I folks,

Our Ram came with the painted 20" wheels. We wanted chrome but we got it during the chapter 11 shut-down, so beggers couldn't be choosers!!

What I am wondering is if anyone has tried stripping the paint and polishing the aluminum? I have polished alot of aluminum stuff (I used to drive a semi!) so I have that part down pat, just wondering about the paint stripping part. We can't afford new wheels so this would be a less expensive route.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Bill

 

I think i would buy a spare wheel and practice on that one first.

 

Not sure what it is. If it's powder coat bead blasting is really the only solution. I would go to a reputable body shop and ask them/have them strip the paint. The question would be the condition of the aluminum. Most manufactures know paint/seal their wheels because aluminum is so porous and you may get a smooth great looking wheel but then you can't keep air it for longer than a week or a month. Solution would be to have nitrogen put in your tires. Just a thought.

 

arent the painted 20s plastic caps?

 

i have personally gone through this with the same wheels. get them blasted by pros, the paint/clear coats are thick, and i spent hours and hours trying to do it by hand, about 10. got NOWHERE. a commercial blasting outfit charged me 300 bucks to blast and powdercoat all 4 wheels a common color, black. i think it was sumthin like 50/wheel to blast, 30/wheel to coat. and that bit of money is worth my time. also were talkin canadian coin.

 

Thanks TMZ!! Thats good info. We want polished or chrome, there isn't any chrome shops around here. The polished thing is better, IMO anyways, if you do graze a curb, you can polish it out, but if you have chrome, your screwed!!

Bill

 

What is the best media to blast them with? Sand, soda, bead, glass etc.

I would think sand would be bad due to the softness of aluminum

 

You know, if you really wanted something that would last and probably would be cheap, you could get them sprayed with LineX. Heck, LineX even has colors, so you could do red. Kind of an odd ball suggestion, but for some reason it came to mind while reading this thread.

 

Hey, thats from a guy with beautiful chrome wheels!!!!

That would be a cool look, but we are looking for something shiny.

I guess I should surf on through flea-bay and just use these as winter rims.

Bill

 

through my trials on the weekend i tried doin it myself i used sand, was ok, but the shop used walnut, then i believe he said he would glass bead blast it, unsure if he actually blasted em twice.