Stang2WRX - OEM Chrome Wheel Mod

[cobraCMDR]

You need to use plenty of stripper and a bucket with soapy water to wipe the paint off. Hose them off while the paint is still wet and use papertowel to wipe the rest off. Then you can get the haze to polish off with neverdull. Mine were OE wheels not aftermarket.

 

[CobraBob]

This is a great thread to resurrect for those who might need it. I added it to my website with credit given to Stang2WRX.

 

[lthlsnake]

man i searched for this the other day but couldnt find it. Thanks alot looks like im going to do my wheels and drive shaft lol

 

[4obra]

I did my front drivers side rim and it was awesome. took off the the drivers side rear and the rim was all pitted and the chrome was chipping after i cleaned about 1/8 of the rim. i immediatly stopped and called my dealer and told him that my rim was all pitted and that i was on my way over for them to see. They had the store manager and everyone and there mother out there looking at the rims. turns out 2 of my rims were messed up and they are going to replace them. SWEET!!! so if any of you guys do this and realize the chrome is pitting STOP and take it to the dealer, if your car is under warrenty it is easy to get them to replace it.

 

[9150...31A]

Good Mod...KING OF BLING!

 

[musclefan21]

on stock 03 wheels, can I do this? inside or outside?

 

[cobraCMDR]

only if they are chrome...........I would do it outside aircraft stripper would not look nice on your carpet

 

[Wings65288]

nice mod... this will give me something to do when i get a little downtime. lol i read my nub comment up above from 3 years ago when i had my old '03 silver termy.

 

[Machx2]

will do mine soon =)

 

[Smacked_in_ATL]

I actually just bought the stuff to do this to my car today. I will post a thread when I am done.

 

[Ralo]

Dammit I will have to do it again when I get 10.5's?

 

[BOTLFED98]

wow that looks amazing

 

[Vinchenzo51]

did mine today, omg what a difference!!!!!!

it was a bit more tedious then i originally thought

you need to be very generous with the paint stripper and you need to clean the paint off several times to get down to the nice chrome underneath

i replaced my rotors and painted my calipers red today and they reflect amazingly off the inside of the wheels

would 100% recommend this to anyone... just dont get the paint stripper on your skin, it burns!!!!

 

[Vinchenzo51]

pics, it was dark outside but the flash helped enough, looks awesome when the sun catches it just right!

Rear Wheels

 

[RazorGTP]

I am about to do this too..... Any idea if the AFS replicas (18x10.5) has the chrome all over as well?

 

[Cobrakai04]

This is a hell of a job. My wheels are 6 years old so the paint is set really well. I found it a bit easier to use brake cleaner to remove the old brake dust before applying the stripper. I used the paint brush but it seemed to just mix the paint around and would dry quickly. It seems to work better if you just put the stripper on some paper towels and rub it in. Be sure to add some polish after. It really makes them shine.

 

[Jkay98]

So I recently picked up some used chrome cobra rims from a member on this site. The paint was still on the inside and there was some road tar and brake dust stains but I figured I would give it a shot at removing the paint.
First I tried some brake clean, for the hell of it. I sprayed a little area and almost instantly the paint came off.
So then I decided to get some acetone or zylene from work, not sure which one I got, but I put some in a spray bottle and sprayed the inside of the rims. Within a few seconds the paint came off easy with a rag. I got a clean new rag and resprayed the wheel and got the rest of the paint off. A few spots here and there I had to scrape with a razor blade and use a little bit of elbow grease but over all it probably took me 45 minutes to do 2 used rims.

 

[Fastphil]

I just picked up a set of chromed stockers after several years on CCW Classics. I also bought aircraft stripper and will try this before the car comes out of storage.

 

[MayoSVT]

Let us know how the results go FastPhil. Ill be doing this as well though I am not quite sure how it will turn out since the rear wheels were not to well cared for. No major pitting but elbow grease should bring out the BLING

 

[Fastphil]

Let us know how the results go FastPhil. Ill be doing this as well though I am not quite sure how it will turn out since the rear wheels were not to well cared for. No major pitting but elbow grease should bring out the BLING

I just finished up the fourth wheel. They were off an 04 with 40,000 miles on them so not in perfect shape. I did it all with brake cleaner and #0000 steel wool. If I were to do it again, I would maybe try #000 steel wool to cut down on the labor. Took a lot of elbow grease but I didn't want to use the aircraft stripper because I was working in a one-car garage with no ventilation. Two wheels had some chrome flaking off in the barrels. I was able to get the paint off around the flaked areas without causing any more flaking, but there's no repairing flaked chrome. The lug nut holes are also painted, and that's probably the toughest part of the job. I'm happy with the results, even though it's not perfect. If you want to do a perfect job, you would have to remove any adhesive wheel weights, strip those areas also, and then rebalance the wheels. I didn't want to do that as the car is for sale anyway. I took pics, but it's essentially the same thing as all the other pics in this thread.

Phil