aegea

Has anyone used aircraft stripper to take off paint down to the bare aluminum alloy on our wheels? Or is there a better way to paint wheels?

See the attachments. After one coat and scraping, I only got down to the aluminum in a small spot. Some yoyo painted the wheels so some spots of paint peeled right off at the high pressure car wash. The original paint looks to have a white primer base. The instructions say to apply a heavy coat. Perhaps I got the coat too light. I applied a second coat of stripper in the second photo. It is looking like I may spend many hours on one wheel with this method.

hhagens

Sand blast or take them to a chrome or metal polishing shop the will put them in a acid bath… or you can try Lacquer thinner

cdk4219

No methylene, no strip the paint. Even with the old stuff, this is an arduous task, I have done this many times, never with the tires on. If you are looking for a quality finish, it’s going to be difficult to get there with tires on and these methods you are trying. Get them done at a specialist.

aegea

Thanks guys. I tried Jasco with better results. It looks like it should take about 10 applications and scraping to get to bare aluminum... arduous, and probably not worth it. I have more time than money. So, it looks like some careful sanding might produce a paintable surface. We'll see if I can feather in some paint to the aluminum.

Hary Gahtoe

“We'll see if I can feather in some paint to the aluminum.”
All that nice work and time will be wasted. I’ve seen some unflattering results of that. Feathering down to bare Aluminum shows up real bad. Regardless of the detail. It has to be all or nothing.
The annoying thing is anything less than professional commercial clear coating will degrade within a year or better yet a clear powder coating.

aegea

Good advice... Rust-oleum Aircraft Remover is working with multiple applications. So, I'll take it down to bare metal... no feathering. I will use professional clear coat and reducer from a body shop supplier. Someone said he used aluminum buffing compound. Does anyone recommend a buffing compound and methodology?

Hary Gahtoe

Be careful covering polished Aluminum. Most “automotive paint” clear coatings don’t adhere well to polished Aluminum.
Research it before buying anything.
A suggestion; look into vapor blasting. Coatings either a clear epoxy or clear powder coating will look great and last years