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All Aluminum or Painted Black Holes?

Stripping the clear coat off my OEM Teardrop rims using Klean Strip Peeler aerosol and looking for opinions. Should I remove the gray
paint in the holes or leave them painted? Once I start removing paint it will be too late and be much added work to repaint. Plan is to leave them bare aluminum and polish as needed. Every stock ST wheel I've seen has issues with the clear coat oxidizing and turning
white below the coating. First pic is stock with clear coat, second is an Ebay pic with the clear and hole paint removed. TIA

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_57.jpg
 



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Leave the gray, it really makes the wheel. Too much of a good thing is still to much of a good thing, (so to speak).

Leave the gray.
 






Stripping the clear coat off my OEM Teardrop rims using Klean Strip Peeler aerosol and looking for opinions. Should I remove the gray
paint in the holes or leave them painted? Once I start removing paint it will be too late and be much added work to repaint. Plan is to leave them bare aluminum and polish as needed. Every stock ST wheel I've seen has issues with the clear coat oxidizing and turning
white below the coating. First pic is stock with clear coat, second is an Ebay pic with the clear and hole paint removed. TIA

DSC04852.jpg
_57.jpg


I wish mine looked anything like the stock with clear coat... mine is ugly and corroded. Anyone know of a way to rectify this?
 






Leave the gray, it really makes the wheel. Too much of a good thing is still to much of a good thing, (so to speak).

Leave the gray.

I agree personally.
 






I'm running both styles. My XLT has the holes painted silver from the factory. My Sport has the all aluminum polished. The painted ones on the XLT are much easier to keep clean. I polish the Sport wheels more than the rest of the truck. Everything seems to stick to them and stain. I'd stick with the gray they look good like that.
 






Thanks guys, looks like I've got a lot of masking to do. LOL Anyone else?
 






This is a PROJECT. Klean Strip Peeler aerosol is very effective at removing factory clear coat. Issue is the holes are powder coated and very difficult to remove. I had a matching spare wheel to experiment with, and after the first application 95% of the clear was removed with compressed air and wiping with acetone. I suspect nothing short of bead blasting or lot's of sanding will remove it all. I'll take the time to mask the holes carefully doing one wheel at a time and update the process. If anyone's wondering why I'm going through all this trouble, these teardrops are very easy to clean and the Centerline wheels I like are $1000 to my door, plus mounting and balancing.

IMPORTANT to heed all warnings, even a tiny speck on your skin burns like hell. :fire:

I may even borrow a wet suit or foul weather marine gear before starting again. ;)
 






maybe ask [MENTION=17822]Turdle[/MENTION] what he uses to strip powdercoating off...
 






From the pics I've seen, Turdle's become a powder coating master. I'd be very surprised if he uses any other method but bead blasting.
 






This is a PROJECT. Klean Strip Peeler aerosol is very effective at removing factory clear coat. Issue is the holes are powder coated and very difficult to remove. I had a matching spare wheel to experiment with, and after the first application 95% of the clear was removed with compressed air and wiping with acetone. I suspect nothing short of bead blasting or lot's of sanding will remove it all. I'll take the time to mask the holes carefully doing one wheel at a time and update the process.

IMPORTANT to heed all warnings, even a tiny speck on your skin burns like hell. :fire:

I may even borrow a wet suit or foul weather marine gear before starting again. ;)

I just want to add, This may be marketed under different labels. Aircraft remover, Aircraft stripper are the names I am familiar with.

You want the best aerosol can of which ever brand you find that contains Methylene chloride as the main ingredient, at the highest ratio you can find.

autozone sells this, as do most walmart stores in the small automotive paint section.
Allow a can per wheel, you can return what you do not use.

Also, this is not going to be an easy task. You're looking at a 2-3 day job.


I am going to say this again. BE CAREFUL! Wear the largest rubber gloves you can get, long sleeves, face and eye protection, and, of course a breathing mask is a must!!!!! Also grab a pile of heavy duty scotch brite pads.

Dismount the tires from the wheels. Take them to a car wash bay. Your cold water power washer will not clean them as good as the hot water at a good car wash. scrub spray and really get down with the wheels until the are clean as possible. No short cuts, this has to be done. Stripper will not go thru dirt


Take em back home to dry in the shade. You do not want them too hot. Or too cold. Once again, read the can instructions about temperature.

Spray downwind. It's ok to hold the wheel, and get spray in the rubber gloves.

I like to have a bunch of those heavy duty scotch brite scubbers on hand. You'll see the powder-coat lift off like a layer of laytex. Scrub this off with the scotch brite pad, keep scrubbing while the dry stuff falls off.
repeat.

you will be surprised by the surface that remains, and at this point the wheels could be power washed using a car wash bay and hot soapy water. you should be able to re clear them now.

Aluminum wheels do not always take kindly to blasting. You will definitely loose the machined look if you do. However, if you just want to get the wheels coated a single stage color, it would probably be in the neighborhood of 60.00 per wheel in black at a coating shop. For this price you'd drop them off as is and pick them up when finished.


Now you can see why at this point most people elect to just get a new set of wheels. Especially when you consider the stockers will be worth about 50.00 as scrap aluminum.

You do not want any part of a polished aluminum wheel with no coating for a daily driver. Trust me on this.
 






Turdle, thanks for the invaluable info, although nothing I wanted to hear. :(

It really comes down to doing this as a temporary, albeit labor intensive fix. What's frustrating is the oxidation started very small on each wheel and progressed to this within ONE year. Despite Hawaii roads not having salt or corrosion issues, it always appears to start at the edges. Maybe I'll take your advice and use these unsightly rims until I'm ready to replace them. Thanks.

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If you decide to go on with this project, painting the teardrop holes silver and reclearing is an option. The look is similar.
My XLT with silver.
DSC00597.jpg

My Sport polished.
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