88blkiroc

Im looking for a way to totally clean everything off of my original IROC rims so that I can polish them over the winter. I used paint stripper on two of the wheels and it got most of the clean coat off but not all so I used a wire brush wheel on a drill to remove the clear from the spokes. Tried to use it to remove the paint from the other parts but it was taking forever so I got the tires off the rims. I was planning on having the shop that does the machine work for my dads shop just bake the wheels in their parts cleaner to get them totally cleaned off and ready to polish. Will this work or will it damage the rims. If that will damage the rims how about media (plastic beads) blasting them??? I want to get all the dirt and other 14 years of crud off the wheels. I figure that you can bake an aluminum block and heads so you could do the same with the rims. I know they arent the same material but they have to be a decently strong alloy to be used as wheels. I just wana make sure baking them wont make them brittle or something. Thanx for the info.

88blkiroc

anyone???

Matt

try air plane stripper. You should be able to find it at walmart or some autoparts stores. Its around 20 bucks i think but not sure. This is heavy duty stuff so remove the tires if you havnt already. I believe you just apply to stripper to the wheels lets sit for a few minutes then hose it off, just make sure you get it all off or it will start to eat at the wheel. Hope this helps.
Matt

Steve89GTA

Just don't blast them with anything if you intend to polish them.

88blkiroc

I already used the aircraft stripper and it barely made a dent in the clear coat and didnt remove any of the paint. Plus its messy and a pain in the butt. I may try Mar-Hyde paint remover if I cant blast them or bake them. That stuff took the paint off my Jeep like it was going out of style.


Anyway, why shouldnt I blast the rims Steve? Do have any experiance with media blasting rims or just blasting in general. When I was rebuilding my Jeep I sand blasted a lot of it and it never really did anything to the metal aside from remove the paint. Media blasting is supposed to be a lot gentler on metal then regular sand blasting and I dont think it would really leave any major marks. I used a wire wheel on a drill to remove the clear off of one of the rims. I did the whole polishing routine on one of the spokes on that rim and it came out perfectly polished so you can pretty much remove any scratches a wire wheel will put in the rim. I would assume any minimal marks the media blasting might leave will also be removed by the polishing process.

Just to explain the polish procedure that im doing. Dry sand with 250, wet with 320, wet with 400, buff (hard wheel) with tripoli, and buff (soft wheel) with white rouge. The test spoke came out like a mirror.

Anyone have opinions about baking the rims?

88blkiroc

ttt

bnoon

Media blasting is perfect for removing paint/clear coat from rims. I've got a blasting cabinet big enough to crawl into and take a nap and have prepped several sets of rims for powder coating or polishing.

Ions91Z28

I'm with Bnoon on this one, I also have a blaster big enough to crawl into and sleep. I'm blasting a set of mustang wheels right now, and my old wheels as well. It works excellent for old paint removal and clear coat removal.

I would try to weaken it the best you can with paint remover, as blasting depending on how strong the clear is, can take a little while.

88blkiroc

thanks guys

johnsjj2

On a side note, don't use a steel wire brush, or wheel on aluminum. The carbon from the steel will transfer to the aluminum wheel. This will lead to other problems, such as porosity, and an uneven look while polishing. A stainless steel brush, or wheel is better suited for aluminum. It doesn't have carbon in it.