anyone know how to remove paint from stock wheels without taking tires off?

[SoonP5ismine]

searched the how-to section and didnt see anything. i want to repaint my stock wheels as now they are sitting im my friends garage while i have winter wheels on. i want to repaint the stock wheels but unsure what to use to prepare the wheels for new paint. i dont want to paint the inside just the outside. as i have scratched them up. i have access to air tools and plenty of time so any suggestions would be appreciated. i will paint once the wheels are prepared in the spring when temperatures go up as my friend said its bad to paint when its cold. i can remove the tires off the wheels if absolutely necessary but rather not. thanks for any info.

 

[brentmc79]

I taped my tires up real good and just used aircraft paint stripper without a problem. It took several applications, but I eventually got about 95% of the paint off. I'll admit, I was a little bit worried that the paint stripper might affect the tires in some way, but it didn't.

 

[MSP2024]

put playing cards in between the rim and tire

 

[Kickin' MP5]

Try brake-kleen, that will strip any paint and residue off of the rims and wont hurt the tires.

 

[MSP2024]

6) Now that you have the damaged areas fixed you lets get ready to paint. Put some masking tape around the air valve:

7) Now take the playing cards and place them in the edge of the tire like so, I found that this was easier than using masking tape:

8) Now your ready for primer. I chose the sandable filler primer to get a better smoother surface, plus if you see any more bumps or imperfections you can still sand them down. I did about 3 coats of primer, but it wouldn't hert to do four. Make sure it is atleast 60 degrees F. where you are painting, and wait about 15-20minutes between coats.

Look how smooth it looks already because of the puddy you used.

9) Now stop and have a drink! Lots of waiting and watching so this will eat some time and relax you after all that hard work. Remember the longer you wait the better. I did this at night so this did me some good. lol MMMMM Captain Morgans coconut rum and orange juice!

10) Now after your done with the primer I would wait an extra 30min before applying wheel paint. Now apply your wheel paint. I did about 5 coats of wheel paint, and again waiting 15-20min between coats. I chose a gloss black paint. Here they are after 5 coats of wheel paint, MMMM Sexy!

11) Now for the clear coat. I let the paint dry overnight before I aplied the clear coats. Sometimes if you have many layers of paint that are not dry enough and you apply clear coat, the clear coat will pull on the paint layers making cracks and wrinkles in the paint. WE DON'T WANT THAT! I did three layers of clear coat, two light coats followed by one heavy coat. And here they are!!! Good as new!

12) Last step. If you got any paint on your tires take a wrag and some acsitone or paint thinner and rub them clean. Now install and enjoy! I will do a photo shoot in the reserved post below once I get them back on today so check back. Good luck to all and let me know if you have any questions.

here you go

 

[brentmc79]

I tried the playing card route on a set of wheels from a previous car and it was kind of annoying because they wouldn't stay in place. Considering how much time I spent scraping and sanding those wheels, I think I prefer the tape because that stuff is not going anywhere. If you were just paint, and not stripping first, then playing (or index) cards would probably be fine.

 

[MSP2024]

i used the playing cards on mine and they worked just fine for me haha i was just to lazy to tape it all up haha

 

[NCZ13]

its going to look stupid if you dont paint the inner barrels...

 

[bgibb68]

ok....this is the first mention i've seen of stripping....


is it better to use a paint stripper than primer? or is it all good to just prime??

 

[Don Juan]

I took all my wheels off, my friend had a bead breaker so we only broke the bead on the face of the rim. I then cut a cardboard box up and cut out a half circle on one side, I made 2 of these, one for each side. Now you just push the tire down a bit and slide the cardboard under the edge of the rim.
Sand well it's important. Paint, now just just fill back up with air.
Even if you don't have a friend with cool tools, any tire shop will do this for you really cheep, if not free. Good Luck.

 

[NCZ13]

Try brake-kleen, that will strip any paint and residue off of the rims and wont hurt the tires.

its not going to just strip away the paint off the wheel. The wheels have a special plasticized clearcoat (i believe its plasticized) Brake kleen would spray paint if someone spray painted your car, but you cant just spray teh stuff on your wheels and expect it to just melt away. Hell teh stuff is used on brake components.

 

[SoonP5ismine]

i would rather not take the tires off to get the wheels completely paint less but im worried that the repeated removing and installing of the tire will damage it. also if i do take the tires off cant i just dip them in battery acid or some s*** to get the paint off? there is a place not too far from me that does powder coating and will charge some fee for preperation but i would rather do the prep work myself as i have alot of work to do to get the wheels smooth because of scratches.

 

[charliemopps]

sand blaster wont hurt rubber.... But your rims wont be shiny any more either.

If you already have an air compressor, a sandblasters about $10

 

[SoonP5ismine]

sand blaster wont hurt rubber.... But your rims wont be shiny any more either.

If you already have an air compressor, a sandblasters about $10

isnt the sand blaster a bit too aggressive for alloy rims? i dont mind if they will not look shiny. i want a flat black look anyway when im done.

 

[Kickin' MP5]

They have the chlorine free brake kleen and it really doesn't clean brake parts as good as you would think. And i don't mean to spray the wheels down and let it run, use a shop towel or some kind of lint free cloth and wipe it off as you spray, it should take everything off. As for the plastic coat thing, I am pretty sure if they were already sanded and painted before that it is already gone.

its not going to just strip away the paint off the wheel. The wheels have a special plasticized clearcoat (i believe its plasticized) Brake kleen would spray paint if someone spray painted your car, but you cant just spray teh stuff on your wheels and expect it to just melt away. Hell teh stuff is used on brake components.