Remove the ClearCoat??

[johnnyb]

Hey,
one day when i was cleaining the wheels on my trans am, the clearcoat (im suspecting?) started to come off the one wheel with some scrubbing with a brush (i wasnt even scrubbing hard; it was coming off VERY easily). it was coming off fairly easily, but only a little bit came off before i stopped. however, i noticed that the part where the clearcoat came off appeared to be quite a bit more shinier than the rest of the wheel. i was wondering if i should just take all of the clearcoat off, and just wax/seal them regularly. or get it recleared, because the way it is now, it is very noticeable. THANKS!!

[truzoom]

It`s actually pretty common for people to remove the clearcoat off wheels and go for the polished look. I don`t really know if regular clearcoat can stand the conditions that a wheel goes through, but I`d honestly prefer to have my wheels clearcoated because it makes overall maintainence easier (aluminum). If you do want to strip them, it`s a simple process that only takes a few hours, or overnight at most.

[johnnyb]

what would i have to do to remove the rest of it then? thanks again

[truzoom]

I can`t recall exactly, but you`ll have to take the tires off the wheels or mask them off really well. Then you clean the wheels so that you can be sure to get the clearcoat off all spots, then use any metal-safe paint remover. I think you need to let it sit for a while, and you`ll be able to scrape it all off.

I`m sure someone else here has a proven procedure though.

[johnnyb]

i have been doing searches on google about this, and so far i have came up with using “aircraft striper”. i was wandering if this is correct or is there something specifically for removing clearcoat from wheels? would i be able to mask the tires off instead of taking them off the wheel? thanks

[truzoom]

I found this, http://www.thepontiactransampage.com/clear.html

Which seems to cover the `stripping the clearcoat off` part.

Are you going to re-clearcoat or polisH?

[Way2SSlow]

I found this, [url]Are you going to re-clearcoat or polisH?

I used the Aircraft stripper. DONT GET IT ON YOUR HANDS!!!!! :hot

If you`re planning on polishing, I`ll warn you ahead of time. It`s not worth the effort. I tried to strip and polish my stock Impala SS wheels. Big mistake!!! I ended up getting nowhere polishing them, so I painted them, and now I wish I had just left them alone. Best of luck to you if you do decide to polish them, but I would advice hitting camaroz28.com or ls1.com and trying to score a nice used set. HTH,

Wade

[Beemerboy]

Look for a pro polish company to do this. Polish aluminum is not easy if you are looking for a mirror finish requires various polish wheels spun at high speeds for heating up the product that they use.
I did my unpolished aluminum rims and had to buy a cotton bob and used with a high speed buffer, with Zephyr pro 40 metal polish. You can buy Zephyr threw PAC and it works well by hand or machine but its still a lot of work.
Again on removing the clear coat I would let that to the pro`s