Aluminum wheel clearcoat removal

[Bob from Northport]

I usually hang around the Model A guys. I have a question for you modern guys. Is there an easier way to remove the clear coat on aluminum wheels? Winters in northern Michigan are hard on alum. wheels on modern trucks from road salt. Need to clean mine up and redo them.
Any suggestions??

Thanks!!

 

[Merlin]

You might try calling some body shops and see what they would recommend. Maybe soda blasting as I wouldn't think it would harm the aluminum.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

Certainly sand-blasting or even plastic bead blasting would be out of the question for aluminum and you couldn't "dunk" them either. Dunking is only good for ferrous metals. Throw non-ferrous metal in there and it dissapears entirely. I would vote for baking-soda blasting. What about Bix paint stripper? Youd need to use a synthetic steel wool pad rather than a real steel wool pad to avoid scratching.

 

[frank long island]

find a rim repair company it will be easier to have them redo them ck with bodyshops in your area or the yellow pages that stuff is like powder coat its tough to get off

 

[guthriesmith]

I have used paint remover on a few sets of aluminum wheels to either remove clear coat or colored paint. It worked well and didn't damage the wheel at all. I just used "Aircraft" stripper made by Klean Strip and applied it liberally and then blew the paint off with high pressure water. Any sort of mechanical stripping is likely to damage the wheel. Just be sure that if you use a pressure washer or something to do it, there isn't anything around that you would worry about getting any stripper on.

 

[dullchrome]

I have used paint remover on a few sets of aluminum wheels to either remove clear coat or colored paint. It worked well and didn't damage the wheel at all. I just used "Aircraft" stripper made by Klean Strip and applied it liberally and then blew the paint off with high pressure water. Any sort of mechanical stripping is likely to damage the wheel. Just be sure that if you use a pressure washer or something to do it, there isn't anything around that you would worry about getting any stripper on.

X2...Ive used aircraft stripper on three piece wheels and it did not damage the aluminum or the seal.