As I understand it, it should be just fine on the rims surface.

And FYI, all the "plus style" wheels for the RX-7s came silve and black. Since yours are white, someone has just painted them at one point.

~T.J.

 

Just use Eagle 1 "etching mag wheel cleaner" to remove the paint and leave a nice bright ORIGINAL surface, then paint the striped portions with black epoxy paint.
You could also have them hot-tanked to remove the paint and prep the surface. Lots less work using these methods, and fairly cheap, too.

 

Chemicals will strip that **** right off. They all came as silver with gray accents, so someone painted yours at some point. Do you guys have walmarts down there? If so then go there and get a can (or several) of this stuff called "auto strip" its a spray can of paint stipper, spray it on the wheels (tireless preferably, this stuff will eat the rubber) and let it sit for like 20 mins, then spray it off with a garden hose. viola, all the paint comes off in a big sheet. If you don't have walmart I'm sure you could find something similar somewhere else. If that gray paint is still on there under the white this stuff will take it off, so you'll have to mask the wheels off leaving the parts you want painted exposed, then give it a few coats of primer then the gray (or black like I did) then pull the mask off and clear the whole wheel real good. This is all assuming there is no corrosion on your wheels, if there is then sanding/polishing will be required, then the paint. Not sure how good you are with paint or whatever, but make sure the wheel is nice and clean before you paint, I'm sure theres a few other things I left out. Any more ?'s just ask.

 

Walmart?! What's "Walmart"?

Kansas can't get enough Walmarts! I think we have 4 for every 10 shoppers!

Thanks for the info!

 

Is that a Walmart in the backgroud of your sig?

~T.J.

 

hehe wal mart rules, theres 3 within 15 mins of my house. now thats convenience!

 

Like this....

jerij

 

Listen to jerij this guy knows his wheels. . .
His was the first name when I saw this thread.

 

Thanks a bunch 82Transam! Actually no, we dont have walmarts in Aus. . . but bound to find something! Yeah, so if this white crap I have on here ISNT original, then it should come off easy. I just reckon, it's gonna look better - Silver and Black. . .
Again. . thanks - all of you!
RXTbone - what's wrong with yours? They look exactly how I want mine!!

Craig

 

As I understand it (I haven't tried it yet on my wheels but it worked great to get the epoxy enamel paints off an old porcelein/cast iron bathtub I refinished) the stripper will remove the clear coat and will not harm the alloy wheel, if used according to the instructions. I think that blasting has the potential of pitting the relatively soft alloy metal, so if you use this method test on the back first (not a bad idea for strippers too). You can get an industrial strength stripper (stronger than zip strip and similar household paint strippers, but used for stipping marine paints off boats) from Home Depot or Lowe's for about $20/gallon.

Ray

 

Craig - thanks, but pics do a nice job of hiding flaws!

Mine aren't too bad, but do have some places where the clear coat has peeled. Plus, everyone needs an inexpensive weekend project. I'm always up for the work, it's the cash flow that more often than not impedes progress...

 

Reviving a thread because I'm thinking my ? belongs here...

I've completed the stripping and polishing of my '84 plus-style wheels and am now wanting to know the 'best' way to go about wrapping things up.

Painting:
I'd like to paint the inset portions (as they were) and need to know the best procedure/materials to go with.
- Do I need to primer aluminum first?
- Do I go rattle can and masking tape
or paint by hand?
- What type of paint?

Clear-coating:
I see where 82transam says to use a 'good clearcoat' and not a wood clear-coat. Makes sense...any suggestions as to what is good? I'm also in the process of finishing up body work and plan to paint/clear-coat the entire car(have paint gun etc), so whatever works for both would seem to be best.

Thanks for the help all!

 

bump...

Someone out there has painted the insets on their wheels and clear coated them...come on.

 

For painting the indented "Mazda" on my SE center caps i simply painted the entire face of the cap and while the paint was still wet took a rag with some paint thinner on it and wiped the face clean leaving the indented "Mazda" lettering painted. Perhaps you can use a similar method.

I spray painted my wheels with good results but I did the entire wheel. To prep I just sanded with some wet sand 220 grit. This was fine since it was covered with paint however if you want a polished finish you'll want to use somthing different.

I used dupli-color paint and clear coat made specifically for wheels (found at local auto parts store).

 

Thanks Brent.
Yeah, I've already gotten the wheels to polish up like a mirror, but was wanting to know the best method for painting them. I'll definitely try your idea for the indented Mazda portion.
My buddy was impressed with the way the wheels shined up, but seemed to be skeptical on the clear coating. Not that it didn't need to be done, but he thought the clear coat would be 'milky' and not let the shine come through.
I'll be looking for the clear coat made specifically for wheels...didn't know such a thing existed.
Thanks!

 

Well I was really thinking you could use a similar method to do all the indented parts on you wheels. You can try it and if it dosent work imediately take the paint thinner rag and whipe all the paint off (comes right off if its wet). Otherwise masking will work just a bitch to get everything straight and even. But I would diffinatly recommend spray paint.

And the clear coat is just what it says, clear. the stuff I used had a brown haze to it but by the next day (when they were dry) it was completely clear.

 

I used a paint brush and flat black paint on my inserts after i got them polished up any paint you get on the shiny part you just wipe off with a rag. Mine came out great.

 

I polished my plus wheels a while back. Man what a bear - had to sand out all the concentric machining grooves to make it look really nice.
To paint the insets, I just good quality masking tape over them, then carefully cut it with an Exacto knife. Not too hard, just follow the contours. Spray bomb black (in my case) with a quality (Rustoleum, Duplicolor, Plastikote) paint. I didn't clear coat mine, and they're still looking pretty good last time I looked (they're on a parts car right now because I upgraded to a GSL-SE suspension.) the clear coat will usually dull the polish just a little bit - just tried that on a 626 Turbo rim that I painted the center graphite grey with polished lip. Still plenty shiny, though.
Pretty plus wheels:



626 Turbo Wheel:


I have another set of these wheels that I plan to fully polish.

 

Ok...rounding out this thread so someone else researching will have it ALL here:

Painting Info received from 82transam via PM:
"As for paint, mask the whole wheel (with a good masking tape like 3M) leaving the parts you don't want exposed. Its not a hard job per say, but it takes a good half hour per wheel cause theres so much masking to be done. To answer your other questions, yes prime them, again with a good primer, 2-3 coats of it should do. Then sand that with some 400/600 wet,...

(sanding with fine paper like that will smooth the primer out. As you spray it goes on uneven, even though it looks even to your eye, it still has little bumps. Sanding it before hand smooths it out. You use water in order to keep the paper from cloging and thus scratching it. Its not messy, just wipe any excess water off, dry it, then use your cleaner, and paint. It makes all the difference in the final finish, trust me.),

...then shoot the gray (I did black when I did mine to be different) again 2-3 coats. Remove the mask, make sure everything is clean (do that before primer and paint too, tack cloths work good) then clear them. I used rattle cans for the wheels, cleaning paint guns out is annoying and not really needed for a small project like this."


Thanks all for your input...think we have a pretty complete Original Wheel Restore thread here!

JD