Removing paint from alloy wheels

[Snoopy2005uk]

Hi, i bought a car the other day and the wheels are all cromed up but the paint is starting to flake off at some bits. I want to take that back down to the alloy what can i use to do this without wrecking the wheels?

My brother can get hold of a steamer will that be any good?

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

This will be a fairly complicated procedure so I suggest you consult a detailing forum or similar but you're going to need to use a fine grade wet and dry sandpaper.. and be prepared to put in some serious hours as if you don't you'll end up ruining them.

Alternatively get an alloy wheel refurbisher to take a look at them :)

[Mouldy Punk]

As Chicane-UK said, fine wet and dry will do it. My dad does allow refurb. and he tends to use an air-powered sander to get most of it off, then uses the wet n dry to smooth it out a bit. Make sure there is no grit on the sand paper though else it'll score a line in the wheel.

[Snoopy2005uk]

thanks for the info guys i'll look into this, do you have any idea what it wud cost to get it done at a shop?

[Mouldy Punk]

My dad usually charges ?50 a wheel to completely refurb them, so that's rubbing them down, filling any chips/scratches and re-spraying them. So it'd probably be less than ?50.

[Snoopy2005uk]

Thats not too bad, what kind of places do this? do you know of any in the Derby area?

[Zip]

just get them properly done... then get them painted graphite.

swweeeet!

[ben thornes]

Use Nitro-mors paint stripper to get the rest of the paint off. Worked fine on my scooter wheels.

Then just use fine wet and dry paper and polish them up :)