Removing painted finish from stock '95 wheels?

[heySkippy]

Hey all, I have a '95 that's a daily driver. It looks really great except the wheels. Paint missing around the rim mostly, a result of careless tire installers most likely.

I searched and found some advice on removing the stock paint. I think I can do that and I really like shiny wheels. Has anyone here actually removed the paint from their own stock wheels? Did you then polish the aluminum yourself?

My main question is can this be a DIY project for me that I can accomplish this weekend? I don't want to start if I'm doomed to fail. I don't mind starting at all if I can accomplish the task with good old fashioned hard labor.

Also, I would love to see a picture of the stock wheel polished to its aluminum finish. Can anyone point me to such pictures? Anyway, thanks in advance.

 

[nbovelle]

I have never stripped and polished NSX wheels, but I have done it to motorcycle wheels. It is probably similar. The job is doable, but it is a pain in the neck. I used aircraft stripper to remove the paint and polished the wheels with metal polish, pads and a drill and dremmel. If there are any ridges or scratches, you will need to work those down with fine sandpaper first. The rother problem is that you will have to keep polishing the wheels if you dont have them clear coated. Otherwise, they will get dull and will get water spots if they get wet.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has polished NSX wheels.

Good luck,

Nate in DC

 

[heySkippy]

Painted

Unpainted

Took about 3 hours, looks pretty good but not done. The sides of the spokes are a pebbled finish and I am having a hard time getting the finish on those areas to be consistent.

In the meantime I gotta keep on keepin' on. Can't roll with one shiny wheel.

 

[Ed J]

Looks good. I got mine to the same point as yours and then used a fine polishing compound, and then a coat of good wax. This will keep the waterspots and such to a minimum. If you lived in Michigan, and were hibernating all winter, I would suggest knocking down the pebble finish on the side of the spokes too. It really adds to the look.

 

[heySkippy]

I did finish my car that weekend. By the last wheel I was down to less than 2 hours per wheel using about 5 coats of stripper. A page of pictures of a single wheel at each step of the way is here.

http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/main.php/v/admin/linkage01/wheel01/

Now I'm trying to decide what to do with the center caps. I'll probably paint them for now but am shopping for replacements. You talk about knocking down the pebble finish on the inner parts, how might one go about doing this?

I'm glad I did this. Not every NSX needs some extra bling but mine always looks so dark - darker even than a black car - that I really like the shine.

 

[saint2709]

looks great and if you want to improve the look with the stock weels try spacing them out 15mm in the front and 25mm in the rear. trust me it will look even more killer

 

[Ed J]

I knocked down the pebble finish by wet sanding with progressively finer sandpaper, starting with 80 grit. I finished the wheels off with some polished aluminum center caps from Dali Racing. These caps don't have any Logos or markings, and give the wheels a clean look. I'll post pics of my '91 Red/Black in the next few days.

 

[Hiroshima]

For stock fitting caps look into these if you don't go Dali:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17120&highlight=nsx+center+caps

Looks awesome. The guy who makes them is very nice, and they look great.

HTH

 

[NorCalwhite]

Your wheels came out nice, I am planning on doing the same thing. What type of stripper did you use?And I see that Jeff H posted a link about the caps I make for the seven spoke wheels.

 

[heySkippy]

I don't remember the brand of stripper - I got what seemed to be the heaviest-duty regular stripper at the local ACE store. I doubt anything will take the paint off in just one or two coats.

I'm having mixed feelings about this. The wheels look good, but not great. There are a couple spots on a couple wheels that need some kind of machine polishing before they truly look as if they were intended to be bare metal.

Also, they get funkyfied fast. Several coats of wax was not sufficient to keep them shiny between washings or to make cleaning them a simple wipe job. I still like the shiny aluminum look but I do expect eventually to hand them over to a professional for serious polish and then clear coat. I just don't know that I have the skill and equipment to finish the job at home.