Stripping, refinishing aluminum wheels.
 

I got a set of aluminum wheels from a 97 grand Cherokee, but the clear coat is in terrible shape and needs stripped off to refinish.

It seems that there is some very light pitting under the clear in spots but I think it won't be a problem.

I'm gonna get some aircraft stripper and get as mich of the clear and paint off as possible then....???????????

I don't know if I should attempt to lightly sand and polish the wheels or have them powder coated a very close metallic color and paint the inside of the holes black, then clear over everything.

Has anyone had the pleasure of going through this and if so, any advice?

citristrip. It's not as deadly as aircraft stripper and it works awesome. Depending on the surface finish you are going for, sanding them will cause them to cease to be shiny. If you are painting them it won't matter.

I stripped, sanded, painted and clear coated mine.

Scuff the clear coat lightly with 240 or higher sandpaper. This will let the stripper cut into the clear easier.
Plan on several applications of stripper to get all the clear and paint off.
Lightly sand, scrub, or polish the wheels to get the finish on the aluminum you want.
If the tires are off, clean up the bead as well.
Paint the wheels if you want/need and let dry completely (a couple of days).
Tape off the wheels and paint the inserts. Carefully remove the tape.
Clearcoat.

Enjoy the new look!

I've been thinking about doing mine a matte black and leaving the little bubble cap things silver, I was gonna clean em using a brush cup on a drill and then prime and paint em, does that sound right?

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Definitely leave the center caps silver i made the mistake of painting them. I simply scuffed primed n painted mine gloss black.

Sweet, how much did it run you?

If you get citristrip, you should only need 1 application. Citristrip is a gel and it sticks there. Come back an hour later and wipe it and the paint off.

I tried a spray can of Citri-Strip today and I liked the results much better than the aircraft remover.
It smelled better, and seemed to work just as well.

I got one wheel almost completely stripped and need to break out the sand paper for the stuff that won't come off.

I need to paint my wheels where do you buy citristrip at?

If all the stuff did not come off, then you need more than 1 application or you need to sand. Sanding is ok if you plan to paint or sand all of the wheel to match the finish. If you want to retain the original surface finish, hit it with stripper again and let it soak.

Here are my 10 holes after I did mine. I did it the hard way though. Lol. I wish I had thought about stripper. I used a wire wheel on an electric drill on the flat parts and in the holes I used a wire brush. It took forever but I think it turned out nice. Then I put a semi_gloss clear coat on. I wasn't going for polished, just uniform.

You can get it at walmart. I like the gel because it will stay where ever you put it.

ok thanks

Got mine at Ace hardware, and it's also at Lowes, and most likely home depot.

It's $5 less at walmart though. :P

I'd rather support ace, plus the cashiers are all hotties.:tongue_smilie::yes::tongue_smilie:

You got me there. lol

.:innocent:

If someone out there is going for a super shiny appearance, after stripping any clear, use some wet/dry sandpaper (with water) starting with 1000 grit, use opposing strokes (left to right, up/down, both diaganol planes) this will give a uniform scuff, then increase to 1200 grit, then 1400 grit. Get a good drill with a new buff pad and some polishing compound (green) be careful to not hit your metal with the drill, and polish to a high sheen. Clear coat after you reach your desired sheen, yes it is a LOT of work, but I have seen the results of several polishings over the years, and this method makes your metal look like mirrors. I have done it before, it does look good, but for that amount of work, you might as well just chrome it! Just thought I'd put it out there.....

Got a few progress pics.

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After I stripped them and scraped the crap off it was hard to get the paint off underneath the clear which came off easier so I applied some more stripper on the painted areas and scraped and used red scotch brite pads to get the tougher stuff off.

Steel wool also works well to get the small specs of clear off the wheel face but works better if the wheel is wiped dry.

Used some various sandpaper on the painted areas then used Mothers mag wheel polish with a the polishing cone mounted on my air die grinder to polish the wheels up.

You can see that only portions of the wheel is finished-still more work to do.

I am going to have the inner painted parts powder coated black with the face of the wheel polished, then clear over everything.

Like others have mentioned during the scraping/ sanding process you definitely ask yourself "What the hell am I doing?" but the end results will be sweet!

Those came out nice, here's my idiot question of the day, howd you get your tires off the rims? Also how are you going to get em back on? I'd like to paint my rims when there off and seperated but I hear the on and off part sucks to do by hand

Just tape them off if you don't want to pay someone to pull them off and put them back on. When you re-mount them they will have to be balanced again.

I got these wheels with no tires on to begin with.

These turned out really nice so far. I know what you mean about "What the hell was I thinking?!!!" :bangin:

Yeah definitely requires patience and tons of elbow grease but I love making ugly crap look nice.

Moved to chat. This is not a Advanced Technical topic.

I just saw a half gallon of Citristrip at Mardens for 11 bucks... probably should have picked that up.

Got the Canyons finished, well two of them.
 

Two down two to go.

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They are not perfect up close but should look pretty awesome on the Jeep.

I ended up using duplicolor etching primer, duplicolor semi gloss black and four coats of duplicolor clear,. Figured i would use the same brand for all stages so I think I will let them cure for a week or two before I put new tires on them and bolt them on the XJ.

Oh, I am doing the center caps in black too, they look better than in silver.

Turned out real nice, good job.

Thanks,

Here's a couple pics of the taping/painting process.

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Did you say these were off a grand Cherokee? I hope they are going back on a grand Cherokee because an XJ has a different lug pattern.

Finally got the wheels on.
 

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Some people hate white letter tires but my daughters wanted them faced out.
Cant argue with women.:icon_eek:

They fit fine.

nice job!

Depends on the year IIRC.

I made that mistake once on my wife's grand.

Get them lightly sand (or bead) blasted. Paint the insides gloss black, Don't even have to mask off the top surface Just concentrate on the inside. Get a buffer, and starting with a course grit, buff the top surface out. Moving on to a fine grit. Buff to a nice shine. Then a coat of clear.

Had to be there.

I'm sorry, they do look nice. There are companies around that do that professionally also. So you saved yourself about $125 apiece. But the pic of you masking them off. Did crack me up. I plan on doing mine one of these days.

Masking them off saved me from meticulously wiping paint off of the polished areas so all I had to do was remove the tape and my work was done.
The polished areas have very fine machine marks that the paint Would lay in. Then I would have to use solvent to remove all the over spray and risk weakening or thinning the paint on my painted areas.
Yeah, more work but less hassle after painting....just remove tape and you're done so it's extra work taping off the areas or extra work cleaning overspray and getting solvent in your paint....I weighed the options and thought taping was the more common sense solution since it has served me well with other restoration/ painting projects....I don't know...maybe I'm weird spending an extra 20 minutes on each wheel.