Stang2WRX - OEM Chrome Wheel Mod

[Stang2WRX]

Gloves - I used some Mr. Clean heavy duty gloves (theses are the yellow, thick ones) and had no issues with them tearing, or chemicals eating through.

Brush - Any brush, just make sure it's not one you want to keep afterwards.

Drainage - ??? I don't want to be responsible for making any suggestions.

 

[Jimmysidecarr]

I used autozone...."El Cheapo" brake cleaner...
A little more work than stripper...
A little less "nasty"too...

A couple notes...
Aluminum wheels don't rust... they can corrode, however without a coating(chrome, clearcoat, paint).

expect some imperfections under the silver paint.....(that's why it's there)....


Nice write up!!!

Jimmy:thumbsup:

 

[blown04cobra]

Great info! Looks like we all have got another project to do this winter. Really makes wheels look like they should have looked from the factory.

 

[Mysticobra]

Nice write-up Stang2WRX.

Since my car is now sleeping for the winter, I decided to take down my wheels in my basement and do a good job of washing the inside of them. They were stain by, once wet, black spots. I noticed that where I had some scraches, a shiny surface was appearing beneath the grey surface. And when I used Mother's mag polish, the grey surface was getting thinner up to removing it completely. I did a small surface (2" X 2") and it looked very nicely polished chrome.

I decided to do a search to find out if somebody actually did the whole rim and here you are with your great description on how to with pictures.

I have a few questions before going further:

How do they look on the car? Do you have pictures when mounted on car? Do you see reflection of dirty parts under the car in the rim?

 

[HISSMAN]

Damn, so the whole wheels are chrome, and not just the outside..they are just painted over the chrome??

 

[Mysticobra]

Too late Stang2WRX, I couldn't wait any longer. I already did one wheel. I used furniture paint stripper and it works very well. What a nice finish beneath that ugly silver paint that gets dirty quickly since it's so rough. Now with that nice polished surface with 3 coats of Zaino, it will take longer to accumulate dirt.

thanks again for the tips.

 

[Mysticobra]

Here are 2 pictures to compare.

Much nicer!

 

[MysticSN95]

Damn Stang2WRX thats a good thought. I never thought about the wheels being chrome under the paint. That looks soooo much better Going to Autozone now. lol

 

[LTHL VNM]

any other pics.....preferably mounted back on the cobra

 

[03yllwguy]

I just swapped rims with someone who had their son their car for 2 years, having never taken their rims off for washing (I'm not complaining though). Anyways, the added few years of brake dust and grease has made this project quite time consuming. I spent 1.5 hours on the first rim and got too dark to continue. Is every body doing this just seeing the paint "fall off"? There are strips where the paint just glides right off, but some spots this stuff just isn't coming off. Any tips? It's looking better than stock finish though.

 

[HISSMAN]

I just swapped rims with someone who had their son their car for 2 years, having never taken their rims off for washing (I'm not complaining though). Anyways, the added few years of brake dust and grease has made this project quite time consuming. I spent 1.5 hours on the first rim and got too dark to continue. Is every body doing this just seeing the paint "fall off"? There are strips where the paint just glides right off, but some spots this stuff just isn't coming off. Any tips? It's looking better than stock finish though.

It is probably a good idea to clean the inner wheel really well before stripping the paint.

 

[03yllwguy]

Yeah, that's what I figured and tried to do as well. I'm thinking about trying the steel wool in addition to the stripper.

 

[Mysticobra]

Yeah, that's what I figured and tried to do as well. I'm thinking about trying the steel wool in addition to the stripper.

I used dish washing soap first to remove any grease/oil. Then I used terpentine to remove tar picked-up on the road and remove grease leftover from soap. Only then I used the paint stripper and it was working well but do only a small area at a time (1/5 of the wheel) like Stang2WRX was saying so that it does not dry off on you. Paint stripper does not work well on grease eventhough it is strong on the paint.

I would not recommend to use a steel wool because you will leave small scratches (it does not take much to see a scratch on chrome). If you still have problems, you can take the plastic scrubber for non-stick pan cleaning. It will scrubb with less chance of scratching the surface beneath.

 

[03yllwguy]

Thanks for the advice MystiCobra, I will take it in the morning. I didn't think about dish washing soap. Good heads up on the steel wool also, I'll try your suggestions.

 

[03yllwguy]

Finished the first wheel today, looks just like the other pics here, amazing. On the second rim I took Mysiticobra's advice adn washed the crap out of it with dishwashing soap befire I stripped it and worked much better. The few spots that would not come up, neverdull ended up takin off for me. So if you do the mod on 2 year old wheels I'd definately recommend dishwashing soap and neverdull on the final product.

 

[03Red10th]

That looks alot better. Someone post pics with them back on the car. PLEASE!!

Does anyone have any ideas for 10th anniversary rims?

 

[Mysticobra]

That looks alot better. Someone post pics with them back on the car. PLEASE!!

Does anyone have any ideas for 10th anniversary rims?

For picture of mine on the car, you will have to wait for the spring ....

my car is in hibernation. Sorry.

 

[03yllwguy]

I'll post pics this weekend.

 

[sevendust127]

Hey I Did My Rims This Weekend, Also If Anybody Didnt Try It Yet I Used That Stuff On The Inside Of The Lug Nut Area And It Looks Sweet Chrome Inside There Too.

 

[missile man]

Where are the Pics?