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I want to repaint my rims. They are the original rally wheels that came with it. what is the best way to remove the old paint and prep for a new paint job? Am I better off has them blasted with a media blaster or using some sort of chemical like airplane paint stipper? I was hoping to try and do it myself and I do not own a media blaster?

Thanks

I used aircraft remover when I repainted my motorcycle gas tank, and when I repainted my luv. It will remove anything. (including your skin)

That's the route I would go.

I would also vote for aircraft remover if you don't have a sandblaster. If you gotta unmount the tire anyway and can get to a sandblaster that would be my vote. That's what I was planning to do, but now I've decided on a scuff-and-shoot with the wheels still on the truck. I'll let you know how that goes if I get to it soon enough.

Around here the Les Schwab tire shops will take your old wheels and powder coat them for about $20 a rim. They send them off to be blasted, cleaned, powdered, and baked. I figure to do that for my stock 4x4 white spoke rims the next time I get new tires on my 77. They still look good, but having them coated instead of painted would be nice. For $20 you don't get a super duper perfect job on the coating, but the ones I've seen do look better than most rattle can paint jobs I've seen and the finish is much more durable.

You might check with the local tire shops and see if they do something similar.

I like to do things for myself most of the time, but sometimes I wise up and just spend a few bucks to have it done right where it makes sense.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

where do you get the aircraft remover at? does it remove rust also?

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I like my Luv WILD!!!

Sometimes too much to drink isn't enough!!
Kinky is using a feather. Perverted is using the whole chicken.
http://www.wildluvracing.com

Walmart and no.

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RIP R.J.B.

If you have rust, beadblasting is best...

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FIAA!

SFPP!

thanks.

_________________
Life is a DRAG RACE!!!
I like my Luv WILD!!!

Sometimes too much to drink isn't enough!!
Kinky is using a feather. Perverted is using the whole chicken.
http://www.wildluvracing.com

Thanks gang for the helpful information!!

So, I got around to doing some rim painting. Decided to unmount the tires since they were spares, my truck came with two snow tires. Anyway, I used VHT Chevy Rally Silver that I got from Summit. Before painting, I sanded the rim with a fine grit sanding sponge that I got from Harbor Freight. Sanded, blew the dust off, wiped with denatured alcohol, then put on 2 coats on the back and 3 on the front according to the directions on the can. I found that 1 can is not quite enough for 2 rims. I believe I will end up buying a total of 3 cans for the 4 wheels I will be painting. I also painted the hub caps, I used Duplicolor Olympic White. They were prepped in the same way as the wheels. In either case I didn't really sand any paint off, just the gloss so the new paint would stick. I feel it came out pretty well, and the silver paint does a good job of hiding the scratches I made from manually unmounting my tires. I've included a 'before' pic that shows the average condition of the wheels.

Looking good. It is now time to paint the chevy Bow-Tie

They turned out good.

_________________
Life is a DRAG RACE!!!
I like my Luv WILD!!!

Sometimes too much to drink isn't enough!!
Kinky is using a feather. Perverted is using the whole chicken.
http://www.wildluvracing.com

are those the stock wheels? the only stock wheel left on my truck was the spare from 75 but i have been trying to find wheels just like that.

As far as I know they're the stock ones. Some day soon I'll get around to painting the other two. Oh and it was so nice, I went to Just Tires to have the tires mounted on them and they did it for $15 a tire and gave me free balancing. Now I have the receipt for that so I should be able to get them to do it again for me. Probably helped that the wheels weren't on the truck.

Finally finished this project

Looks real nice. Did you use the aircraft paint stripper? Did you get it from Wal Mart?

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In life there is the "Way things should be" and then "There's the way they are".

2005 Silverado 3/4T Crew Cab
1981 Luv 2WD
1979 Luv 4x4 Currently going through Open Heart and Cosmetic surgery
1995 Roughneck JetBoat
1981 Luv parts trk

I used a few brush on the rust spots. Then used sandpaper and steel wool the do the rest of the prep before painting. I used Duplicolor paints.