Alloy Wheel restoration

Ok chaps.

Picked up my 13" BBS cross spokes at the weekend.

Nice enough, minimal kerbing, GOLD paint has stayed on 3, fallen off one leading to some corrosion.

Anyway, I am going to Nitromors the lot to get the paint off.

Then the rubbing starts. However cos they are cross spokes it's not gonna be easy to get in some of those corners!

I am wary of normal steel wire brushes because they will obviously scratch the surface.

Anyone tried brass brushes or steel with finer bristles?

Peter.

What about wire wool or a suede brush? I've used both in past without too much surface damage from memory as a little less aggressive.

Might be easier just to give them to a blaster and save hours of niggley rubbing down...

Steve_Matthews said

Might be easier just to give them to a blaster and save hours of niggley rubbing down…

And will leave you with fingers with skin left on the ends as well !!

Probs only work out to something like ?40 to do a set of four wheels.

I have done this to one teardrop wheel and it took ages, even with a flat face!

I would seriously consider the blasting option… or possibly acid dipping/cleaning if you can find someone to do it…

Not really worried about time or my manicure!

Peter

I've got a mate who works at a blasting place and another who enamels metals for a living - you should see the deep blue metalic Lancia Beta wheels we got done (for a total of about ?80!!)

Ok, so i phoned the Nitromors helpline and they said their product might pit alloys!

So, obviously I had to test it on a small patch, seems OK but it's a bit gnarly for my liking.

Picked up some polycell paint stripper which has a slower reaction time so I'll give that a blast later.

Used a steel wire brush to get off the worst of the old paint. Went really lightly to avoid scratching alloy. Gonna pick up some brass brushes and get really stuck in later.

Glad theres only one that needs complete stripping!!!!

Peter.

i used nitromors on my old RAs and it worked fine after about 5 applications, didnt pitt the wheels..

sandblasting would pitt the wheels, i have a sandblaster but use aluminium oxide abrasive to reduce this, its ok on wheels that are gonna be painted but if your polishing and you dont want to take off any metal from the wheels then your taking the correct route with the paint stripper…

how are you getting on?