i am in the process of powder coating my stock rims black, but first i needed to strip them down to the bare aluminum. heed my warning, ITS NOT EASY! first got out some 40 grit sandpaper, after a 4 hours, essentially got nowhere. yesterday morning i found a U-blast center where u can sandblast it yourself, tried that, very very slow going, owner told me to go because i would be there for hours and hours at $55/hour, he didnt even charge me for the hour i was there! he suggested i take them to the pwdercoat oven and just cook off the finish, i was weary, but tried it, after a couple hours the oven got to 300 F, not happenin. so i took it home and did more research on what else i could do, i found permatex gasket remover was supposed to work wonders, which it does, but would need to buy 10 cans of the stuff and put in 5 or so more hours of elbow grease! each layer of clear, paint and primer needed its own generous coating of the stuff, then scraped off. with no way to get into the small nooks and crannies, im going to take them to a professional abrasive blaster. i wanted a cheap alternative to get my black rims without shellin out 400/rim for aftermarket. this is turning out to be very time consuming, and time is money! SO AS A FRIENDLY WARNING GUYS , IF YOU PLAN ON TRYIN THIS, SKIP THE FRUSTERATION AND GET EM SENT OUT!

 

are you talking about the "chrome clad" or aluminum type stock rims?

 

I can understand if it was the clads, that glue underneath is not easy to get off.

 

It would have been easier to just scuff them up and then painted them. Taking the previous layer off is completely unwarranted.

 

the stock aluminum rims. i want to powdercoat them cuz i can do it myself for free at work, so i need good metal contact, plus they will hold up better than spraypaint

 

Seems to me they are holding up pretty darn good now, sand blasters and sand paper and you havent got one done/

 

yeah theyre a pain, took em to a shop, they will walnut and glass bead blast em for 40/rim and powdercoat for 30/rim. and i wont have to powdercoat em myself, to me its worth the 120 for them to coat em, its too damn hot here on the westcoast this week!