Restoring bare aluminum finish on wheels?

[Kerpal]

I'm going to re-paint my turbine wheels, but before I do that I want to clean up the lip area so I can leave it unfinished. There's something that looks like either mineral deposits or peeling clearcoar on some areas, and I can't figure out how to remove it. Scrubbing with a scotchbrite pad and degreaser didn't even begin to take it off, and rubbing compound & metal polish didn't help either.

Originally I had wanted to polish the lips, but I think that would probably be a ton of effort... although I do have a dremel tool that might speed things up. If nothing else I'd settle for just cleaning them up nicely and restoring the stock aluminum finish though. Any advice?

 

[bcd]

try some mothers finest and a buff ball. that might work

 

[Zero_chance]

Are you sanding all the old clearcoat off? Or stripping the rims at least.

 

[Kerpal]

Are the turbine rims clearcoated from the factory? If so how should I go about removing it?

The inner areas of the wheel do not have the same white substance that the lips on all four wheels do. That's why I thought maybe it's some kind of oxidation... The aluminum wheels on my old Acura (which were a similar machined finish) had the same white stuff on them.

I wasn't planning on totally stripping the center areas off the wheels as the finish is still level... just scuffing them well and using wheel paint.

 

[troyGT03]

go to autozone or similar autoparts store and find the spray cans of airccraft paint remover(also in a brush on paste). spray on the wheels and wait about 10 min. the old clearcoat will melt off. i have done removed the clearcoat on tons of wheels this way. it takes the wheel down to the bare aluminum.

 

[Kerpal]

Yeah I've used that aircraft coating remover before and it definately takes paint right off. Will it damage or discolor my tires though? I just had brand new BFG's installed so I don't want to mess them up.