74-Roadster

My Dad has an Impala with his 1st set of custom wheels :cool: but some tire cleaner ate small spots of the clear coat and now they are patchy. We need to remove the rest of the clear coat on the outer rim and polish up any damage we induce from stripping the clear, any suggestions would be welcome before I grab the sandpaper.

Thanks! :cheers:

battsup

At work we just use wheel acid on all the wheels, how ever somebody sprayed the acid on rims of a brand new Liberty in the showroom and they clouded up.

BSeery

Eastwood makes some stuff to remove clear coat for wheels. I think it's even in some catalogs like Mid America and Corvette Central. Usually you can buy a kit of remover, polish and buffing materials all at once.

ImBatman

This may sound stupid but it works for stipping the CC off of motorcycle frames and wheels and want hurt the surface. Go to the grocery store and get you a couple of cans of Easy Off Oven cleaner. Spray it on and leave it till it turns yellow looking. Then spray it off. I have used this method many times with great success. Hope it will work for you.

Wade


[Modified by BlackRat, 3:19 PM 8/31/2003]

7T9Shark

FWIW, I used lacquer thinner I purchased at my local home center. Worked fine, also. Looks like you have several options.

Stock Man

I'll have to keep that little gem in the pantry. Lacquer thinner gets messy the oven cleaner sounds great if it doesn't hurt the aluminum underneath.

dman535

I need to do the girlfriends wheels on her Chrysler Sebring Convertible. They are painted with a clear coat. Will these solutions peel the paint off as well ?

74-Roadster

Thanks for all of the tips. I tried lacquer thinner, but it wouldn't cut the clear. Grabbed some 220 wet paper and slowly sand off the clear. Then had to hit it with 400, 800, 1000 and finally 1500 grit. Super smooth and polished back to a shine with Mother's. Each rim took ~ 60 minutes.

Keep in mind we were only working on the rim. If we had to do the whole wheel, I'd have the tires removed and soak the wheels in stripper. To do a whole wheel, you'd also need all of the polishing attachments for your dremel to get in all the nooks etc.

I've thought about doing that with my 16" Prelude SH wheels because they'd look sooooooo much better polished instead of the dull grey. But I have more important things to do with an entire weekend . . . and ya'll would probably call me a ricer! :lol: :lol: :lol: Don't worry, I like nice wheels but I have no plans to purchase any "FART PIPES"! :lolg: :lolg:

Thanks again, hope this helps anyone else considering similar work.