i just bought some 16x8 85-87 rims for 100 bucks 2 days ago, only one problem, the damn things were gold! I figure theres gotta be a way to remove the gold without messing up the nice aluminum/chrome look on the rest of the wheels, any ideas anyone?

Simple paint thinner would probably remove it, but could someone give me some advice on painting them black like they should be, im not good at painting at all and dont ever do it, so treat me like an idiot here.

 

Well, they shouldn't be black either. They should be grey.

If you don't have any exp. in painting etc..you should call a body shop and ask who can paint them for you.

 

i dont think i would take them to a shop...just spray bomb em. im not sure about prep for this, since there is a lot of crap (brake dust, road grime, etc etc) probably on them, and a lot of hard to reach/clean nooks and crannies. i am interested in this too, as i plan to repaint the inserts in my firebird wheels this summer.

i would saya AT LEAST clean them well with brake cleaner.
maybe scuff them up a little with a scotch brite pad or sand paper, but really, i would say the biggest thing is to make sure they are CLEAN. then just mask the stuff you dont want painted, and spray them. i would put a clear coat too. good luck.

paint them wahtever color you want. i think dark ones dont show all teh dust from far away, but i think lighter ones (silvers) have an overall clean look.

 

Wow your never gonna belive this peoples, a friend of a friend wants to trade me his rims(which are the exact same as mine, but the color i want) and MONEY for just my rims. Apparently the gold rims are rarer, so he wants em, ain't that friggin great!

 

Cool deal!!!

I like the gold too!

 

just make sure your friend isnt trying to rip you off. there are some firebird wheels that had the corsslace pattern in black, but were definitely NOT the same as the light GTA rims.

if your trading apples for apples, then cool deal.

 

Well, the guy hasn't actually seen the rims, so im thinkin he's not really ripping me off...either way, i spent 100 bucks for the set, and i only really want the ones he has anyway, those ARE the ones i wanted, rare or not, so im pretty sure its all good.

 

I just picked up a set of orginally gold wheels the guy had painted them white. I have used airplane striper on severel sets of wheels it does a good job of getting the clear coat and color coat off. I will be doing mine in gun metel grey like the bottom of my car and the outer lip in either polished or powder coat crome, if I can find an oven big enough for the wheel. The weels are in almost perfect shape just some minor mounting scrapes on the lips. I can get all of these out with a little sand paper and some polishing compound. I have also ordered a set of crome centers and will be running come lugs and valve stems. I hope the wheels turn out as good as I think they will.