Hey guys,

I've wanting for ever to get this done and the time has finally arrived. Alittle history on the rims though, the previous onwer i guess though it was cool to paint one yellow, one orange, on just stripped to the aluminum, and one left stock. I know he need to be shot. So 3 of them have been previously somewhat stripped to the bare alumiun and have no color on them what so ever, the one that was left stock though its alot more "chrome" than all the rest. So the question is what should i ust to make them all shiny? Any compound that i should be using? Also paint buffer work to get them looking shiny? THanks

 

I'm not too sure on what you would do, mine are chewed to hell too.

I was considering sending them out for powdercoating in a black color, and leaving the lip silver.

 

I was thinking about powder coationg them in gun metal but i want to see how they come out just polished first.

 

A light abrasive pad, or fine sandpaper can help to start getting a polished finish. once its smmoth and semi-shiny, switch to a polish like mothers mag and aluminum polish, with LOTS of elbow grease.
Or, get a dremel and some polishing stones and pads. Use the stones on the rougher areas, and the pads with a polish on the entire surface. They will resemble chrome afterwards.

 

I already have a dremel ... so all i need is the polishing tool and the polishing material like mother mag?

 

Along with a heathy dose of patience.

 

lol ... for my seven ... i've got plenty

 

you're going 2 need more.



it's almost done being polished. i'm trying to pull off a chrome mimicking look.

 

For removing the old paint and clearcoat, I've heard that "Aircraft remover" works really well. You can pick it up at most autoparts stores...

 

it does work well i used it on my iroc wheels b4 i had the 7 there is even a whole step by step manual on how to polish wheels on www.thirdgen.org but it is on the iroc wheels but it applies to just about any wheels i presume.

 

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/te...iowheels.shtml
that is the link to the article on thirdgen

 

i had a friend that had a volkswagen jetta with cabrio rims, he used the aircraft stripper and started with 400 grit sand paper and went all the way to 1500 grit wet.....and finished with mother's mag and aluminum polish.......man, they were like ****** mirrors! i spent 4 hours personally helpin out with 1 wheel.....

 

Yup, lots of time and sandpaper. That's the majority of what you'll need.

I use Poly Supa Strippa to get clearcoat and paint off wheels.

 

Ok, I polished all four of mine the old school way. It took forever and was a waist of my time.(looking back at it).... The tough part, remove the outter clear coat.

Now, How old are you? Cause a dremmel will take you 2 years to polish those rims. Sand paper will give you one hell of a workout, and still take you about 8 hours per rim just to wear down the rough spots.

So, this is what I have found.

You need a minimal, a drill. Then, I went to jestco products...
http://www.jestcoproducts.com/buffing_compounds1.html

When you turn the buffing wheel on and apply it against these compunds, they melt against the buffing wheel. You let the wheel dry for a moment, and you have anywhere fomr 80 gritt to 1000 gritt sandpaper on a wheel..... It is 100 times easier than useing sandpaper. Just call them and ask about it.

 

yeah 8 hrs. per rim just sounds about right
it's good to know this skill, but next time around, i'll just let someone else do it for me.

 

holy ... was everyone just sanding this stuff before or what? I wasn't planning on sanding the thing by hand i was looking for those buffinf compound, cause i used them at school but never new what they're really called. I'll let everyone know what happens.

 

I'm figuring I'll need at least $50 worth of compounds and a buffing wheel. + time. There is a shop here in Cali that charges $40 to polish each rim and they do great work, I wonder if it really would be a better deal to have them professionally done at that price. $40 is for polishing only, not stripping and repainting.....

 

if its rims just get some new ones if its wheels get them all powdercoated the smae color and it should coum out decent

 

If you have the money take it to a shop. It took me 10hrs just to do my turbo.

 

have you thought about getting the rims bead-blasted? A powdercoat shop can do this. They will take off EVERYthing, clean as a whistle. your left with a matte-metal surface, so you will still need to polish as everyone is recommending, but this way you cut out the "clean-up" phase of the job and go right to polishing. Cost me about $25 a rim. Re: powdercoat finish - I was tempted to do this (having powdercoated most every doo-dad on my 80 RX), but I have heard that the temps needed to melt the powder also damage the integrity of the aluminum alloy of the rim, leading to rim failure. Anyone else heard this?
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Ahh but sandblasting or mediablasting(sp) can leave small dimples in the metal and this would cause even more work for you to try and sand it out. And the mattefinish gets real dirty real fast...like as soon as youve touched it its dirty again. Ive done a couple of sets the wet sandpaper way then finished it off with a polishing compound and they look awsome. And if you do it this way you can stand back (while your fingers are on ice) and say hey that looks damn nice next time Ill find a kid down my street that needs a couple of bucks and have them do it.

 

niiice thread!

 

I've tried media/sandblasting the + wheels. Even the ones with the most worn finish are stubborn to get off. Chemical stripping is the the best way to go, especially for repolish. Media blasting will create more hand labor for polishing. It will leave a good base for powdercoating, but chemical stripping will always be the first step.

The powdercoats I use are too tough to be blasted off, they have to be chemically stripped first, then blasted clean.

Stu, I read the same thing in a thread a while back, not sure if I put that much stock in it. The aftermarket wheels I have on my 2nd gen are powdercoated from the manufactureer, as are many wheels, even oem. I don't think the automakers would putting a single wheel on the road if powdercoating was going to lead to fatigue failures.

Here is a pic of a set of wheels I powdercoated. Top left is a wheel with the base powder, top right is after baking, lower left is the clear coat powder, lower right is the finished wheel. The true color of the wheel is between the 2 on the right.

I'm not happy with the way these wheels came out. The base color is smoke chrome, but some of the powder seperated and the wheels have black spots scattered throughout the finish. These wheels could be for sale if someone makes the right offer.