Is it possible to polish the lip on aluminum rims such as stock style rims? I'm looking at buying a set of thesestyle rims to paint black and polish the lip on them. Has anyone else ever done this before? The reason for doing so is because I can get a set for pretty cheap and think they would look pretty good painted and polished. If anyone has any advice or pictures or anything like that post it up! Thanks

 

It's definitely possible. Would be the easiest if you had a lathe to mount it onto so that you could remove the clear only at the lip where you wanted to polish, then polish it up with it on there as well.

 

So if I were to glass bead them I should tape off the lip on them? All it takes to give them a crome like shine is removing the clear and polishing them? Thanks

 

There was a member on here who recently powder coated his stockers black and left the outer lip polished. Can't seem to find his pics right now though...

EDIT: Guess I should've looked a little harder. Member name is Yamitude and here is a link to his thread with pics. Maybe you could hit him up for some info?

 

This one

 

Thanks!!! Those look AWESOME that is exactly what I wanted to do. I didn't think they would look anywhere near that good though those look freaking GREAT!

 

Yamitude had his wheels powder coated and then had the lip machined. If you have access to these products and machines it is the best way to go for durability. Powder coating is very tough and doesn't flake off like paint sometimes will. More expensive but WELL worth the benefits.

 

I don't know how yamit had his done. I would think it would be best to have the wheels stripped or blasted (blasted preferred), then coated with the black but not fully cured, then have the outer part machined, then back to the coaters to have them apply a clear coat. That would then protect the aluminum lip. Or you could just use some sort of wheel sealer like zoops to protect the aluminum.

 

They were redone at a shop specializing in refinishing wheels, Blasted for sure, im not sure how they would have cleared the edge, as they are powder coated and edge has clear coat. Maybe powdercoated, cured, machined, masked off and then clear the edge. Dunno, i am a automotive refinisher and impressed with how the wheels turned out. Blazin Jason, installed the brackets, did a small TB crank and had the frontend aligned. I will post pics soon as i wash it , thanks for the deal on the shackles.

 

How were they to install did you have any major problems? We have a burn off oven at work that will burn off and break down organic finishes. So we can burn off the clear then pressure wash the wheels. I've done this to what 4 sets of first gen 4x4 wheels. And just from removing the clear that was on the good wheels, they were quite shiny looking. To the point where you wouldn't even have to machine them in order for it to look good. So one way would be to mask the edge, blast the rest of the wheels, then remask the wheels with a high temp tape shoot the black, then clear the whole wheel. It would be a lot easier and cleaner job to have cleard the entire wheel I would think. That would eliminate any masked edges, as with PC the coating can be anywhere from 1.5-3mils typically. Mind letting people know what it cost to have that all done, ballpark?