Powder Coat Removal from Wheels

[Woodsy]

Hey Guys,

Long time no post.

I am at the stage now where i have put my arse into gear and getting the bike back together. However i have hit a snag.

My wheels had a horrible hammertone grey paint job on them which i wanted gone, i hit it with some paint stripper and the grey comes off, however there is what i believe to be white powder coat underneath the grey paint. The paint stripper has little to no effect on it, sure it will bubble in very small parts but it turns to rubber and wont come off.

Whats a bloke to do? I want the bare alloy looks with highlights on the spokes.

I want to do this at home, keep the $ down as much as possible.

My only option at this stage is to buy another raw set of wheels instead. As there is no way i am persisting with the paint stripper method this way, it would take months!

Cheers Josh

[chuck hahn]

Tried sand blasting a spot to see what that does???

[Woodsy]

Needs to high pressure will damage the outer ring. If I was going to paint them I would just get them blasted but I want to polish the outer ring and spokes.

[chuck hahn]

Spokes ( in my experience ) are hit and miss as to how well they will clean up and sparkle again. May want to consider respoking and while the hub and rim are seperrated do the hub and rim refurbishing. Much easier when its all disassembled and with new spokes they will look amazing again.

I know you want to keep cost down but weigh just how nice you want them to look. Nothing on an old bike is gonna b cheap.

[chuck hahn]

As for the outer ring...if its the aluminum ring it will polish out well after blasting. In fact, blastings gonna do you a huge favor. Removes all the clear, gets little pock marks smoothed out, and leaves a decently cleaned surface to start the polishing off on. Win win..gets the coating there now off and preps thew surface in one fail swoop.

[Woodsy]

IMAG0019.jpgSorry should of been clearer when I wrote that. These are alloy wheels.

[hampshirehog]

If you can still get paint stripper containing dichloromethane (now banned here) that does the job a treat. I have to take my stuff to the pros now to get acid dipped.

Blasting by the way just seems to bounce off.

[Nessism]

New wheels might be easier. Wheels are dirt cheap in the US but not sure about Australia. You might want to check prices before expending any more money on what you have.

[chuck hahn]

Oh heck....get the blaster to them. The ifaces of the "spokes" or the leading edges of the rims and bead can be covered with duct tape or a few layers of the green auto body painting tape. The beads wont get thru the tape and thus the areas you cover wont be effected by the blaster.

And, the unsmoothed areas have a beading type texture molded into them anyway so its a perfect situation for you to blast them.

[posplayr]

I striped the original OEM powerder coating off of a set of stock GSXR 1100 18" wheels. The aircraft stripper lifts the coating right of of the machined areas but it adheres tenaciously to the cast unfinished areas. I used a stainless steel detail brush to scrub out every nook and cranny after multiple A/C stripper applications. I had probably had at least 4-5 passes; did not get every single spec, but well enough to clear coat with the Por-15 Glisten clear (semi gloss clear).

If that did not work You could try either bead blasting, walnut shells or perhaps powder blasting. The sand blasting is going to take a while to restore the rims unless you can tape over them with something to protect the surface while you get the bulk of the wheel cleaned up.

For me the stainless brush with AC stripper worked well enough that I did not bother with the hassle of blasting.

[Agemax]

steel wire wheel on an electric drill

[Woodsy]

Checked my Paint Stripper and it contains dichloromethane, eats through the top layer of grey paint but the white powdercoat or what ever it is hardly comes off. Now looking at the outer rim its not a polished surface, its rough so i assume they were blasted before they were powder coated previously.

[chuck hahn]

Wire wheel on a drill will make witness brush marks in the soft base metal....I personally would stay well away from anything like that. The outer eedge that should be smooth and shiney can be restored. Start with some 400 wet dry sand paper and work up to finer and finer grits till they are back to original form. Some where I have pics of rims I have prepped with blue painters tape. I will try and find them for you.

[chuck hahn]

Didnt fine any with the tape applied but I did find some after blasting and tape removed from the edges.

I used a gun with a long rubber hose that you just shove into a bag of beads and get after it. Cant remember who made it or I would search for a picture to post. Got it over in the storage shed.





Reapplied fresh tape and painted rims. The beads wont get to the covered areas but the tape does take a beating so I reapplied tape to be sure the paint was only getting where I wanted it. Anything that seeped in the edges of the tape I wiped off with a rag and some acetone. Take it easy as the acetone will ruin the paint if it runs down to where you dont want it.

[Agemax]

Wire wheel on a drill will make witness brush marks in the soft base metal....

It won't if you use it gently and just use it to take off the top layer of powder coat, then paint stripper and wet and dry to get it down to the Ali, (no scratches or brush marks). Used that method myself and it works just fine