These rims came off a 89 GTA that was highway driven since new and never washed .Being in canada this horribly tarnished the rims. I decided to try and restore them and here is the results.

Materials needed/price

Aircraft stripper (jug) $30
Cheapo paint brush $1
1 bag of very fine steel wool $2
plastic scraper $1.50
Masking tape ,free
rags,free


I wanted to save the gold centers as they clean up nice when washed. I did all this in my apartment buildings parking lot with no access to a hose. I brought out a bucket of water. Mask all areas off! Basicly you spread a coat of the air craft stripper and you immediatley start seeing the clear coat melt off. I used 2 coats to be safe. After that I washed the area off with a wet rag then scrapped the bubbled clear coat off. Most of the areas on my rims had corroded past the clear coat and heavily into the aluminum. From here on its polish away all bad areas with steel wool. This was no easy task. Two rims took me the better part of the afternoon and my hands are killing me lol. After you are finished ang get the desired amount of corrosion off wash ,dry and use mothers aluminum polish on the area. I did two coats!


Now for pics I vgot one side of the car done so its mixed front and rear pics


Before:



Now:

(stripping process)


After a good polish:

 

omg makeover!!!

 

Totally awesome job!! Now I really want to do mine.

 

Wow, great job!!

 

thats cool man!!. will that work on wheels with paint on them like Z28 wheels?

 

Looks great! Where did you get your aircraft stripper from?

 

 

Yep I don't see why not. I had to mask off my gold centers well so the stuff would not eat through the paint. You can get the stuff at NAPA they sell a large jug for about $45-50 canadian. I got the same stuff at a body shop place for $30. You wont even use half of the jug for 4 rims. I will snap a pic of the stuff I used.

Thanks for the comments.

 

Wow, my camaro rims look kinda like yours used to, i guess ill have to look into that, those look great. How long did it take you to get it all done?

 

I did 2 in about 5 hours (in the sun) lol so that wore me out. I did the others today in about 4 1/2. A little tip you can sand away deep pits with 600 grit wet sandpaper. After you get them out polish the area with the fine steel wool. I got mine from home depot the finest wool they had. Forgot to grab a pic of the stripper but I will tommorow. Another pic

 

Man that looks sharp!
Did you clear coat them afterwards?
I am going to have to do that to the insides of my IROC rims now....

 

So i guess this is a weekend kinda thing huh? Guess ill have to wait another few days before i cant start mine. Once again those look great man, nice job.

 

YEP definatley leave the weekend open so you have plenty of time to do this. It is allot of work. I did it all by hand no machines. So all surfaces are even and nothing is "overdone". Once its all said and done you will be happy with the results! If anyone gets into it and runs into anything drop me a line and I can help.

Nope they are now polished aluminum. I used 2 coats of mothers polish available at most auto or department stores. No clearcoat is ok. Some rims comes factory with polished aluminum.

Here is another item that helps get the job done on a hot day!




Thanks for the comments!

 

A+ thread.

I would recommend this one for a sticky if the GTA rims were more popular than they are already. I'll be using these instructions soon.

 

Sleeman? how about Killians?

 

Awesome work Gnarley!



^ Sleeman, ehh?

 

Looks good, this motivates me to go do mine now.

 

looks great

 

how did u mask off the tires? ive also been wanting to do this, but i thought i had to remove the tires, and thats a big pain in the a**.