mattw
Active member
I decided to take a stab at re-clearing my stock rims and I'm quite happy with how they are turning out. I thought I'd share the process I followed in case anyone else is interested in doing it..
I started by cleaning the back side of the rims. I used wire brushes followed up with some paint thinner..
The next step was to strip the clear. I first tried an aerosol can of Rustoleum paint remover and it didn't work at all. Then I remembered that I had an old can of Aircraft paint stripper and I decided to give that a shot. It worked perfectly. You basically just paint it on liberally, give it about 15 minutes and then power-wash it off..
I did have to take a small wire brush and scrub the inserts.. The old clear really hangs on in those areas:
After the clear was all stripped off the rim had some stains left in it.. To remove those I used a wire brush on a drill and always kept it in the same direction as the machined lines..
I spent as much time as needed to remove the stains then I lightly wire brushed the entire surface while rotating the rim in a tire machine. I basically ran the brush from the outside edge toward the center as the rim rotated in the machine..
The centercaps I had to put in the lathe to match that swirl pattern:
I then used a 3M pad and repeated the same process:
I was quite happy with how the rim looked but the center cap not so much. I ended up having to put that in the lathe to spin it quicker. As it spun I ran the 3M pad over it and it eventually did clean up and look nice.
This is how the rim looked just before clear.
Before spraying the clear I wiped it down with wax and grease remover then a cheese cloth to remove any dust..
I decided to try cheap and readily available aerosol clearcoat:
I followed the directions on the can putting down 2 thin coats then a 3rd heavy coat.. I waited 10 minutes between each coat..
I'm quite happy with how it turned out..
Here it is on the right compared to an original rim on the left:
I stripped my remaining 3 wheels today and hope to clean them up and clear them tomorrow.
I started by cleaning the back side of the rims. I used wire brushes followed up with some paint thinner..
The next step was to strip the clear. I first tried an aerosol can of Rustoleum paint remover and it didn't work at all. Then I remembered that I had an old can of Aircraft paint stripper and I decided to give that a shot. It worked perfectly. You basically just paint it on liberally, give it about 15 minutes and then power-wash it off..
I did have to take a small wire brush and scrub the inserts.. The old clear really hangs on in those areas:
After the clear was all stripped off the rim had some stains left in it.. To remove those I used a wire brush on a drill and always kept it in the same direction as the machined lines..
I spent as much time as needed to remove the stains then I lightly wire brushed the entire surface while rotating the rim in a tire machine. I basically ran the brush from the outside edge toward the center as the rim rotated in the machine..
The centercaps I had to put in the lathe to match that swirl pattern:
I then used a 3M pad and repeated the same process:
I was quite happy with how the rim looked but the center cap not so much. I ended up having to put that in the lathe to spin it quicker. As it spun I ran the 3M pad over it and it eventually did clean up and look nice.
This is how the rim looked just before clear.
Before spraying the clear I wiped it down with wax and grease remover then a cheese cloth to remove any dust..
I decided to try cheap and readily available aerosol clearcoat:
I followed the directions on the can putting down 2 thin coats then a 3rd heavy coat.. I waited 10 minutes between each coat..
I'm quite happy with how it turned out..
Here it is on the right compared to an original rim on the left:
I stripped my remaining 3 wheels today and hope to clean them up and clear them tomorrow.
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