i have a set of mugen cf-48 wheels that i got from a buddy of mine. 2 of them have about 3 layers of paint on them. i took them to my buddys shop and threw them into the sand blaster, bought some glass bead stuff and went to work on them.

after about 45 min on each wheel and his air compressor about to blow from running non stop, it only took off 2 layers. the bottom layer seems to be a powder coated paint. the blaster would not even dent this ****. ive had aircraft slathered on it for the past 2 hours with only some of it coming off. i dont want to spend the money on having a shop with a more powerful machine blast them i just want to do it myself. does anybody know of a better paint stripper than aircraft? these wheels are starting to **** me off!

 

if a sandblaster is barely touching it, and aircraft remover isn't doing anything either, why are you so set on removing the coating at all? with that kind of adhesion it means that the coating was applied correctly, and would be a great surface to refinish without removing it. hit the trouble spots with a DA sander, prime them and paint them the right way.

if you're planning on powdercoating, then i can't help ya there. i know very little about it.

 

aircraft stripper

they sell it at advanced or autozone

 

ive been using aircraft. i have 2 wheels that have this red **** on it and want them to look good. im gonna paint them myself and then polish the lip this paint is ripping and shitty looking so if i try to paint over it, it will look like crap. is there anything stronger than aircraft?

 

this is what im dealing with. this is why i have to strip them down. i cant da them cause they have way to many small areas that i cant get into with a sander or any power tools

 

anybody? any ideas?

 

this is one wheel




this is the other one

 

put more aircraft stripper
let it sit

then go at it with a wire brush

 

good work takes time. i know people that have put in more then 30 hours on a set of wheels. just keep working with that aircraft remover and a wire brush.

 

ight thanks. i just cant believe hord hard this stuff is to take off. its like the paint used on war ships or somthing. ill post my results when im finished. im thinking of doing a copper color on the fins and center and a polished lip.

 

wow, that's crazy. the only thing i'd recommend is Mar-Hyde's Tal-Strip instead of the Kleen Strip that you have there. I use Mar-Hyde here at the shop whenever we need to strip panels and it works great. i don't know about the Kleen Strip brand, but the Tal-Strip is a gel that gets brushed on. the real key to getting good results is to brush it on thick and leave it alone. the more you mess with it once it's exposed to the air, the less it's going to do its job. i brush it on THICK and let it sit for a good 20-30 minutes or so before even touching it.

 

im useing aircraft. i let it sit forr about 8 hours yesterday and if just dried up and did nothing. if i let it sit for about an hour it works a little bit but the one wheel thats mostly red ive prolly done about 6-8 apps 4 apps about a month ago and 3-4 apps in the past 2 days. and glass bead blasted it before this second set of apps.

ive got about 15 hours into this one wheel alone. i guess im just gonna have to buy aanother can and keep trying. i really dont want to pay some one to do this. i think i need to apply it and then power wash between apps cause that might take the loose stuff off better.

this **** burns like hell when it splashes on my skin. got it on my leg and it turned into a small rash cause i didnt wash it off quick enough.

 

those wheels have to be powdercoated. there's no way in hell rattle can paint or even automotive paint would ever stand up to that kind of abuse from paint stripper and blasting. the best i can tell you is to brush or spray it on and let it sit for about a half an hour until it blisters (hopefully) and try to scrape it off. there's no reason to let it sit for 8 hours, it becomes inert after only a short while. i PMed you back, we could try to strip them for you, but if nothing's working i'm not sure what we'd do either.

 

Put that **** on HEAVY and no need to let it sit for even an hour once it all wrinkles up in like 15-30minutes scrape it off and put more on. Repeat many times untill its all gone. It definetly works best when you lay it on real heavy though.

 

A gas powered pressure washer or media blaster wouldn't work here?

 

i did use my buddies sand blaster with fresh glass bead in it but his compressor in the shop is not capable of blasting and the rest of the stuff running off the same compressor. im not gonna ask him to stop what hes doing since it his shop and hes working. it just wasnt cutting it on the red but im gonna go back and try again since alot of its nice and wrinkled now after 8 apps of aircraft. ill post the finished clean wheels.

 

ok so i broke down and just handed the wheels over to a local shop that said they would do both wheels for $50. i thought it was a really good deal so when i get them back tomorrow i will post them up

 

with all the trouble you've been having I'd say $50 is definitely a great deal. Just be aware that when you get them back there is probably going to be a good amount of pitting from the blast media. Not that you wouldn't anyway, but you'll probably have to buy some good 2K primer and give the wheels a few coats and then sand them out. All that means is a little more work for a better finish in the end.

 

i told the guy to make sure they took it easy on them and made sure he knew that they were rare wheels and that it would be almost impossible for me to find 2 more wheels so i think i drove the point home to take it easy on them and not use too much preassure on them. im going to be polishing the lip so hopefully there is no pitting on the lip but the center will be primed, painted, and cleared. should i clear or can i clear the polished lip? will it look like **** if i try to clear it?

 

i don't have much experience with polished parts, but i know that eastwood sells a clear that's able to be used right over bare metal. if it was me, I'd just polish the lip, then very lightly scuff the polished area with a gold scotch brite and clear using the eastwood stuff. after it dries, tape off the polished lip area and basecoat the color on the wheels. when that's ready, untape it all and clear the entire wheel with good automotive clear coat. 2-3 good coats will make it look incredible and also give it all a really nice finished off look.

eta: here's the clear i'm talking about. they also have the cheaper style in quarts and aerosol cans

http://www.eastwood.com/ew-extreme-d...lear-8-oz.html

 

so i got the wheels back from the shop and they are pitted to hell. ive been going at it for about and hour and a half with 220 and im not getting through all of the pitted stuff on the lip. is it too much to go to 100grit cause i have alot of it. these wheels are prolly the hardest wheels ever to try and polish cause of all the small nooks and crannys. my thumbs are in soooo much paint right now! im estimating it will take about 8-10 hours for these 2 wheels. the one is already polished and the last one is smooth but not polished so that one wont be too bad. but these 2 are gonna be the death of my thumbs!

 

I used Tal-Strip II on a pretty heavily coated fender and it ate through all the coats of paint within 2-3 applications of the chemical stripper.

 

so the guy did not take it easy on the wheels and he pitted the hell out of them with the blaster so ive got my work cut out for me. wheres what they looked like when i got them and the after about a hour and a half of wet sanding.

 

looks good....im not suprised that they got beat up when you got them blasted...they prolly used a heavy media to blast them...are you polishing the entire wheel or just the lip?

 

hell no that would take me 3 years to polish the whole wheel 4 times. im just doing the lip and the lobe type jawns that have to circles in them. they will look like this when im done only copper color or a nice red in the center. or maybe do black like this one. idk im so indecisive. what do you guys think? i think the copper color would look sick and very different from what ive seen. as in ive never seen copper colored cf48's