Picked up some stock aluminum wheels

[ford4wd08]

Found a set of 89-90 stock 15x7 aluminum wheels.

They are a little rough, but since they're aluminum they will polish up I believe.

Were these clear coated from the factory? They appear to be and it's chipping off.

Any tips on how to getting these looking as good as possible?

I'm going to sell the tires off and replace them with a matching set.

 

[rangerx4]

Best bet, IMO, is to sand off the clear coat and any imperfections and then polish. You could spray clear once sanded smooth and then polish the clear, that would be less maintenance work once completed.

 

[ford4wd08]

Best bet, IMO, is to sand off the clear coat and any imperfections and then polish. You could spray clear once sanded smooth and then polish the clear, that would be less maintenance work once completed.

From what little I've been researching, your plan sounds about right.

I'm not sure if I would clear them again though. Just depends. I know you have to keep raw aluminum polished and cleaned, but I can do that on these wheels pretty easy I think.

 

[Rimjam]

You're going to have to carefully knock the buttons out from the back side with the appropriate size punch. Yes, all 96 of them. I then used commercial grade aluminum 'acid' instead of sanding. The cleaner is not 'acid' at all, it's sodium metasilicate, a strong alkali (read the Safety Data Sheet). Then polished to my heart's content with Mothers alum polish. Did not apply a clear coat because I like the 'satin' look of polished aluminum. Yes, they do require an occasional lite repolish. I would think the farther north you live the more you'd want to clear coat to protect from salt.

 

[ford4wd08]

You're going to have to carefully knock the buttons out from the back side with the appropriate size punch. Yes, all 96 of them. I then used commercial grade aluminum 'acid' instead of sanding. The cleaner is not 'acid' at all, it's sodium metasilicate, a strong alkali (read the Safety Data Sheet). Then polished to my heart's content with Mothers alum polish. Did not apply a clear coat because I like the 'satin' look of polished aluminum. Yes, they do require an occasional lite repolish. I would think the farther north you live the more you'd want to clear coat to protect from salt.

I wasn't aware the rivets could be driven out. Thanks for that tip. I had heard of the aluminum "acid" and had given that some thought.

No issues on salt here, TN doesn't get much snowfall to speak of except occasionally.

 

[rubydist]

It is hard to get clear on them and have it stick - you want to make the metal smooth but the paint needs some roughness to adhere, and most clear coats like to be over a base coat, not bare metal, so if you do decide to clear them do your homework and get a clear that says it will adhere to the bare metal.

 

[Shran]

You could have them blasted and powder coated - I did that with a set of slotted mags...they were really rough and I just couldn't get them to look nice raw and polished so I had them powder coated silver. Turned out really nice, was about $250 total.

I have often used "Alumabrite" from NAPA on bare aluminum wheels. I believe it is phosphoric acid and it works very well. Spray on, wait, scrub, rinse off, polish. Supposedly it will eat factory clear coat off of wheels but I haven't had a chance to confirm that.

 

[ford4wd08]

Quick question on these.... I have bought new center caps from ebay that came with the screws to mount them, but I believe I'm missing a few of the plastic inserts that they screw into.

Any tips of finding more if the inserts?

 

[Ranger850]

No insert tip lead, but you could try a small piece of a plastic zip tie. Shove it in the screwhole, then it will give the screw something to grab. Plastic won't rust or rot away.

 

[rebuild83]

I do not believe the buttons can be removed.

 

[Lefty]

Found a set of 89-90 stock 15x7 aluminum wheels.

They are a little rough, but since they're aluminum they will polish up I believe.

Were these clear coated from the factory? They appear to be and it's chipping off.

Any tips on how to getting these looking as good as possible?

I'm going to sell the tires off and replace them with a matching set.

A very nice set.

 

[Lefty]

These look badly corroded, but it's hard to tell how bad.

Start with the most innocuous steps first.
Try "Alumabright" or Wright's silver cream polish. Even if it doesn't work, it will remove some contaminants.
Next I would try polishing compound. A buffing wheel would help.
Next rubbing compound.
Next sanding with 1,000 grit
2,000 grit
3,000 grit
then if not try more draconian measures like soda (maybe) blasting.
Then work your way back down again
3,000
2
1
rubbing compound
polishing
etc
You could have them clear coated after that, or try 2 passes with a ceramic wax

It costs a minimum of $80.00 per wheel to have a shop clear coat them. Probably the same to have them blasted

 

[racsan]

I used a harbor freight sandblaster on a set like that then after rinsing with brake clean I hit it with some areosol clearcoat. Not “good as new”, but better than they were.

 

[ford4wd08]

I'm about ready to start working on these.

Plan of attacked is Alumabright to start then I'm going to most likely sand and work my way up to 2000 grit.

I have some mother's polish with the cone for polishing too as a last step.

I hope to have them ready for new tires in a week or so.

 

[Angry Possum]

These are the original stock rims.
Use a good paint remover with a paint brush, to take off the clear coat, u need a lot of elbow grease, some use of those green poly pads, some light sandpaper, a plastic scraping knife, and without a doubt some Napa Aluminum Mag Wheel Cleaner. Mine came out amazing. Took An Estimated 4 hours per Rim. But Well worth it. Photos enclosed. ***The Napa Aluminum Mag Wheel Cleaner works awesome with the Paint Remover, it takes a lot of clear coat off when used together.