There is a very good and detailed writeup which Jason Wenglikowski has on his web site about refinishing aluminum wheels. For his version, check out:
That said, here's my $0.02 worth on my experience:
Background: This is based on redoing Ole Red's 5-spoke '86SE wheels, which have a machined aluminum face, with dark metallic grey on the "spokes" and down to the lugnuts. The rims were pretty corroded because of the OEM wheel weights, road salt (11 years worth), etc. The faces of the wheels were in pretty good shape with a little light corrosion near the edges of the "spokes" where the clearcoat had been nicked by road debris over the years.
Steps I followed:
| 1. | Masked painted spokes. (I kept the stock color scheme) Used auto-grade masking tape and was careful to trim it at the edge of the spokes so all the clear coat was exposed. Filled the "PONTIAC" lettering on the one spoke with office rubber cement to keep it from getting stripped. |
| 2. | Stripped clearcoat. Used commercial semi-gel stripper. Found a liberal coating of stripper worked well...do NOT let it dry, or the residue is hard to get off. Often found a second coat was needed, especially in the corner where the rim and face meet. |
| 3. | Cleaned up corrosion on rims. This takes some elbow grease. Steel wool and Comet or other fairly aggressive cleanser do the trick, but leave the aluminum dull...see later steps. I found several spots where the weights had actually abraded into the aluminum...the dimples are still there, but at least the black crud is out of them, so they're less visible. |
| 4. |
Cleaned up light corrosion on face/spokes. Do not use Comet
or other abrasive cleanser, or you'll end up with deep scratches
that are a pain to buff out! I found that a mild cleaner like
Bon-Ami and a regular sponge work reasonably well and don't
totally destroy the finish on the aluminum.
Note: This is about a 90% fix...not perfect, but to get that, you will spend $100 to $125 per wheel to have them lathe-turned and professionally clearcoated. |
| 5. | Polished rims and spokes with a buffing wheel and jeweler's rouge. The trick here is to get a uniform sheen but not to smooth out the lathe turning marks too much. Be careful to keep the buffing wheel aligned along the original machining grooves. (Again, assuming you're after keeping stock appearance.) The really corroded areas of the rims take a lot more work, and you'll certainly have wiped out some of the lathe marks (well, the weights did most of that already...) but that's life... |
| 6. | Cleaned up buffing compound (take your time...it comes off with a towel and a little elbow grease...). |
| 7. | Masked tire and valve stem. |
| 8. | Applied new clearcoat (I used the "Dupli-Color" brand...they have a polyurethane clearcoat intended just for wheels) Wish I had a spray gun. Cans are a pain to get uniform wet coats with. Took 2 cans for 4 wheels. |
| 9. | Had wheels rebalanced. The local Dobbs Auto/Tire is quite willing to use adhesive weights ("balance from back only") and not put clip-on weights on the outside of the rims. Call around and find a shop that'll work with you on this. It shouldn't be hard, and then you won't be repeating the job in a couple of years when the weights have eaten through your brand new clearcoat. |
Bottom line: I'm about 95% satisfied with the results. The only real way to do better is to belly up to the bar and spend the $400-500 and have the wheels turned and professionally clearcoated. That will have to wait...if I am going to spend those kind of $$ on Ole Red, he needs a paint job on the front and rear fascia to clean up some spiderweb cracks and stone dings in the clearcoat and paint. Maybe next year...