I would like to keep my 90 coupe stock looking , my rims need help the clear coat is peeling. Is there an easy way to remove it all. Do I have to replace the clear coat or just polish the aluminum

 

c4 vette wheels are very hard to refinish. once the clear coat goes, I don't know of a way to get it off easily without marring the machined finish underneath. I talked to a couple of wheel shops about this, and they said go to someone who has a cnc metal lathe. They'll cut ever so slightly off the surface and give you back a perfect machined finish.

one shop also told me you can't just re-apply clear coat to the machined aluminum finish since the aluminum begins oxidizing immediately. If you just respray it, it will quickly cloud and peel off. You need to prep the surface with alodine first like they do when painting aluminum aircraft parts.

 

How much time and effort are you ready to put into it? I did mine about 4 years ago before buying Chromes. It's doable but time consuming. It took me 2 hours per wheel but they came out great.

PM for details if interested....

 

Please provide details on refinishing.

I have a set of wheels that need some help too. The clear coat has some nicks. I am considering stripping the clear coat. Polishing the wheel and using the wheel sealant.

Any suggestions????

 

Supplies:

Large can of Acetone
Spray bottle. (An empty fantastic or similar will do.)
roll of paper towels
stiff plastic brush. (the kind you see on the side of carpet cleaner)
2 jars of Mothers Wheel Polish
Rags
Rags
and more rags.

1) Remove wheel from car and lie on a flat surface preferably some sort of work bench otherwise you'll be on your knees a while.

2) Fill spray bottle with acetone

3) Lay a piece of paper towel over a section of wheel and soak with the acetone. ( Without the PT, the acetone evaporates too quickly)

4) Keep the PT wet for 10 minutes

5) Have brush ready and remove the PT

6) quickly start brushing the area and the clear coat will begin to blister. Spray acetone while brushing. ( It gets messy but not to worry)

7) Repeat the steps for each section of the wheel.

8) When most of the CC is removed, spray acetone on what's left, brush while spraying and wipe wheel down with a rag.

When you are satisfied with the results............

9) begin polishing with the Mothers. It will turn black which means it's working. It's best to do small sections at a time.

10) Wipe off the "black" polish with a clean rag.

11) continue the precess until you are satisfied with the look.


I didn't re-clear my wheels and they only required touch up polishing around the rim edge every few months. Something you do anyway.


oh yeah.........add beer to the supplies list.

 

I stripped the clear coat off a set of 93 sawblades with "DeKote" I bought from Eastwood, took the wheels off the car and laid them flat applied the stripper with a brush let stand about 10 minutes and then scrub with fine steelwool it takes a couple of applications but easy to do, then you rinse well with a garden hose dry and I polished with Mothers Mag wheel paste, they look brand new and yes it did take a couple of hours but well worth it. I did also buy the clearcoat finish "Glisten pc" it's a 2 part clearcoat also from Eastwood but I haven't put it on yet, the wheels look so good I just put a coat of polish on them once in awhile, I will say though my vette is not a DD so I don't know how they would hold up without clear on a daily basis. Also the rims are in good shape very little curb rash.

 

I used acetone primarily because of availability and because it worked well. I didn't know how much stripper I would go through and didn't want to have to keep reordering in mid wheel. The one bottle of stripper I did get from a catalog only made the clearcoat laugh.

 

I stripped and polished the stock wheels on my '95 Coupe. With tires removed. I went down to Home Depot and bought a fresh can of standard paint remover, thick rubber gloves and eye protection. Set all the wheels rady for stripping and slop on the paint remover. Let it sit for 10 minhutes or so and hose off. Be careful when spraying with the hose as paint remover will burn if it gets on your bare skin. Soak the wheels down real good and make sure you rinse all the nooks where paint remover can gather or pool. Let the wheels dry and then polish with your choice of wheel polish.

I have an air compressor so I used an air die grinder with a 4" polishing wheel attached (also available at Home Depot) and white polishing compound. I did not recoat with the clear coat from EastWood.

Later ...Larry S.

 

I purchased some 86 C4 wheels. Two the wheels had clear coat and the other two had been stripped. The wheels that were stripped had pitting. I tried to just polish the wheels. The pits did not look good.

I was ready to abort using the wheels and just use the tires. I said what did I have to lose?? If I screwed up the wheels bad, I would get to purchase new chrome wheels.

