I am going to take off the old paint with aircraft aluminum stripper.I really aint gonna paint them yet.I heard the bare aluminum looked pretty good by itself.I was wondering if there is anything I can use to protect the bare rim from the weather but make it look good as well.I was thinking about priming them first then take real fine steel wool to smooth the prime coat out then just clear coat them to make it look like powder coat.Any ideas on the bare rim protection thing?

-Ken

 

i just keep mine polished. i have tried a few clear coats, and they all look like crap and eventually chip off.

just keep an eye on them, and they will be fine (from my experience). mine dont corrode or anything.

they do look AWESEOME though polished...you will love them. but any clear coat that i tried made them look dull.

hope this helps...

-brian

 

What did you use to polish them with and how did you do it?

-Ken

 

I polished my IROC rims. They look fantastic, and no, I don't protect them with anything.

The only thing about polishing.......It's a never ending project. I don't drive my Iroc more than 4 or 5 times a month, and I have to "quick polish" them every few months. I could not imagine having polished wheels on a daily driver. Don't get me wrong, even dull, they look pretty good, but once you see that brillliant "just polished" shine, it will have to be that way all the time!!

 

I stripped the old factory clear coat 3 years ago and never protected them. They still look fine to me, the only thing I use on them is brake dust remover.

 

what i would LIKE to do is zoop seal them when they're new so that i shouldnt have to worry about it...


but that costs so much

 

Zoopseal is the best way to go, especially with polished rims or anything that is polished on a car. Thats what I reccomend to all of my customers who have thier car parts polished by me.

The cost is the only deturance in getting the product, 130.00 is steep especially if you dont plan on coating your engine along with the rims with it.

 

How long does that zoop stuff last though? Is it like clearcoat? How does it work? If it only lasts 2-3 years, does that mean you have to restrip and reapply?

 

Well heres their site if you want to check it out.
http://zoopseal.com/zoopseal.asp

 

Heres an intake that I coated with Zoopseal. If you wait the 4 hours or so for the chemical a & b to properly mix and become clear in the bottle then the coating will be perfectly clear. You cant tell that the zoopseal is on there when its dried.
Now if you wait for an hour or so and the mixture is still cloudy then you will be greatly dissapointed with the results.

 

hitting the submit button does work as well at attaching a picture as the browse button does.

 

Awesome pic man, did you get my last PM about my formula wheels?

 

first off a good polish to use can be had at a wheel shop. if you can find extreme (black can) or the stuff made by american racing (silver can) that stuff works AWSOME vs never dull or mothers.
onces polished send them to a shop to be powder coated.
i have a set of wheels i plan to be powder cleard and it will cost me $140 to get done. and thats for the full set.
iv been down the "polishthe wheels weekly and after a rain storm" road and ill tell ya i got sick of it.
after the wheels are cleared wax them every so often, it will preserve the clear.
if ya want the machined look to be gone and a smooth finish send them to someone like 85 sports coupe as it seems he has the handle on getting the smooth finish desierd.its not a simple process, iv been there.
but IMO sending them out to be powder cleard is the way to go after a polish

 

Nope, the last PM was from 10/23/03. I pm'ed you earlyer this afternoon.

 

i polished my formula wheels !
and they look coool !
just quick polish them evry few months !
that'll be fine !

 

MINE ARE UNPROTECTED FOR A YEAR
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...33#post1638533

 

Yeah, I have a question that is relevant to this conversation.

I have polished aluminum (bought that way form performancewheeloutlet.com) IROC wheels that hagve fallen into an eternal state of filthy, being that this is my only car and it is the middle of winter, I cannot get to them untilt he summer when I can temporarily fix up, put new tires on and mount my old wheels.

So... how do I clean and repolish these wheels? Any reccomended methods?

 

THEY ARE FILTHY EVER ?
are u sure they are not clearcoated ?
maybe thin clearcoated
bare aluminum does not filth ...at least mine
check my thread
hmmm just polish them !

 

I dunno, they might be clearcoated. I had always assumed they were bare. I will send an e-mail to the company and ask them. All I know is... I am gonna have a lot of work to do this summer to get them back into their former glory: