Removing Paint & Polishing Wheels?

[Mark M]

My 1100E wheels have the center area and part of the rim painted body color (this is the stock color scheme from '82). I would like to remove the paint on the rim and polish the whole rim and then repaint the center "star" area solid black. I am thinking of bead blasting the center area to provide a good base for the paint. Should I polish the rim and then mask it for blasting, or have it blasted first and then polish the blasted area of the rim?

I think it will be easier to strip or sand the paint off the rim and polish before blasting, rather than to try and polish that area after blasting. Is that correct? Any other ways to go about this?

Last, is there a kit I can buy with polishing wheels, grit/compound and all required accessories or do I just go buy everything separate? Does a wheel on a drill or Dremel do a decent job on removing the paint and giving me a nice polished surface? Where do I buy the wheels and compounds?

I searched for polishing threads, but couldn't find one with a good step by step pictorial or how-to instructions. Lots of results, but no instructionals. If anybody has a good one bookmarked, please post it for me to read through.

Thanks,
Mark

[shedman1300]

I have just finished painting my wheels the other week.
First i removed the tyres and bearings from the wheels then sand blasted them. I have a small home sand blaster and the front wheel just fits in. Dont sand blast the bits you want to polish
When taping up the wheels i just placed the tape over the alloy and then carefully cut off the excess.
After painting and removing tape i used steel wool to clean up the rims then autosol polish

[shedman1300]

And the finished result.

[renobruce]

I used aircraft stripper on the entire wheel. Then I polished the rim. Then I prepped the surfaces to be painted, masked the polished portion, and primed/painted. Polishing can make a mess, so it's best to do it first.

[buttonhook]

then paint a clear the whole wheel to protect the polished part of te wheel as well.

[renobruce]

then paint a clear the whole wheel to protect the polished part of te wheel as well.

I chose not to clear, but others have done it. I live in low humidity, so I don't see alot of corrosion. My polished parts clean up easy.

[rudy]

I polished and painted my rims for the XS400. Polish first, then clean with wax and grease remover THOROUGHLY, mask, primer, and paint. You get something that turns out like this:



As for polishing steps, it's pretty easy. Just takes a lot of time. Here's a little video on some steps for polishing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R97Q1kLIdhQ

Skip over the first few minutes until he gets into the real work.

All the supplies are available at Princess Auto for a decent price. I'd suggest getting the yellow and white wheels and a few different compound sticks. They also carry an aluminum polishing kit. Comes with a few wheels and a few buffs, as well as some compounds and a little instruction paper.

[Mark M]

I polished and painted my rims for the XS400. Polish first, then clean with wax and grease remover THOROUGHLY, mask, primer, and paint. You get something that turns out like this:

Thanks, Rudy. Those look excellent and are almost exactly what I want to do with mine. I will check out PA and see what they have.

Mark