W.T.H was I thinking, grabbing, and assortment of emery cloth, red scotch brite pad, and some mothers, I proceded to hand polish and buff my rims,
well lets just say the clear coat, is a **** to get through to put it nicely, 120 grit, finally made the clear coat agree to move, so far so good i thought,
an hour or so later (I wasnt watching my watch so I might have lost track of time, while having so much fun) im still removing clear coat from the outer ring, and in between the spokes,
then I start sanding all the scratches I put into the rim removing the clear coat, well lets just say, the sun set on me during this process,
so I wake up today, determined to spend a few hours finishing up the rim,
after countless times of sanding polishing, and resanding and looking at the rim from diffrent angles, till i was satisfied, I finally got to apply a coat of mothers, now again, I lost track of time, the sun was setting, the rim was finally ******* shining, my hands were black, my back hurt, I got one rim done, 3 more to go,
if anyone wants to see a pic, i will post it 2mro, and to anyone thinking of taking this approach, of hand sanding, and polishing your rims, THINK HARD and LONG,
it is worth it in the long run, but have a few days, and do one side of the car at a time, (front back drivers side, or front back passenger side)

 

do you have the Z28 style wheels?

 

To be honest, I'm not sure, if it was a 67-72 chevy truck i could tell what was what, but for camaro's im a newbie, last one I had was a 78 type lt,

 

ok, um did you consider household abrasives such as simple green or just running water to act as a lubricant so you get a nice smooth finish. I got some nice rims out of the junkyard and i'll have to post the befor and after pics cuz it only took me one day to do these and they were NASTY and i did manage to take off the clear coat. i used muriatic acid and it worked in less than 1 hr. However i didnt think of using it till i got to my 4th rim

-thought id put in my two cents worth

 

I bought some paint stripper for metel surfaces at true value hardware! Only two applications (brush on, wait 10 min. and hose off) and ALL the clearcoat was gone! Don't wear that arm out, save it for polishing!

 

whats then product name?

It took me about 4 different prodducts some sand paper(scrated one wheel decided to try paint stripper) and their is still clear coat on my wheels, My question is the wheel I scratched with sand paper If I wet sand it with 2000 grit could it ever be the same as before?

 

The product is SAVOGRAN Heavy Duty Superstrip. You brush it on and wait 10-15 min. and hose it off with a spray nozzel on the garden hose! It takes all the clearcoat off with no more than 2 applications. I got a quart for 12 bucks I think but, it'll do 4 wheels easy. The stuff is gelled a little so it sticks to the wheel and works fast! If you want to remove any paint like I did between the spokes, it will take about 2 qts to get it all. (4 wheels). Just make sure that you let the wheel dry between applications. I had a few light scratches and got rid of them with an SOS soap pad and water. I polished the area I did with the pad with mothers each time I got done working on the scratches untill the area started to shine like the rest of the rim. Use the pad in the same direction as the machine marks if there is any.
The superstrip works so good I could strip 4 wheels of clearcoat in a little more than an hour. Why anyone would want to sand rims when you can hose it off has never seen it work!
Did I mention I bought it at True Value Hardware?

 

This stuff will eat the clearcoat off in about 15 minutes. I bought it at a hardware store.

 

im still doing it all with sand paper, down to 1200 grit, partially, so I can smooth it,
then i got a dyco pad, and some tripoli compund, and some mr buffer polish,(it smokes mothers), and have been getting good results, almost done with the drivers side

 

The pic on top is the rims as I started pretty dirty on the backside!
Middle is after the acid cleaner it took about 30 min. to clean them.
bottom is after 4 coats of stripper and a little mothers, and I mean a LITTLE!
the first coat took 99% of the clearcoat off and about 60% of the paint between the spokes.
The next set of pic's is after install. I tried to talk the truck driver into trading key's but he wanted to keep his job he said that if he decides to quit, he would look me up!

 

after spending a few hours with a buddy in Okc, who does metal polishing for a living, I learned alot, the clear coat is a real ****, sanding it, gets you that much closer to smoothing the wheel, then work it down to 1000 grit, then start with a dyco pad, and tripoli compond, (I found a kit with the pads, felt bobs, and compunds, at a local tool wholesale shop) ,
now I did find using a 120 grit sanding flap wheel, works great in getting the clear cot off, and the mill marks, just work slowly, and apply light pressure, I used a reg hand drill for all of this,
I quit using mothers polish, and switched to Mr Buffer polish, it uses a parafin wax, and to me it does better then mothers, and has a harder coating then mothers,