Has anyone here had aluminum wheels media blasted before? If so, what media, soda blasting? I would think a lot of media would leave a grainy texture and make it that much more difficult to polish etc afterwards. I am back to thinking about this after my experience tonight with stripping them.

I heard from some and read a lot about Marhyde's "Tal Strip 2 Aircraft coating remover" and apparently it is the cats *** when it comes to stripping paint from aluminum, but after an application tonight on 2 wheels, much much much scraping, they are still all covered in grey paint! It did definitely take some paint off but really only a skim. Ultimately it is going to probably take multiple applications and A LOT of time.

Will soda blasting just take the paint and not marr the surface?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

subscribed im having the same problem on some 4th gen salad shooter wheels

 

I know that almost every medium used by blasting will remove the fine "machined" finish resulting in a shiny glossier wheel, not a wheel restored to original appearance. For those who don't mind that, the new look is sometimes better than the old finish. Also some have tried acid dipping but this can severely pit the soft aluminum.

Have you already checked out the ThirdGen tech board?
https://www.thirdgen.org/wheels

 

Yes i have, thanks. THere is a second article for rims too and he used the same stripper. He said apparently the aerosol is not as strong so i may try from a can and see if that works any easier.

 

use a can and have some patience. I started mine and need to order a small buffing kit my big buffer is kind of akward on rims. This took 3 coats to get all the paint and clear off. (1st is how it started) (2nd is with the paint and clear removed) 3rd is ready to ready to polish this took me about 45 minutes.

 

some of that water soluable paint stripper would work good.

did some motorcycle mags and polished em up with fine scotch brite and 2000 grit emery cloth and all the machined surfaces came out like a mirror.

 

I'm having a set of single stripe IROC wheels blasted with dry ice beads.

 

Yeah... I read about that. Supposedly, it can be so gentle they even use it to restore antique books and stuff like that. Let us know how it turns out.

I have a hand held blaster and some soda, but have not yet gotten around to really trying it out. I think I need a smaller nozzle for the blaster...

There's also plastic abrasive... I wonder how that would work...

 

if you really insist on blasting I would probably go with ground walnut shells. If you are planning on polishing I wouldn't blast them at all though it makes more work for you. I only blast them if you are just refinishing to get the original look.