*Progress… I think?

I’ve been working on a lot of things Provokers might be interested in. 1. I’ve got more products back in stock – registered sole trader – and generally feeling really pumped about making more cool stuff for Soarers and helping out their owners. 2. I’ve been working on my car – mainly because I sold my WORK wheels…. yep. Oops.

So what’s replacing the WORK wheels? Crimson, Inc. Linea L450:

I’ve bought these wheels as second hand used items and needless to say they need some love. I started out thinking ‘let’s just stick them on for a bit’ but as usual my OCD began to investigate and the more I did the more issues I’ve found. From the outset I knew I needed to sand back the lips and re-polish them as they had been kerbed. How someone kerbs ALL of your wheels I’ll never know but yep I needed a rig to sand them. Secondly I knew I might need to have the faces re-cut and lacquered to get rid of any water ingress. But once the wheels arrived I realised I needed to do MUCH more.

Firstly I got the rear 19×10″ ET23 wheels straightened. Running 19″ wheels on most 90’s jap wagons you realise you need a 35 profile tyre or less which means they can easily get hit and damaged. These had an egg on each wheel. Off to Hykham Fast Fit in Lincoln and after cringing like hell while a self confessed ‘skilled redneck’ hit my wheels with a leather mallet, then a hydraulic press finally they were round again. He was right…. he did know his stuff!

Next up I began the long process of re-polishing the lips. The Linea 450 wheels are an odd construction – looking at them you’ll straight away think fake splits if you are a wheel whore – but these are actually a wheel made in three pieces. The barrel, the face, which has been welded on to the barrel and finally a stainless lip which is bonded to the front. Mental yes. Made in many pieces, yes. Once I’d setup my rig using an SDS drill and a home made connector I used my water pump pulley and my fan belt around the wheel. This worked great but was a little back breaking to say the least. I used a disc sanding kit first at 80 grit and 180 grit. Then moved to my rig sanding method to go though 380, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000 and finally 7000 grit wet and dry. I’ve now also bought a set of polishing soaps and mops for a drill to finish them off.

Next up the Alphard made a great support wagon to transport the wheels to BW Powder Coating in Lough. Where I dropped the fronts off to have their faces re-cut and lacquered. The rears however needed paint which he couldn’t do due to the construction. So they came back and the current state of affairs is this, mid sanding, primer and masking tape hell:

But will it look good? I bloody hope so. I’ve also got a bit of an LS400 calliper debarkle to sort. They are too big so I am going to have to go back to twin turbo breaks. (sad face). So I’ve decided to have some calliper spacers made up and move to the biggest discs I can fit in! (smiley face).

Here’s some preview pics of the car on the wheels and a photoshop I did before buying: