Well guys i just bought an 82 and well the wheels werent taking care of and well now they are all dull and stuff but they dont have rust or any bad spots. ing

Now onto the question.

How do you repolish the wheels without taking it to someone and paying an arm and a leg to get them redone? thank you

Also we should make this a sticky if it takes off there aint no thread about this in the section.

 

What I did on my old 89 (had the 91/92 16 inch wheels) was...

1. Took aircraft paint stripper to the rims to remove the factory clear coat, let the clear "curl" up for a couple minutes and take a hose and rinse the clear off, comes off easily.

2. I then took 600 grit sandpaper and soapy water and sanded out any imperfections in the metal. May need to step down in grit for heavier scratches.

3. Now that the any light scratches are out, take 800 grit sandpaper and water to it followed by 1000, 1200, 1500, and then 2000 grit wet. This takes forever but its worth it. Figure 2-3 hours per wheel.

4. Then take some Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish to the wheel either by hand (takes awhile but it works) or with a Mothers Powerball and watch the metal shine up!

5. If you want to paint the inside of the spokes, mask off the wheel and paint the spokes.

Its pretty easy to do, just very very very time consuming, and your hand will have blisters and be sore for awhile, but the results are worth it. I will be doing this again on my factory 15 inch RS wheels (though not much to polish, should look nice)

 

For easy lip sanding & polishing, jack up the rear of your car, put it in Drive/1st & let the wheels spin at idle.

Then the wheel is doing all the moving, not your hand.

 

Just watch your fingers! Had someone do this and got a finger caught! But good idea though!

 

Yeah....The valve stem is the biggest problem.

Use a stick to hold the polishing cloth. If it gets hit & breaks, no big deal.

 

thank u now just gotta get them off and try it

i'v never heard of the use of airplane paint stripper but good idea
whats the price on the paint stripper?

 

Under $10 I believe at any parts store

 

If you do a there's a gazillion threads on this - just not in this section since this section is new.

 

I got a polishing kit from eastwood. Made my rims shine like they are chrome! Lots of work but worth the effort.

 

Has anyone done this with gta wheels? If the aircraft stripper got on the gold paint? Would it ruin it. . ?

 

If you consider the gold paint bubbling up & coming off , then yeah....It would ruin it!

 

wouldnt u just have to repaint the gold on them?

 

When it bubbles off, what else ya gonna do?

 

Ive done it on my black mesh rim using a spray can of paint remover. I just used a piece of cardboard cut in a circle to cover the black mesh, then the clear coat just came off the outer aluminum ring area.

 

Thanks for the input. That's actually a great idea. Did you do it with the wheels on your t/a?

 

i pulled a wheel at a time...just didnt want any overspray of paint remover near the car

 

But youre rubber was on the rim? So you just cut out a cardboard circle, sprayed on the clear coat remover, then just wet sanded them and they turned out nice?

 

found another good way i used a air die grinder with a wire tip and that sanded it up really nicely now just waiting to get the paint stripper for the inside of the spokes i'll tell you how it goes when i finish it all up before the paint

 

I did mine the same way and used the Eastwood kit. I think you''l notice a difference...... Here's a before (right) /after (left) shot.

 

now i have question for evryone who has done this i didnt read this first and spent 8 hrs of hand sanding the clear coat off cause my paint stripper sucked. lol now i know what to do for the others but was wondering if they need to be clear coated again???? or are they fine once polished?
i also stopped at 1000grit sand paper and mine look great after 3 applications of mothers.

 

Without a clear, you'll be cleaning & doing a quick polish a lot more often. Without a clear, you'll only want to clean, not re-polish.

 

is there a particular product i should use to clear???
or a particular process?

 

I recommend using a quality clear coat. I used this stuff from POR 15: http://www.por15.com/GLISTEN-PC/productinfo/GPCGG/

It was a little tricky brushing it on because it dries rather quickly but it is rock solid when it does dry.

 

did you use the ap120 metal prep it talks about and how much did it take to do all the rims? a quart or pint??

 

The prep came with it if I remember correctly, I think it was a kit. I used the pint for all 4 wheels. They turned out ok, not show quality because I tried to brush over areas that I thought I missed and it caused waves, which can't be seen at some angles. It is like brushing on water, hard to see what areas you've covered

 

ty that sounds good. will try to find somethin local so i dont have to wait but if i cant will definitle order that stuff. thanks again

 

well i couldnt find anything local so will be ordering that stuff lonesomeloser suggested. i cant wait. oh and finally located a can of aircraft stripper so hopefully will have the other three rims done in the same amount of time as the first one took thank you everyone

 

Good luck! And don't use a cheap brush because the bristles will pull out.

 

well i used the pc glisten and it doesnt look the greatest. i did use the prep too. does this need to be sanded? and if so where should i start?

 

What do you mean? Uneven?

 

there are runs and some spots that didnt take the clear. can this be wet sanded with like 800 to get the runs out?

 

Hey did you ever get around to sanding those rims coated in the glisten pc and re-coating them? I'm using it and I HATE the way the finish came out. The brush makes it look terrible...if I could do it again I'd definitely spray it on.

 

yeah but sanding just ruins the finish. i ended up stripping it off and just going unprotected and every 3-5 months i repolish with mothers and use carnuba wax after. i dont drive my car much but it does sit outside all year round and they dont look bad.

 

Did you have to do a hardcore re-polish after you stripped the clear off or were they still pretty good and just need a touch-up?

 

no it wasnt nothing major to re do just use stripper to take off and not sand paper.