what and where can i get stuff to strip clearcoat off aluminum iroc wheels?

 

WalMart automotive paint section. It's called aircraft stripper. Get the brush on type not the spray can.

 

I used the aircraft stripper also it worked great i got it from auto zone. ( it was closer) you don't need much.

 

I used that stuff, but it only removes the clearcoat. The paint does not come off. How long do you guys let it sit? I waited half an hour with no effect.

 

how do u get the paint and everything off to the bare aluminum

 

Wouldn't a wire brush do the same effect? I mean, you have to sand it anyways. I used the Aircraft paint remover, and though it worked somewhat, it was a pain in my opinion.

 

I let it sit for about an hour to bubble up good then I sandblasted it off. Gotta love air tools!!!!

 

I used klean strip from home depot and it took no more then 5 minutes before I saw the bubbles cracking the clear coat and the paint off. This stuff I used is like 30 times weaker then air craft. You know air craft is made to strip paint off of jets, you know the hard enamel that doesn’t fade when you flying 300mph thousands of feet in the air. It took me two cans of my stuff to get it all off and it was a gummy mess. Btw that stuff burns the krap out of your hand. I must have burned myself 10 times or more all together ha! Hey my Dad has been working in the auto body business for 30 some years and he said back in the day when they didn’t make some paint stripper illegal. Some employee was stripping the paint from and he didn’t know some of it was dripping on the tire but soon enough that tire bubbled up and Fking exploded! Ha! came out of his paycheck. Hell there was some stripper that if you let it drip on the cement it would make a small hole or dent. NO think about it some of this stuff was seriously acid based and I'm pretty sure everyone knows the power of sulfuric acid. Well you dont have to worry about blowing a tire out or getting serious chemical burns because they don’t make it anymore. Unless you can talk a body man into selling you some of his stash

 

use it to remove all the clearcoat, scrape down the rims with a plastic scraper, hose them off and do another coat of the remover. Then the basecoat will start peeling. ~4 coats and i got 99% of the paint off the rims i stripped

 

I used the Aircraft Stripper on my wheels, too. Worked great but took me several applications because it was hard to brush it on all the little turbine vanes... Pics on my website below (it's the March '02 update).
Rob

 

When I did my wheels, I started out with the arosol spray stuff. That had about 80-90% of the clear off 2 wheels per can in 30 minutes. Then I went over each wheel completely with the aircraft stripper. Let that sit for 10-15 minutes. Don't sit too long or the stripper evaporates and the paint re-adhears to the wheel. Repeat as need in locations of teh wheel that have paint on it.

To remove the paint and stripper, I used a pressure washer. That way it would clean and remove paint. I was able to actually blast half teh paint off the wheels instead of using the stripper. After I sprayed it down with the water, I would give it a blast with the air compressor. Then let sit direct sun for 5-10 minutes.

Using the water makes the whole process a little longer, due to drying, but it sure cuts down on the amount of stipper you use. I think I only went through 1 stripper arosol can and half a canof aircraft stripper for 2 wheels. I have pisc of the finished product on my website. They don't look too bad. For about $30 worth of supplies for 2 wheels.. and countless hours of hand sanding/polishing.
The pics are under the section of my site 'my car's system'
Tyler

 

I used the Aircraft stripper as well. Let stand for 15 min., then took the wheel to a car wash and sprayed off with hot soapy water. It took a couple of times to get all the pait off.
The car wash is only 30 paces for my house, so it was kind of convienent for me.
Oh, and wear some kind of gloves, and eye protection when spraying them off with 1600 psi of water. Trust me it burns.

 

I also had good luck with the wal-mart brush on stripper. Just brush it on one coat not back and forth.Wait 10 minutes and I pressure washed it off. If you need to do it a second time dry the wheel off first.Water neutralizes the stripper. AND WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION.

 

ok, after u do all that, does it take it to the bare aluminum, and make them look really shiny or do u got to sand them down or anything

 

Sanding and polishing will bring it to this. Depending upon the amount of sanding and polishing you do. I have pics at the bottom of the page here.
wheels

It's not a very good pic. The wheels would be a lot more shiny had I clearcoated them correctly. I got the clear-coat on a little dry, so it clouded it up a little. But that is what the wheels will look like when I'm done. I only have 2 wheels done at teh moment. I should have the other 2 done this summer.

Tyler