What do you guys think?

You can see the clearcoat peeling from the curb damage:




Stripped:



First I hit it with 220 grit to get rid of the curb damage (no pics sorry...but you get the idea)

600 Grit:




1200 Grit:


2000 Grit:


Polished:

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

What color paint (and brand & part number) are you going to spray the rims with?

Or are you just leaving it bare and spraying with clear coat?

I've got a set of beat up special edition wheels to refurbish myself.

Thanks.

What did you you use to strip the wheels?

__________________
1982 240 D, 308,000 - 321,127 miles (sold)
1982 300 TD,166,500 - 226,000 miles
1998 E 320, 120,000 - 144,000 miles
2005 C 230 K, 26,000 - 77,000 miles (sold)

I just used regular paint stripper.

Yesterday I nailed the process. Do NOT use the blue tape I showed in the original pictures. Once I removed it, I had small cracks in the paint where the stripper had leaked down through it Oh well...can't learn without mistakes.

What you NEED is aluminum tape and the manually applied stripper, not the spraycan. I used it on the 2nd wheel like this and it did NOT leak through. Damn perfect!!! I am finishing it up right now and then I will take pictures.

Do the wheel in 1/4s and strip it with gravity on your side so that there is even less chance it can seep through the tape. I believe the adhesive is MUCH better on the aluminum tape which is how it has a much more difficult time seeping through. And also the stripper does not seem to soften the Al tape either.

Today I will finish it all up!

I plan to leave them bare as they really do look just awesome (final pictures will show you later today) and I really want that shine which I think the clearcoat will definitely affect. Just means I gotta polish more often...who cares

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Finished up 2/4.

The bad first attempt with the tape that seeped the paint stripper through (This is beyond my capability to fix..so I may send it off. Who cares though I saved a ton of $$ and nailed it the second time!!)



After changing to Al tape....Oh yes Nailed it!





Looks such a huge difference!

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Those rims turned out great.

3M Blue is not for that purpose, that's why the paint seeped in. Use 3M Green, it's specifically designed for metal and the standard for automotive paint booths. (Sorry, don't have the 3M tape# for the Green...)

Nice job BTW,

Yep, guess I found out the hard way! Oh well..

I'm wondering if I should repaint the centers to a charcoal color? My 260E is black.

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

The darker grey will make the polished lip "pop" more IMO. Either way, It looks great. Good job. Different wheels, but my ronal's are finished in a similar way; however I need to redo the both the paint and the polished lip for different reasons.

__________________
1982 240 D, 308,000 - 321,127 miles (sold)
1982 300 TD,166,500 - 226,000 miles
1998 E 320, 120,000 - 144,000 miles
2005 C 230 K, 26,000 - 77,000 miles (sold)