factory 16" wheel refinishing

[92GaEnthusiast]

Hey guys, got a little bit of work for myself here. I have factory 16" gagt rims on my 92 grand am, and the clearcoat on them is peeling off. Is it safe to send the wheels to a sandblaster to have them sandblast the clearcoat off of them, and get them re-finished? If they could get all the rough clearcoat and etc off of it, and get it down to bare aluminum, I would consider getting them painted and re-clear coated, or even chromed. Any suggestions would help!

[mutt421]

IMO, save your $ and get aftermarket wheels.

[92GaEnthusiast]

I can't find any decent aftermarket wheels that are less than 130 a piece, that won't get ruined in the winter. The shop in town said they would sandblast them all for 60 bucks total, and than I can get them either painted, or paint them myself to save money.

[Deggy Fresh]

just use what you got in winter. and buy some after market rims in the seasons with no snow.

[92GaEnthusiast]

That would also require new tires, and that's an investment I am really not willing to make when the tires are brand new as they are.

[CARS GONE WILD]

i say go ahead and sand blast. then get em chromed. although i don't know how much chroming would cost.

[tenspeed]

The shop in town said they would sandblast them all for 60 bucks total, and than I can get them either painted, or paint them myself to save money.

That sounds like a good deal if they can do it with the tires on. Get them cleaned up and buy some wheel spray paint. You could also polish the bare aluminum but that's a lot of labor. I spent hours polishing my one valve cover.

New wheels, powder coating or chroming is a big expense for a 16 year old car.

[92GaEnthusiast]

I would definately have the tires off. I've seen what sandblasting does to metal and paint, i can only imagine what it would do to the rubber on the tires. Once they sand blast them, I am going to get some wheel paint and paint them. This will be getting done when it gets warmer out, and I will have my own paint sprayer, as I have to respray my body kit anyways.

Speaking of which, how does a two-tone black and teal sound? From the top of the gt body kit down to the ground black, and the actual car itself teal? Wonder how that would look.

[Korbendallas68]

They have DIY power coaters for cheap. I think powder coating with a couple of layers of clear coat should hold up nicely, and probably come out better that spray painting.

[onionman]

O.K., I'm new and all but what style wheel are you talking about?
I Googled a '92 and saw either aluminum or wheels that appear to have the overlay like my '03.
Someone fill me in.:???:
Neither of which I would sandblast.

[92GaEnthusiast]

They are the aluminum wheels, that have the 5 blades on them. Alot of times, you see them come in the same color as the color, but in my case they are silver. I've found that some GT's don't have them, but some do, so maybe it's year dependant. Try looking up a 95.

[Big Joe]

These wheels I'm guessing?

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/BigJoe5313/Car/normal_Dcp06057r.jpg

I would just sand them down and re-clear them. Would probably cost you like 20 bucks total for the clear and the sand paper.

[92GaEnthusiast]

already tried sanding them down. It didn't work. I was even using mariatic acid to try eating the clearcoat and that didn't do squat to it. It's been peeling for a very long time, so it's going to need something strong to remove it. It's going to have to be acid dipped and brought back to bare metal, or sand blasted. Sanding just isn't strong enough. I even used a wire brush and it still didn't do anything to it.

But, yes, those are the wheels. Bigjoe, can you get me the colorcode (or name of the paint) on your car? I really like that blue, and will be painting it soon, and would like to see how it looks in person. I'll pick up some touchup spray paint and paint my old trunk lid to see how it looks.

[Big Joe]

^ your either not using the right grit or not sanding hard enough. Its not going to be easy but it will work.

[92GaEnthusiast]

I can almost guarantee I was using the right sandpaper, I sand paint and clear coat every night for a living. Even a wire brush and acid wasn't working. The clearcoat has been damaged for years, and has hardened up, there's no way sand paper is going to sand it off without an extreme amount of elbow grease or ALOT of work. Would save much more time to have them done a different way.

[Big Joe]

well then, what grit were you using? Just wondering.

[92GaEnthusiast]

used varying grits from 80 all the way up to 800 with no luck. A whole lot of scratching but no clearcoat coming off. It may not even be clearcoat that's left on it, it could be part of the coating on the wheel itself. Usually you can flake it off but this stuff you can't, and parts of it are rolled up as if clearcoat were peeling, but it's hard and you can't even flake it off.

So anyways, what color is your car?

[Big Joe]

So anyways, what color is your car?

thats my car pictured above. Its an old picture, alot has changed but its still the same color.

[92GaEnthusiast]

I know, I was asking what the factory color was for it. Will look into getting a touchup spray can and painting some spare body parts to see how it looks as I am looking for a new color to paint my car when it gets warmer.

[coupe]

Thats alot of work for 16 year old rims, not worth the effort to do anything to them no matter how cheap or quick.

[CARS GONE WILD]

why not try acetone? Most powerful solvent out there.