I have some rims i got from a rummage sale i was thinking of putting on the trans am but one of them has been polished and the rest are painted or powder coated with a sparkly grey like paint..... and maybe a clear coat but its pretty tough and thick stuff! i tried some cheap paint stripper and got nothing.... didnt even soften up the clear coat, should i just sand blast them then spend the time sanding smooth with a 400 grit and polishing or use a better paint stripper ? ive used some aircraft aluminum paint stripper on another set of rims and it worked good and i just had to use mothers alum polish on them to make them almost mirror like but i cant find that paint stripper any where. any ideas on what would work the best? maybe tommorow i can throw a few pics on of the one that is polished and the rest of the ones with the super invincable paint.

 

also its no trouble to sand blast because i use one daily at work ill just have to be careful on the aluminum cause its softer if i do do that.

 

I use is Heavy duty furnature stripper from walmart i think someone like circa makes it or something. Its super thick and lays there good to soften it up good. But some aftermarket wheel coating i found to be kinda rubbery not come off that well...ive only ran into this with a set of ***** type wheels. All the factory gm wheels ive used it on works great. I also use good coarse steel wool to srub.

If its powder coated im not sure if stipper even works for that??

And about blasting alum yes its not too bad but it does leave deep pits that are hard as he11 to sand out...400 alone wont do it. Bacicly it will give you even more work to do in the end.

 

Find some aircraft paint remover, every autozone, oreilly's, advanced auto...etc. should carry it.

 

i used aircraft stripper on it and all it did was make it really dull. i did it a few times too on one rim it did somwhat soften it up though to the point of where i can sand blast pretty easily but i did a test spot on the back of the rim and WOW shes not pretty it pits way too much where the paint comes off first and its really hard to work the rest off. i have a few more thoughts before i just paint them black and sell them or slap them on my car to see how they look, i was gunna try one of those paint stripper disks that you put on a drill or grinder its kinda like a sponge that is some what corse i think it was around a 250 grit the rims dont have to many details invovled in them though so it could be easy. or i was thinking of a boilout but i know most caustics melt aluminum faster then it takes paint off does any one know of a caustic material that wont harm aluminum? and could this be a powder coated rim? and the cause of all my frustration?

oh yeah also one rim was polished then painted over so the aircraft stripper worked perfect on it on the first try paint pretty much fell off!

 

i wonder could you use a paint removing heat gun on it to remove the paint,,,or burn it off with propane torch w/o warping the rim or something??? something to look into....but i bet the heavy duty furnature stripper would work. If your dulling the paint then its not worrkin good.. how long are you letting the stuff sit on there....i do is just cake the stuff on and let it sit the more its caked on the better it works then i let it sit for 5min then i cake on more...then wait and its usually pulling off the rim on its own...then i srub with steel wool.