Snowflake wheels
 

I am trying to refinish my wheels and hope I did not make a big mistake. I put the wheel into my bead blaster to clean it up. How do I polish the front as now they are dull? Should the front be taped off prior to blasting as well as painting?
Thanks

On my 78 Trans Am WS6 Snowflake wheels the spoke faces have a light machining finish to them. They are painted in between the spokes. I think the area in between the spokes was just a cast aluminum finish (prior to painting). The outer wheel area (where spokes end...to the wheel/rim edge are polished).

So, I am guessing if you bead blasted the whole wheel, you would have lost the machined
finish on the spokes and the outer wheel polished area would look a bit dull. I would guess that bead blasting would not matter to much for the area in between the spokes...as this area gets painted anyway.

Restoring the machined finish on the spoke faces might be tough to do by hand...I know
there are guys that remachine the face of the spokes when they do a full wheel restoration. For the outer wheel polished area - maybe an aluminum polish...like mothers?

Hitman's Page has some good info on wheels
http://www.78ta.com/wheelspec.php

An tips for restoring wheels
http://www.78ta.com/resto/rims.htm

I SAND BLASTED a set-talk about alot of work-had to get flapper sand wheels then polished them.

When I did mine I first stripped off the original paint & then used buffing wheels & polishing compounds I obtained from Eastwood to remove all the machine marks. I then masked all the spokes - yes it took hours and hours - then I re-sprayed them gold.