painted aluminum to polished question,,,,hey DV!!!!!!!

[thabomb180]

I want to change my stock painted aluminum wheels to polished wheels but i can't find the aircraft remover anywhere!!! is there anything else i could use instead of aircraft remover???

[hockeyman]

I remember reading the progress that DV was making on his rims, and I liked the results!
I went looking for that aircraft stuff too, but couldn't find any. Someone told me that Lowes sells it, but I haven't gotten up there yet to see.

-Marc

[Camaro_SLP]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by hockeyman:
I remember reading the progress that DV was making on his rims, and I liked the results!
I went looking for that aircraft stuff too, but couldn't find any. Someone told me that Lowes sells it, but I haven't gotten up there yet to see.
<hr></blockquote>

Hey Marc, did you ever get those TA rims you got for cheap put on?

[hockeyman]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Camaro_SLP:


Hey Marc, did you ever get those TA rims you got for cheap put on?<hr></blockquote>

Nope, not yet...BUT!!!...I have just gotten approval to buy new tires for them :D :D :D
It took me 3 (romantic...yuk) dinner dates, a trip to Old Navy, and a gold bracelet for her to give me the go-ahead. I shouldn't have said anything to her and spent all of that money on my tires, but I had to be a dork and leave one of the rims in the living room for her to see :mad:

-Marc

[CamaroL32]

I picked up my aircraft paint remover at walmart. Its in an airesol can in the auto body work section.

[Domestic Violence]

here is my progress...









polishing the wheels is a mofo and a half. since it hasn't been less than 98 degrees here in the last month, i changed my mind for a while. i repainted them and to be quite honest, it looks pretty f'ing good. i wish i had the time and the weather to finish polishing them, but it's just been way too hot to do anything. i think i sweat 100 gallons just polishing these wheels in 100+ degree weather. they were looking pretty good though. the hard part is getting the pores out of the aluminum and cutting through the primer. if you're able to remove the tire, i'd recommend that and then using the stripper to entirely remove the paint.

this is what they looked like before i repainted them...

[Loochy88]

Dv, i think its awesome that you tried that out. but in the end, i just think its more practical to spend the money to get them polished. Its awesome that you tried it our yourself though. it looked great from the pics.

[Domestic Violence]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Loochy88:
i just think its more practical to spend the money to get them polished. <hr></blockquote>

for less than $200, you can usually get chrome wheels which wouldn't justify the cost of having them professionally done. it just takes a LOT of time to do it. once you get the pores out, it smooths out really well. i talked to my sister's boyfriend. he used to work for a shop that did some wheel polishing. he said that even for them, it was very tedious work and they charged quite a bit to do it.

[thabomb180]

alright, well im gonna try it, i can always paint them if it gets to be a big pita!!!..

one more question to DV again..

how many aerosol cans do you think i would need to strip down all 4 wheels???

and

how many pieces of sandpaper did you use on each wheel??

im just tryin to get a estimate of how much to buy.

[hockeyman]

Hey DV, the first couple of pics almost look like black powdercoated rims. Did they turn out that way or is it just the way the camera took the photo?
I like the black powdercoated look! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

-Marc

[Domestic Violence]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by hockeyman:
Hey DV, the first couple of pics almost look like black powdercoated rims. Did they turn out that way or is it just the way the camera took the photo?
I like the black powdercoated look! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

-Marc<hr></blockquote>

that's 2 coats of primer, 5 coats of graphite duplicolor wheel paint, and 3 coats of clear. it isn't as shiney as it could be. i didn't clean off the brake dust when i took these pictures.

i went through about 20 full sheets of sandpaper. i also used some dremel bits, but the best things i found were bits for my drill. some were wire and a few were sanding wheels. they worked really good.

the aircraft stripper was the only thing i found that would work good enough to pull it all off. the primer desperately wants to stay on the wheel. what i used was not aerosol. i bought it at an o'reilly's auto parts store. i'd be afraid to use an aerosol remover. i did not remove my tires and it was pretty difficult keeping it off the tires without it being aerosol.

if you find you can't continue, duplicolor makes a silver wheel paint that should match what we already have.



[ July 27, 2003: Message edited by: Domestic Violence ]</p>

[thabomb180]

Hey DV, i should've listened when i heard this was a PITA!!!!!! now i have 1 wheel with the clear and primer stripped and 1 wheel with just the clear coat stripped. You can probably see where im going with this and i'm just going to paint the wheels because i cant get anything out of the pores in the aluminum.

Anyway, DV, how did you go about painting your wheels? I want to paint them gunmetal if possible.