Refinishing OEM wheels

[NARDA1]

Has anyone tried refinishing their OEM wheels. The clear coat on my wheels needs to be redone and was wondering if anyone else has done this and what products they used. Do I need to strip the clear coat off or can I just scuff and recoat?

[bartonjude]

Man, I'd like to know too, I have two of my aluminum rims that are in need of refinishing too.

[pm26]

Same here. One of my wheels looks a lot worse than the olther three. From what I heard, the best way is to bead blast the wheels to remove the old clearcoat and any corrosion underneath, then buff and reclear. I am thinking also about just blasting the wheels wtih aluminum oxide to roughen the surface and painting them silver. This will eliminate any clearcoat pitting issues. Painted cast alloy wheels do not have these problems.

 

There are outfits which specialize in alloy wheel repair and refinishing. Some even provide mobile service. I will check into that and see how much they charge per wheel. Should not be that bad if all they needs is some blasting, buffing, and reclearcoating.

[Likarok]

I know this won't help you guys out but I would imagine there is a wheel outfit that could do this where you are.

 

In Calgary here in Canada there is a wheel place called Calgary wheel. I took my wheels from my 1990 Silverado there many years ago. They put them on a lath and take a fine cut to remove all the plastic coating. Then they respray them and they look like new.

 

There has to be a similer process avaliable where you are!

[stefman722]

I know this won't help you guys out but I would imagine there is a wheel outfit that could do this where you are.

 

In Calgary here in Canada there is a wheel place called Calgary wheel. I took my wheels from my 1990 Silverado there many years ago. They put them on a lath and take a fine cut to remove all the plastic coating. Then they respray them and they look like new.

 

There has to be a similer process avaliable where you are!

 

 

 

We have that in Winnipeg as well called Winnipeg Wheel works lol

[69camarorag]

A few years ago......actually quite a few years ago, I had a Blazer, and had the factory alloy wheels polished locally. The look was very custom, but with the stock look also. The polishing really changes the shine, and the wheels take almost no care, as the polishing smooths out the aluminum so nothing sticks to them. Recoating the wheels puts you back to the same thing you had originally. If nothing else, make sure you use the stick on weight when balancing.

 

[LURCH HD]

I have a set of CenterLine polished wheels that I let go and didn't clean last winter and they pitted real bad. I've tried everything, blasting, sanding with no luck it still shows back up when you try to polish them. Powder coating is out of the question at 75.00 to 90.00 each.

I plan on using acid then scuffing with scotchbright, and duplicolor self etching primer, silver paint and then clear coat. I will do a light sanding between coats and hope they look good.

[grayghost7]

Don't even think about it. Nothing takes the clearcoat off but sandblasting and once that's done you need a pro polisher to take it back to the original finish before you can clearcoat again. I tried this and it was a pain. Wound up buying a set of wheels off a Tahoe for mine after the ordeal. I doubted the first guy's advice [English Auto Color] so I called a few more....same answer.