apollo30346

Has anybody stripped the clearcoat off there factory rims..if so how and with what? Then what can I use to polish them. I need to do his with them on the car too. I know that makes it harder, but have no choice.

Thanks
Pete

C4

Can't help you out, but I'll be watching responses as my saw blades have a few dings in them. Nothing major, a flek here, a small divot there.....Good luck...-C4-

R Cook 92

Go to wal-mart and pick up some aircraft remover. It comes in a tall blue spray can, you'll need 2 cans for 4 wheels... You can't pull the wheels off?? I would be VERY careful using the remover around paint....!!!

That stuff will get your clear off.

as for polishing... order an eastwood catalog. www.eastwood.com they'll have everything you need to do a professional polish. If your dong by hand, well, I've found most aluminum polishes to be the same when applied by hand...

Also, if they're is any rough cast on your rims, you can't polish that until you smooth it out. and smoothing it is Difficult. I've done it, and will not do it again! its near impossible to get rid of all the pits.

good luck, take some pics!!
Randy.
92 auto coupe..

OuTLaW

Think about the desert when you're preping the wheels, sand..sand..sand...

Just like a paint job its 90% prep and 10% polishing. You should have a nice looking wheel before you start to apply any polishing compounds.

Second, go to your local home improvement warehouse. I know for a fact that Home Depot has everything you'll need for the job.

If you're thinking about final polishing by hand, you're nuts. At the very least you'll need a high speed drill CORDED not cordless, a chuck adapter and a couple cotton wheel buffs. (all at HD)

When you've sanded and the aluminum feels like a babys butt, hit it with a rough wheel (the one that the cotton cloth zig-zags) and some emery rouge (grey in color)

Soon as you have a very smooth and almost polished finish switch to the smooth cotton buff and hit it with some tripoli rouge (red/Brown color) and final buff with that. The White jewelers rouge won't shine cast aluminum good so skip it. When you're all buffed out clean the excess rouge off with some wax shop liquid aluminum polish and a soft terry cloth. Eagle 1 polishing wadding does a good job too in a pinch. You can in an emergency use corn starch but it's too messy to be the primary cleaner.

If you wash the wheels be sure to hit 'em with the wax shop polish and they'll be as good as when you polished them.

Good luck and post your results when 'ya get 'em done.

apollo30346

Whew.... sounds like I have my work cut out for me.... I might just go aftermarket. But never know I might just want to for the hell of it.....

Thanks to all for the input.