Can I strip the clear coat on my wheels?

ShineTimeDetail

ShineTimeDetail

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So I'm on my way to buy a gmc safari. It has aluminum wheels and I was considering stripping the clear and polishing them up. I don't plan on recoating them. Would an unsealed wheel be a bad thing? Would it just be like a polishable wheel from then on? This Def wouldn't be a service I'd offer just something for me.
 
I'm not sure an uncoated wheel would be a good thing. You going to use them in Winter? You going to use them by salt water? You take off the clearcoat and your going to be polishing them way more to get them to look good. Just my thoughts. Good luck.
 
ShineTimeDetail said:
So I'm on my way to buy a gmc safari. It has aluminum wheels and I was considering stripping the clear and polishing them up. I don't plan on recoating them. Would an unsealed wheel be a bad thing? Would it just be like a polishable wheel from then on? This Def wouldn't be a service I'd offer just something for me.
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Yeah, don't do that. You'll regret it.
 
You might want to have a back-up plan if you try. I tried cleaning the barrels on my wheels Sunday and after Sonax, Bug and Tar remover, mineral spirits, many brushes and steel wool they just wouldn't come clean. I didn't think the barrels were coated so I broke out a wire wheel. Well the second I hit it I knew they were and there was no turning back. After wire brushing they just didn't look right so Plan B. Paint, which I was thinking about anyway. I painted one and it looks great, glad I did it now. I'm doing a complete wheelwell detail including painting the calipers so when it's all done I will post some pics, might be a couple weeks before I'm done.
 
I've stripped clear coat off rims before. It's a HUGE pain to do. Unless the clear coat has completely failed and looks horrible...I would leave them be.
 
Kristopher1129 said:
I've stripped clear coat off rims before. It's a HUGE pain to do. Unless the clear coat has completely failed and looks horrible...I would leave them be.
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:iagree:

Huge pain: In order to remove some clear-coats the clear strippers could be in the same arena as an aircraft-grade one (like Tal-Strip II)--very strong and one must take precautions---followed by a lot of sanding/polishing.

When the clear-coat is failing or has failed: Then if you want to remove the clear-coating and polish 'em up, follow this up with a powder coated clear--you'll never have to worry about them again.

Leave them be: Unless the above has happened...or if you should want to follow another course. :)
 
i did it, and they turned out AMAZING!!

Failure beginning
Picture136.jpg


After stripping and polishing
Picture142.jpg
 
Well the wheels all look bad- They have what looks like stain marks all over them.
 
ShineTimeDetail said:
Well the wheels all look bad- They have what looks like stain marks all over them.
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Par for the course... clear coated aluminum wheels of that type are notorious for reacting with wheel weights that aren't clear coated themselves.

Honestly if you want a good result that will actually last (Superior_Details' results are awesome, but left un-coated that isn't likely to last unless it's a garage queen that is constantly maintained) just have the wheels refinished professionally.

You can find places that would charge you ~$100 per wheel and they would come back looking like brand new.
 
ShineTimeDetail said:
I'd just buy a set of after market wheels for that price.
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$400.00...That's an excellent price for a set of wheels!

But back to your original question. I knew there was a product we used to use; and, as a follow up on yet another product to strip the clear-coat:
Klean-Strip Peeler manufactured by W.M. Barr in Memphis, Tenn.

Just in case you are still interested. :)
 
You know I recently had billitt aluminum wheels on my mercury. Sure they were a job keeping them clean but as long as I kept them clean they looked great. Would this be like my billitts?
 
If you decide you want to strip the clear coat, these guys offer a great product:

Clear Coat Remover - $22.19 : Busch Enterprises, Headquarters for Premium Shine-Zone Products

Ted's products don't get much love on these forums, but he makes a good product. There are mobile refinishers that will come to you and refinish the rims. Quality depends on the skill of the operator.

Personally, I like non-coated, polished rims. Regular maintenance like polishing them once a month beats polishing them a couple times a year. I wouldn't though, run non-coated rims in thew winter in St Louis. The salt will give you plenty of headaches to polish away.
 
Searching brought me here. Pretty much having the same issues op was having with polish aluminum..im in miami, no harsh conditions here like salt & stuff just heat. Op, did u ever stripped it down to bare aluminum? If so how did you do it? Aircraft stripper? Also if you did, how was the maintenance after? Lots of polishing to maintain the bare aluminum?
 
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