New finish on aluminum wheels

[chromecarz00]

Hello all,

I want to strip my wheel's clear as it's failing and I am aiming to get a finish like this


:

What it looks like is . Any ideas how to get this finish? I am planning on using aircraft stripper to strip the paint - I've read tutorials on stripping so I am more interested in how to get the finish.

Thanks!

[ajnardo]

wetsand from ~600 grit up to 2000, 3000 if you're feeling really zealous.

get a buffer and use a polish agent and apply to the wheel.

pretty simple. should take about 2-3 hours to do all 4 wheels depending on how bad the previous paint is.

[Randomofodication]

Try posting in the wheels section. This is the build threads area......

But ill answer your question since I'm in a good mood lol.

The look your going for is polished aluminum/ brushed aluminum.

Only way I know of getting that exact look is to remove paint then sand the wheel smooth/flat. Then sand with like 2000 grit or so sand paper. Basically it's going to be way way way waaaaaay to much work with all those crevices. If it was me I would just paint it a silver colour and call it close enough

[chromecarz00]

Thank you for your responses! I will repost in the wheels section as well - but to confirm, you mean that I should sand it all down after stripping to bare metal, then clear coat I presume?

[Randomofodication]

Yep, needs to be bare metal to get that look. Clear coat isn't necessary, some people like it some don't. If you don't clearcoat it you'll just have a lot more work to do to keep them looking clean

[Randomofodication]

Also on most wheels that I've refinished, the bare metal isn't smooth, it's rough. Looks like it's been sand blasted almost, if yours are the same you'd need to sand that smooth which would be a lot of work.