I purchased 4 factory used rims off eBay last year. Two of them came from one seller and Two from another. Two I purchased shine up okay but there's a million little -like cracks/spidering and it's spreading. The other two are fine.

Did the one guy clear coat the rims ? Is what I'm seeing ? The clear coat is cracking ?

If so, is there any way to take the coating off without doing damage? It's not flaking what so ever - It looks like stress cracks.

There stock 17" aluminum rims for 98 -2000 models.

Thanks

 

I have seen the "clear" crack before. I had a set that did, so I got a hair up my butt one day and decided to strip and polish them. I went to the local NAPA store and bought some airplane decal stripper and just sprayed it and and began the "fun" process. I also did this to my last street bike I had. Cheap way to get alot more out of your wheels.

 

I stripped a old set of turbine style wheels when I was in h.s. for my 69 they looked great for about a week then they started to oxidize like nobodys buisness after about 2 years they got pretty pitted and I wound up having to buy a new set of wheels
but those were a old set of magnesium type I dunno if it makes a diffrence

 

Thanks , yea, they sell that "aircraft stripper" or something like that at the shop in town. I never tried that stuff yet - been curious about it tho. I've used some fast stripper in a aerosol can before .

Anyway, So that stuff will lift the clear coating? I'll give it shot, but whats next - Buff em up ? Is it that easy?.. I kinduh doubt it

 

Yea, I lost the "white rust" battle with my old set and they looked like hell. I liked the factory style rims they used on 150's and Expy's back then - so it took awhile getting nice looking rims in that style. When I finally did - I put new rubber on them and it looked sweet for about a year.

Now I'm getting this cracking. I wonder if this is the factory clear or someone did this on there own ? The other two are great, no cracking what so ever.

 

from what i was told by a "wheel guy" the factory stuff isnt a standard clear coat and depending on the road conditions in your area the salt and de-icing stuff will eat up the coating but ive never seen the cracks usually just flaking if you can find 1.1.1. triclorathane itll pretty much take care of it down to bare metal

 

Yea , I guess there not that bad looking. You really only see the cracking in direct sun light. It might be easier just to a couple more on ebay. These shine up real nice , it just that my stock Aluminum rims never did this all these years - I just looked at those again , they just rusted (that white sh^t)- I'll see if I can get a pic of what I'm referring to - if it will even show up in the picture lol.

 

Yea here's a pic of the rim. The camera made it look worse than it is, but you can see what I'm talking about. Looks pretty F'ed up here tho

 

Looks like the clearcoat is really screwed up. I bet it will eventually start flaking off.

 

Will I need to re-apply another layer of clear if I remove that layer ? I wonder if the guy I purchased these from just shot another coat of clear on these. What are my chances as far as taking this sh^t coat off of there and getting away with just buffing it out ?

 

If you want it perfectly smooth take a light light sand paper to it and sand it smooth. When i did it to my old wheels i didnt sand i just got a buffing wheel and buffed the **** out of it with a polish bar and then with the paste. By no means is it hard just time consuming. They will look good but you will have to shine them up when they look dull. I never had a problem with pitting and with living in Indiana it was suprising. All i did to shine them back up after the stripp and buff was use either some Mothers polish or Never Dull. Both worked great.

 

Yea , I use that Mothers Aluminum polish or Maguires I think it is - Tried that little can Mothers (expensive as hell) you can get. Follow it up with either that small red power ball or the larger one on the rims that don't have that cracking going on. Once in awhile I'll use 'Never Dull" . They shine up nicely, but yea , I have to keep on it - specially in the winter.

I didn't want to attempt removing the layer and end up with it looking worse.

I have some 1000 grit 400 - 600 out in the shop. Would wet sanding do any good? Think I should go that route instead of a stripper ? I want to protect the grey web in the rim - I guess I could just mask that.

Ahaa... - I have that Rouge clay bar out there - just looked , also have some White bar that hasn't been opened yet- says "Jewelers" on it. I bet that Red Rouge would cut with an air buffer . - Die grinder or DA. What do you think? Try that first?

Thanks allot for the replies .

 

I think I better wait until I come across an outlet /ebay store that has a few to sell me again (get free shipping that way ) before I attempt working on these - just in case I screw them up somehow. Thanks for advice, I will be using it in the future

 

I stripped mine with industrial paint stripper before I swapped them out because of the same thing. I thing they came out quite nice, I just used a jewellers wheel and some mothers mag polish. but you had to keep on top of the polishing or they would start to pit. especially in a Winnipeg salt filled winter!

My two cents is to see if you can get some more cheap of off Ebay. I would send you one of my old ones but I don't know where the heck they are.

 

Yea , that's what I'll do .

BTW- Found a better pic comparing the two rims. One on the left is the good one (wish that guy had 4 of those instead of just 2, there flawless!) - Right is one of the two that's cracking.