Refurbing wheels - stripping paint the easy way

[2002 Tii]

I know theres several topics on refurbing wheels here but i thought i would post up an easy way to remove all the paint from them very easily, as often this is the hardest part of doing them.

I've refurbed wheels by using Nitromors paint stripper but i found that you still need to take a lot of time getting all the paint off, especially since they will have a couple of coats of primer below the top coat. Heres the wheel after using Nitromors :

Lee8ballauto suggested i use caustic soda diluted in water, so i got some and tried it a few weeks ago.

Make sure you have a metal/plastic container that is suitable. I got a blue round bucket type thing from Homebase for the job but found that it was too small to fit the wheel in .... see pic below of what happened to my brand new £15 bucket when i tried to jam the wheel into it - caustic soda all over the kitchen floor!

Anyhow, found a square storage type container that would fit the wheel into and fill it with the caustic soda solution so that it covered half the wheel, and i could rotate it so that it then covered the other half.

I used about 100g of caustic soda mixed with water. You'll need a wooden stick to give it a good stir so that it mixes properly. Then put the wheel into the container and leave it to strip the paint. I left it in overnight, then rotated it so the other half of the wheel was covered. Repeated this a few times then took the wheel out and gave it a rinse with a hose.

This is what the wheel looks like now, all paint is completely gone, just needs a quick rub down with some wet and dry paper and its ready for priming.

Heres a pic of what the caustic soda removed from the wheel, and thats after pouring all the water out.

Maybe its a bit of an extreme way to strip paint for some people, but it certainly does the job and cuts out all the rubbing down for bloody ages.

 

[hutchy_belfast]

100g caustic soda lmao dont put it in a metal cotnainer anyhow...it wouldn't last long!If you were to put that uch into 3 litres of water that would be like 8M...make sure you wear gloves while doing it anyway

 

[2002 Tii]

aye it was a 100g of caustic soda i got and i just bunged the lot in

perhaps wasn't as much as 100g in the end though as i had mixed some in the blue bucket then broke it putting the wheel in

i never used gloves because i'm hardcore

 

[-Pete-]

anymore progress pics???

 

[Stoney]

where did you get the caustic ? cost

 

[2002 Tii]

anymore progress pics???

not yet Petey boy, i actually done thnis a couple of weeks ago but have been very busy since and haven't had a chance to do anymore. Going to do another 3 the way i done this one then start on the painting/polishing (i've two sets of these rims to do)

 

[2002 Tii]

where did you get the caustic ? cost

Homebase. Bobcrx got it for me when he was in a few weeks ago (he also got the bucket that was too small ). I think it was around £4 for 100g, i would imagine that they have bigger bottles of it. I probably used too much caustic soda for this wheel, but i guess its a case of trial and error to use the right amount

 

[Stoney]

cheers fella , have a spare set of wheels i wouldnt mind playing about with colour wise

must check it out

stephen

 

[2002 Tii]

no probs, this takes a hell of a lot of work out of stripping the paint. some say all you need to do is rub down the surface of the paint to provide a key for the new paint to stick to, but if you were looking to polish your rims i think this is a good way to start of.

 

[2002 Tii]

you'll have seen these pics before but to give you an idea, all the paint needs to be off the wheel to get a finish like this:

 

[Stoney]

schizle bling MOFO

looks well , pug rims?

mine will be painted

 

[six_impressive_hours]

This stuff is lethal. We used it years ago to de-coke the exhausts of the wee two stroke bikes. Worked a treat!

Good idea to try it on rims

jamesy

 

[2002 Tii]

yeah they are Pug 1.9 GTi rims

i never knew what caustic soda even was until Lee told me about using it to strip the paint on alloys. and it did indeed work a treat

 

[Stoney]

i think i recall my dad telling how he cleaned drains with it in the old days lol

will invest

 

[lee-r33]

and to think you didnt have faith lol

 

[2002 Tii]

i always had faith

yeah i think the proper use for caustic soda is to clean drains/pipes... done a good job on the alloy though

 

[stephyh]

what if you have tyres on the wheels would it damage them?

 

[2002 Tii]

i would imagine it would eat through the tyres, not sure though.

its strong stuff, you can see what it done to the paint!

 

[peter "T"]

Homebase. Bobcrx got it for me when he was in a few weeks ago (he also got the bucket that was too small ). I think it was around £4 for 100g, i would imagine that they have bigger bottles of it. I probably used too much caustic soda for this wheel, but i guess its a case of trial and error to use the right amount

£2.99 vacuum shop belfast , its strong stuff

 

[Lee]

you'll have seen these pics before but to give you an idea, all the paint needs to be off the wheel to get a finish like this:

That looks superb. Whats the process to get a wheel looking like this? E.g. do you just polish them with any metal polish after stripping all the paint? (Sorry if I am hi-jacking!)

 

[ossy2004]

iv noticed it has no kerb marks though, how can that be fixed, eg, a chunk took out of the wheel? just for talk sake off course

 

[2002 Tii]

That looks superb. Whats the process to get a wheel looking like this? E.g. do you just polish them with any metal polish after stripping all the paint? (Sorry if I am hi-jacking!)

i put a guide up a few years ago but i imagine its long gone.

basically just a process of rubbing down with various grades of wet and dry paper (using water with each stage) until you are able to use the finest grade easily. i used some light abrasive rubbing compund to get the wheel all smooth and take out any of the light scratches left by the wet and dry paper. then its just a matter of starting the polishing which isn't as hard as you'd think if the wheel is prepped right. i used Brasso rather than Autosol as i found it gave a brighter finish.

it can be quite time consuming but most of the work (probably about 75%) is in the rubbing down of the wheel to get rid of the paint, which can be cut out if you use this method of stripping the paint with caustic soda...

 

[2002 Tii]

iv noticed it has no kerb marks though, how can that be fixed, eg, a chunk took out of the wheel? just for talk sake off course

I used a mouse sander (woolworths own brand, was only a tenner!), to go round the rim and take any minor kerb marks. Its surprising how soft the alloy is that this was able to smooth out the deeper scratches and kerbing.

That said, the wheel was in pretty good nick to start with, no chunks out of the rim or anything.

 

[2002 Tii]

couple more pics, they look great when the sun hits it

 

[ossy2004]

good job!!