Just picked up an '82 Z28 and the stock alloy wheels are looking a little tired. Clear coat has worn off much (but not all) of the wheels. I read a lot of posts on this site about using aircraft stripper to remove the clearcoat so I can clean and reapply the clear, but apparently this was much more effective before the EPA banned the methylene chloride that made this stuff work. Whatever they replaced it with is pretty ineffective. Following the directions, the first application took me about 2 hours for the set of 4 and it took off very little of the clear and made a mess. I don't want to have to do this 3 or 4 more times. How are people doing this in the post-methylene chloride era?

Should I just have the wheels carefully blasted? I do not want to paint or powdercoat them - just reapply a few coats of clear. Thanks...

 

I used this on my Z28 wheels. It worked pretty good. You might have to spray it on a couple times but most of the clear wiped right off for me.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I ended up using some brass wire wheels on my cordless drill along with the stripper and the combo of chemical and mechanical removal did the trick. I was quoted $50 per wheel to media blast. Took me less than an hour per wheel with my method, so not too bad.

 

Aircraft paint stripper from Home Depot
Brush it on, hose/use a sponge to remove it
If you use an abrasive to get the gunk off it may leave fine scratches, clear wont cover it up
Wear gloves take your time& have em powdercoated they will look like new.