I took a DA sander with 600 grit sand paper and went to sanding the machine finish and pits flat. Sanding the grooved finish would allow to polish the wheel to near chrome like finish. I was a little bit scared to do this. I sanded the entire wheel. The wheel looked awful, but really smooth. I sanded with 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper. Then I polished to a mirror like finish.

Well . . . I have three more wheels to go. I have the rest of winter to get the wheels done.

I spent about six hours on this wheel. It looks like chrome.

 

With a little elbow grease, sand paper and water your rims can resemble my rims. I wet sanded my rims over two years ago and the aluminum hasn't oxidized one bit. Every now and then I polish them with Mother's polish and they shine like no tomorrow.

 

I removed the clearcoat with aircraft paint stripper. A bit messy but works well to get the clearcoat off. The wheels will look 100% better with just the clearcoat removed. One of the issues with machined wheels are the very fine machine marks on the faces left from machining. Until the metal is smooth, it's hard to get the "like chrome" look. Not that just removing the clear coat isn't good enough, but when the metal is smooth then polishing with the various types of metal polishes really makes the wheels look good. Various methods to remove the machine marks can be used including sanding with wet and dry sand paper "wet" with a sanding block. Starting with 200 grit and working your way up to 1000 or so will provide a smooth surface. Follow up with Mothers Wheel Polish by hand or use a wool polishing bonnet on a car polisher and some 3M heavy duty polishing compound. Using a DA to remove the marks is a bit trickey especially around the lip of the wheel, the DA has a tendency to bang up against the lip trashing the paper and the edge of the DA. It works good but expect to change the paper and have another disc on hand. The other way is to send them off for polishing. I removed the clearcoat, cut the machine marks with wet/dry paper, then sent them off for a machine polish by Performance Plus Tire and Wheel in Long Beach, Ca on Cherry. You don't have to send them out for polishing as can be seen in another post in this thread. Performance charged me $40 or $45 per wheel to polish the entire wheel including the area that's textured. Once the wheel has the clear coat removed and is polished, it is so easy to maintain. Yes, it's bare aluminum but it is easy to maintain even if you only polish them a couple of times a year. Obviously, road salts will dull the finish but other than an occasional cleaning with Never Dull magic wadding they don't need much maintenance. If your going to do it yourself expect to spend up to a couple of hrs per wheel to get them looking good.

Art
I

 

Brimis,

I have 86 wheels that have a gray slots and unfinished centers. I have an 84 Corvette. The slots and center are black on an 84. Did you paint the slots? What paint matches the finish of the black?

Your wheels look really nice.

 

Living in Southern WI. It is hard to find people that do polishing of wheels. The wheel guy in my area said they would have to send the wheels in. They do not have the tools to get to the center of the wheel. They do only simple repairs in the truck. The cost to refinish the four wheels was $660 plus taxes.

I can see why people purchase aftermarket wheels instead of refinishing the stock wheels.

I took the time and effort, because I wanted to keep the car stock.

Art, you car looks nice!

BTW, I was able to use a DA because the wheel has mostly a flat surfaces. Any other wheel, I would do it by hand. Beginners, safest way to hand sand. I have two sets of wheels. My other set has a clear coat finish in great shape. I wanted more of the highly polished look.

 

Thanks...
It's an 85 with '98 Torch Red paint, lowered a little, tinted, 3rd brake light, stock LT1 mufflers modified to fit the stock Y pipe, and flush mount tailights (a mod I designed myself). I sold it to my neighbor, now it's for sale again.

I think the '90 is the best looking factory C4 wheel out there beside the '90 ZR1 wheel.

Using the DA on these flat wheels makes quick work. I used it too but was banging into the bead. This job is tedious but the rewards are very nice.

 

GM should of done your flush mount modifications to the tail lights from the factory. Doing the flush mount provide better off axis viewing. It provides a little more safety too.

 

No, I didn't paint the wheels. I started the wet sanding with 200 grit, then 400, 600, 800 and finished with 1000 grit. Each wheel did take several hours, I turned it into a winter project.

Take your time, no hurry, you too have all winter to finish your project.

 

Art, outstanding car.

 

Thanks for all the info. I went the home depot route, a 7$ stripper the clear coat peeled right off. Cleaned the rims up with a white compound cleaner, then a mothers power ball, they now look better than new. Car is not a daily driver so I will skip the clear coat. Thanks again for the info