My wheels on my 2002 coupe are pitted at a few places. (These are the 'silver' finish wheels). Can I use paint stripper to remove the clearcoat & then repolish them?

Anyone do this before? or do I need to sand off the clear coat.

thanks

Denis

 

I am confused. Are they Polished? Or Painted? Either way, a good metal stripper will take both off.

 

they seem to polished, then clear coated. I need to strip the clear off, but someone tells me this stuff is hard to take off.

anyone?

d

 

There was a post the other day from a forum member who had stripped his wheels. He said it was not easy. Had to use remover a number of times on each wheel. He posted a picture of the wheels after he had polished them, They really looked good. You might find the post in a search.

 

methylene chloride is your friend, i've done a set, let me find the post

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...e&forum_id=103

send me a pm w/ email for pics, i guess i del them off pbucket

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1309568

 

Alright - who the h*$&^ do you think you are putting up the link before me?

 

competitive post linking

the racing doesn't stop in the vette

 

I was a chem. tech. for alot of years. I used methylene chloride to do chemical extractions. This stuff is nasty. Wear gloves and do the process in a well ventilated area. If you get it on your hands and are wearing a wedding ring or some such thing, you'll find yourself trying to remove the ring in a hurry. It will sting like crazy. Like I said..wear gloves, don't breath the vapor and protect your eyes. Best analogy...think of your hand as a sponge and the mc soaking into it. It is absorbed into your system. jmo...

Jake T.

 

thanks a bunch. Still waiting for connecticut's pictures.

I'll start this weekend... & keep you updated on how it goes

thanks

d

 

My "01 vert has 87K miles and was driven year round in Michigan. The winter salt took a heavy toll on the wheels which were severely pitted and corroded.
This winter's project was to try and get them looking presentable again.
Thanks to C5naples whose previous post and how to gave me the inspiration to get at this.

Walmart sells Aircraft Stripper. A brand that contains methylene chloride, Home Depot sells several brands as well. Removing the clear will take several applications of stripper. Let it soak in 1-2 hours.
Since I did mine in the basement, I could not use the pressure washer approach. I used shop paper towelling to remove the blistered clear and remaining stripper .
Once you have the clear removed you need to sand....

Home Depot also sells a 3M metal polishing synthetic sanding pad. It is maroon in color and is a sandpaper sized sheet that resembles the green scotchbrite scouring pads . Cut it to size and affix it to a random orbital palm sander. It will take out the pits.

I then used my cordless drill and 3 buffing wheels with 3 progressively finer metal polishes ( ending with jewelers rouge) to buff out the sanding marks.
The final treatment was with a Mothers powerball and Mothers AL polish . After final wash I used 3 coats of Rejex

 

rims look good... wow. How much time per wheel do u figure?

dumb question... can i leave the tires on? or will the meth choride chew up the rubber?

d

 

Elapsed time was a weekend a wheel. Actual working time about 4 hours.
Elapsed time was driven by the soak time for the stripper and my other tasks for the day.
Estimated Actual time per wheel ( I did one at a time) 1 hour stripping ( applying and removing) 1.5 hours sanding, 1 hour buffing and polishing, 0.5 hours washing( between steps) and final rejex application.

I actually did mine with the tires still on.
BUT
1: My tires have about a seasons worth of tread left. I did not want to pay to dismount, remount and balance at this point in time.
2: I was not trying to ensure show quality. If I wanted show quality I would have removed the tires.

Methylene Chloride definitely eats away at the rubber. I IMMEDIATLEY wiped up and rinsed off any that I got on the tire. The cloth was black indicating that rubber was being dissolved....

Rich

 

I used that aircraft stuff to remove paint on an old truck, and set of painted aluminum wheels. If you are worried about the tires, 3M masking tape worked well for me as a barrier on the truck.

 

thanks for all the elapsed time info... great reference for when i do mine. Also, nice to hear I can tape up the sidewalls... saves a mount&dismount

to you all!

d