its kinda hard to see but thse rims are pealing horribly...the clear coat is coming off and i want black or gunmetal inners with a polished lip so......
i started sanding the clear coat off the lip and got down to the alunimum today...i only worked on it for an hour but i got good progress...
the pictures are hard to see but ill post anyhow
now a question:
the lip was already polished before so aftr its sanded am i gonna be able to re-polish them for a nice shine then a clearcoat or am i gonna have to settle with painint the whole rim?


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this is the sanded rim..i only sanded the lip so far



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these are the un-sanded rims
more pictures as progress happens

 

if you are not too pickey and willing to put some elbow grease into them you'll get away with polishing the outer lip.
final sand before polishing with somethign like 1000 grit paper or finer
. if however you are not willing to put the time into this or you are pickey about the final finish you should just go ahead and paint teh whole thing. it will be a lot of work to get a nice polish uniformly over the whole lip. this assumes it's all done by hand basically.

 

thanks,
i have all summer since i am gonna paint the car before these go back on so time is not a problem...
last nite i bought some metal polish to try out, we will see how it goes
right now im using 80 grit and will follow up with 1,000 and wet sand them to get the polish....
im just wondering if 80 is to agressive?
greatly appreciate the input though...

 

80 grit is way too aggressive! 150 is probably a good idea to start, its what I used. Always wet sand.

When I polished my vert wheels, I got lazy. I bought 150, 320, 500, and 1200 grit and clamped the wheel onto a brake lathe. I just had to sit there with pressure on the lip and keep water running to the area I was sanding. Same deal with the polish. They turned out great!

A better alternative to sanding off all the clear is to get some paint stripper gel and apply it to the lip, its much faster and more uniform. after thats gone, you can skip straight to 500 and 1000 grit so the polish has somewhere to go.

So if you've got access to a brake lathe, give it a try!

 

i noticed that 80 grit put some nasty grooves in it after inspection today....
ill try 150 or even look into the gel....

 

Actually I retract my former statement. Those wheels will explode if you polish them, so just ditch the effort and send them to me now. =p

 

hahahaha,
actually i bought some paint stripper and its turning out great!!!!
today i started on another wheel testing it and found it should be much easier and have a better outcome then sanding......
im still unsure as to go gunmetal or black with the polished lip...
now i just gotta get the rium i used the 80 grit on to look like the one i used the paint stripper...lol

 

pictures of the rim using the paint stripper...


here they are without clearcoat on it....kind of hard to see but i got some minor work to do before i could shoot clear on them....

and still gotta figure out how im gonna deal with that rim i slapped 80 grit on...man o man what was i thinking!

 

this here is gonna get my shine back!!!...now i gotta get me some sand paper...ill work my way up to 1000 wet sand at the least and see how it turns out....

i got this off ebay..has the little buffers to get into the tight corners...

 

intreging... will paitn stripper/brake fluid be bad on aluminin wheels? i want to strip my **** too. thansk and good informative thread

 

i used this...
it worked wonders...just slap in on with a brush...putting it on in ine direction and let it sit..you can watch the paint peel off in 5 minutes but takes a while to work..i used it about 3 times to make sure it was all of(paint)...

i got it at autozone...they had a can that sprays it on but i figure since i left the tires on i didnt want it to make contact and eat the tire...
and my rims are alluminum..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1
a link to the buffer kit i bought...

 

hmmmm sounds interested, but theres no auto zone where i live, just fregans and napa. il go look at napa for something similar.

 

i have a question, do you think its possible to use bonde/filler/putty or fiberglass on curb rashes? i hear you should primer the wheel before spraying too? any advise appreiciated,

 

i believe that the duplicolor does not require primer....
im not really sure, i didnt use any...
you might be able to get that aircraft at a walmart also...
im going to sand down the curb rashes with 150 grit then work my way up to 1000grit wet sanded...
when you start..let me know how it is turning out...