not want them. In general getting factory wheels from a dealer or are rip off.

Ike