I'm no expert and my bodyshop did the work, however...

The Porsche rims seem to have a clear-coat on top of polished alloy. I don't know the brand of paint.

I think you'll know when you've reached the metal. The grey colour you have encountered sounds like the primer. This can often be seen on the back or inside of a new wheel.

I think the polishing is achieved by spinning the wheel at high speed against a diamond or something.

Good luck!

__________________
JJ Rodger
2013 G350 Bluetec
1999 SL 500
1993 E300 diesel T
1990 190

I have 16" Lorinser rims. I have searched the web for
hours. Have found a place in California that will do a
complete job of strip & chroming of wheels. He uses a new
method that only a couple of shops use world wide.

He can give you a (5) year warranty against fad and pit
marks. This is unheard of.

Cost is $175.00 per rim. The Lorinser rims I have are around
$600.00 new. So, spend $2400 for new rims or $700.00.
Pretty easy choice.

If anyone is interested, please let me know. I will pass on
this info to you.

Tully Lee

Yes Tully Lee I would like to know of the contact info or web address of the shop you found. I do not want chrome though but the OE polished and clear coat look. I have one wheel to do or sell to someone who wants it (it is stripped) .

My 8 hole, 15 inch wheels are OE (124 401 1202, 61/2x15H2, ET44) and are made by Ronal in Germany. I purchased 2 yesterday from a salvage yard to replace the one that was messed up. I am not going to mess with them except to clean, compound, polish and wax. I may touch up any scratches that do not buff out.

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1993 Mercedes Benz 300D 2.5 205K (ex wife's)
1984 Mercedes Benz 300SD 320K (SOLD)
2004 Mercedes Benz C240 75K
1995 GMC Sierra 2WD 5.7L 188K
1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD 239K (SOLD)
1987 BMW 325i 220K (SOLD FOR SALVAGE)

609 Certification

I looked at the wheels from my buddy last weekend, and they definitely need reconditioning. They are 1995 8 hole wheels, and they appear to be polished alloy with a clear coat over them. In some ways they look like they might be painted, but I can see the CNC marks (mill) marks on the alloy pretty clearly, and you'd think if they were painted, it would cover those marks up.

He gave me a few places to call, and the quotes came back pretty high - $175 - $190 each to strip, polish, and clear coat. I can also chrome them for $140 each, but I'm not crazy about the chrome look with the 8 hole rims.

I took them to my auto body shop who painted my G20 (black), and my Nissan Quest (dark metallic blue). He's a mid-range to high-end shop, and does a lot of show cars, collector cars, Mercedes, BMW's, and also run of the mill work for insurance companies. He even does frame work. Anyway, he's done wheels many times before, and since I'm a repeat customer, he said he'd do them for $35.00 per wheel to strip and paint silver then clear-coat.

The polish look might look better, but at only $35.00 per wheel to paint, it is too cheap to pass up. Besides, If the post earlier was correct, 1995 was the only year that wasn't painted anyway.

Any comments from those who've done this before?

Anybody think I'm crazy for painting over these polished wheels?

Thanks in advance.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Paul,

Are the wheels scratched? If so....how deep?

Or, is just the clearcoat coming off?

I didn't examine each wheel very closely, but they didn't seem to be too deeply scratched. It was kind of hard to tell, because the clear coat was scratched and had come off in many areas.

I'm sure though when the clear coat is stripped that there are many superficial scratches in the wheels. I don't know if these can be easily buffed out. If I don't paint them and just clear coat them again, the minor imperfections will be incredibly magnified.

I'm confident that painting them will hide the imperfections, though.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Sounds like you have a good deal, in terms of the painting cost, if you choose to proceed with that route.

if one is looking for the highest quality "painted" type of finish, research "powder coating" either locally or on the web

powder coating wheels is expensive, but infinitely more durable and lasting vs. painting methods

fyi- colored wheels on motorcycles are typically powder coated to withstand big abuse of chain locks and the like, and they hold up spectacularly (no chips/ scratches)

re: chroming wheels
It appears to be a common understanding that the chroming process "weakens" wheels, however- - - I wonder how strong a wheel one really needs???? I've never seen wheel failure attributed to chroming...and there's certainly millions of chrome wheels running around daily driver N America vehicles (incl behmoth SUVs...

good luck
-fad

Fad,

Agree with you 100% about chrome wheels.

I'm not really that familiar with powder-coating though. Do you have any pics of powder coated wheels to share?

Well, I got the wheels, and it appears that mainly the clear coat has peeled off in many areas. The clear coat also seems to have hazed / fogged badly.

There are no deep scratches, and there may not be any scratches at all. It's just that the clear coat has come off in so many places that I can't tell.

It's too much money to have the wheels re-polished and clear coated.

Does anyone know if I can simply strip the clear coat off and clear coat again?

It may not look perfect, but it might still look better than painted 8 hole rims.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Well, after two months of "marinating" about which route I wanted to go, I saved my lunch money, and saved enough money to basically refinish them anyway I wanted.

I ruled out chrome because of all the problems with chroming and long-term durability, weight issues, softening the metal, yada yada yad. That would've been $140 / wheel, fwiw.

Painting and re-polishing were basically the same amount - $110 / wheel, so I decided to keep these 1995 wheels original and had them re-machined and clear-coated.

I might add that 1995 8 hole wheels are not "polished", they really are machined. They are very shiney, but not polished. They could've polished them for me after the machining to a brilliant mirror-like shine, but the clear coat really doesn't want to stick to a polished finish, and if you don't clear coat, then you'll have to continuously repolish the wheels over time.

The clear coat is also not a typical sprayed-on clear coat, like that on paint, but a baked-on powder coat. The shine is really unbelievable.

So, I paid a total of $440 to have the wheels trued, cleaned up the lip where the wheel was scraped / bent, stripped of the old clear coat, remachined, and clear-coated. The price also included repainting the gray area in the scalloped holes.

I also ordered a set of SLK center caps that are really beautiful, but expensive - $20 each, instead of $5.00 each for the typical chrome or silver center caps.

I now have a set of original chrome 15 hole wheels that I need to sell.

Anybody interested?

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I have three wheels with the paint type coating and one wheel with the clear coat over the bright machined surface. I have an extra, scrap wheel that I have experimented with stripper. I will not strip the wheels myself.

Does any one know if it is expensive to have them stripped and only stripped. If I had them stripped, I would polish them all myself and then clear coat them.

Thanks for your help,

When you say "stripped", do you mean bead blasted?

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

No, I mean chemically stripped. If the paint and clear coat were off these wheels, I could easily polish and re clear coat them. Then they would all match AND look much better.

Thanks,

Let me add that I was going to get my wheels highly polished after the re-machining, but they advised me against it.

In their experience, the clear coat doesn't stick too well to a highly polished finish. Machining leaves small grooves, like a vinyl record, and apparently this gives something the clear coat can stick to.

I would also make sure that a sprayed on clear coat will be durable enough. I just assumed that my wheels would be clear-coated in the normal spray-on fashion, but the clear coat was powder-coated, so I'm assuming it's a more durable finish. After all, motorcycle rims are clear-coated.

Feel free to take away from my experience what makes sense to you. The best thing about my advice is that it's all free!

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".