85A4Coupe

I have the stock Aluminum wheels on my car and two of them look terrible.

The drivers side has already shed all of it's clear coat and I have managed to get them polished up pretty good with Mothers wheel polish but the Passengers side still has all of the Clear coat on them and it's all faded, cracked and cloudy looking.

What can I use to remove the Clear coat w/o damaging the Aluminum wheel?

And secondly, What polish will make them shine like chrome?

Thanks for your input!

jjgkdg

85A4Coupe

Well you have to get the crappy looking clear coat off before re-clearing them.

ZfidyONE-84

mothers alum, and mag polish, it'll freshen them up a little

richdwyer

aircraft paint stripper works the best. Make sure you wear rubber gloves and rinse thouroughly. You can hear the clearcoat crackling as you apply it. I have heard of an expensive polish that is suppose to be really good, I believe it is zoop. May want to post in car care section of forum for better input on topic. Good luck. Rich

AORoads

read cuisinart's entire wheel thread. it's basically a course on what to do.
plus i don't know what it is, but JrRifle put in this stuff called ZoopSeal which may take the place of clear coat. wait until he responds as to what it is and why it's better, or ask him. good luck. lotta work in front of you.

85A4Coupe

That's what I tried and it made the clear coat cloudier

85A4Coupe

So paint stripper won't harm the aluminum?

Also thanks on the post info...I didn't see a Car care section.... Sorry
Oppps

85A4Coupe

Thanks...Ive heard of Zoop before but never used it..... I appreciate you reminding me of the work ahead Just kidding

I polished the wheels on my brothers WS6 and it took me 4 hours PER WHEEL to get them to look like chrome.... 2 weeks later he trades the car in on a SRT-4 What a trade! Now I show him but will admit it is faster then hell (for what it is)

mikey whipreck

I was able to get the clear coat off of the wheels of my '85 by sanding. I was hesitant to use any of the strippers because of the black painted accents on the wheels.

It took forever, but I sanded with wet 400/600 to get the clear coat off. Then I did 400/600/1000/1500 all wet sanding to get a nice polished look. I got Mother's Billet and applied a little during sanding (it will show you exactly where the clear coat is still left- because it turns cloudy)- then really polished it with that stuff after I was done sanding.

I don't have any pics online yet, but that procedure worked pretty good. Now I only despise the stock '85 rims... before I used to loathe them.

85A4Coupe

It sure sounds like you went all out for your wheels. I can't say I am that energetic.

I'm gonna keep asking around...There has got to be something safe that will remove that clear coat.... Something easy...

I don't want to make it a week project just to get the clear off.
Now I don't mind spending a week getting the mirror like finish of the aluminumbut I hate the thought of removing the clear by sanding.

Honestly speaking I'd just hire someone to redo the wheels if there was any place around here that did that kind of stuff.
But that's what I get for living in the redneck capital of Florida.

rocco16

Stripper is a VERY strong caustic/alkaline solution and WILL attack aluminum. That is why you must not leave it on the wheel for longer than is absolutely necessary to just soften the paint.
When they say 'rinse thoroughly', they really mean it.

Larry
code5coupe

85A4Coupe

Ok, next suggestion.

Atok

Use Aircraft Stripper, it's designed to be used on Aluminum. I used Talstrip 2 on mine and highly recommend it.

Regardless of what stripper you use, if it reacts with the metal it's no big deal because you'll have to sand and buff them anyway.

85A4Coupe

Thank you....Good point

85A4Coupe

Well I started the wheels today... Keyword here is started!

I spent 4 hours just wetsanding the first wheel. I have a long way to go on this one. I have managed to get about half the clear off the wheel and used a little S100 to see if the aluminum would polish out to a mirror finish.

Where the clear is gone it shined up excellant so I am going to continue as time permits. I do need to find a buffing wheel as it would really make it much faster but overall the wet sanding then polishing is working out well.

Midnite 88

Hey! I resemble that remark!

85A4Coupe

Jacksonville???? Redneck???? Used to live there I don't think so

Come on down here to "Polk" Midnite and I'll show you some real "backwoods" folks

Top of the day to you, you fellow Floridian

JrRifleCoach

First off you don't need to use harsh aircraft strippers. Go to the hardware store and buy a pint of water soluable paint stripper. OK you may need to use two coats but it cleans off with the garden hose and is a heck of alot cheaper.

Mothers works good as does most aluminum polishes with a 6" buffing/polishing wheel on a drill motor, or good old fashion elbow grease.

My turbines cleaned up very nicely without refinishing. I prefere polishing the factory machined finish over sanding and polishing to a mirror.

ZoopSeal is a great product to use when preserving bare aluminum. It can be polished after treatment. And is designed to not require further polishing. It is NOT a clear coat type of product. ZoopSeal treats the surface and seals the pores. Here is the link to their product. ZoopSeal

I have used the Zoop on the entire suspension and drivetrain. (Pics of suspension) However since I like to touchup the wheels frequently, those are not treated.

85A4Coupe

Thanks JR, I appreciate the product suggestion. I'm buying some of that!
BTW, big High 5 on the suspention on your car... It looks awesome. But one question: Does it look like that after a drive in the rain?

My underneath looked like brand new for as long as I've owned my car but I hardly drove it and never in wet weather. Once I started driving it all the time it went to hell in about 2 months.

Ok onto my wheels:

After sitting in my driveway and staring at my wheels for an hour and dreading any further wet-sanding I decided to just completely redo all the wheels including the black accents because they are all faded and covered in brake dust which I can't get off.

So I bought some Aircraft stripper as richdwyer & Atok suggested and I will say it worked out wonderful. The clear coat instantly began bubbling off and the outer black accent paint fell right off. The center black paint is ok on this wheel I'm currently working on so I am not going to strip that.

Now after 3 applications of the stripper, all of the clear and outer black was gone and the wheels looked 100% better then before. The aluminum is satin finish from the factory which I didn't know because the clear was so cloudy before. There is also machine lines all the way around the face of the wheel.

I then began wet-sanding the machine lines down with 1000 which was really taking a long time so I tried some 600 and it worked great to get the machine lines out. Once the machine lines were gone I gave the face of the wheel a quick wet-sanding with 1000 followed by 2000.

2000 left the wheel with a cloudy mirror finish. So I then used my buffing wheel on my drill and hit the wheel with Turtle wax rubbing compound followed by Turtle wax Polishing compound.
which left the wheel with a polished Mirror finish.

I followed with mothers wheel polish and it looks awesome.

Tomorrow I will repaint the outer black accents with a hi gloss aluminum wheel paint I purchased at the parts store.

By finishing the face of the wheel first and getting the mother's on there it has in a sense temporarly sealed the aluminum and gave it a slick feel. This in turn should allow me to mask off and repaint the accents and make it easy to remove any overspray that might get on the face of the wheel.

Here's a "What they looked like before" and a now picture.
If you look closely in the now picture you can see my reflection in the face of the wheel...the before picture was taken in the same spot and you see no reflection at all.

What do you think so far?