These rims were in really bad shape with very deep pits. I used paint stripper to get what was left of the clear off and the black paint (PO had painted over the gold with black). The before pic does not do justice to how bad these rims were (filth is hiding the condition).

I tried a bunch of different strippers on the gold and none of them would really touch it (aircraft, all kinds). So I ended up blasting them with crushed glass. I painted the centre with duplocolor silver rim paint. They are going on my 82 Camaro with silver ground effects BTW... They were a bugger to paint with all the different angles.

I used a wire wheel on the back side to clean it up.

The lip I hand sanded, they were so bad I had to start with 120 grit! Worked my way through 120-220-320-400-600 and then I went after any scratches I could still see with 2000. I hand polished them afterwards with aluminum polish.

I could get them shinier with a buffing wheel but for now I like the more satin finish (more business-less flash).

 

One ore pi

 

They Came Out Good

 

Great work! How much time did that take you?

 

Way too much linear time (months), but there was some experimenting and lots of no progress weeks.... If I had to do it again, I am sure I could get them done in about 10 hours of work, with a better compressor it would be a little faster yet. Blasting took the most time.

The sanding took about 2 hours per rim (and I did two per night). I did this over two nights about a week apart because after four hours my fingers were bleeding pretty good!

 

I know the feeling. My gf always gives me crap about having softer hands than her after color sanding

 

Your results look great!

Those will awesome on your Camaro.

 

Looks good! Always did love those wheels, but I can only imagine the work keeping em clean, much less refinishing as you just did.