I have some silver factory wheels off of a 96 firebird formula. I found a site with directions on how to polish the wheels, but i was wondering how hard it is to get the silver finish off the wheels. I want to go this route until i have extra cash for some 17 inch wheels and tires

 

Hey, I had to strip off some clearcoat and paint on a set of American racing rims I polished out that I got with the truck I bought. I took some aircraft/paint stripper, bought from Autozone, and used it. Worked great. It comes in a gallon container, and is a thick gel, and you'll definetly want some heavy duty gloves, or be extremely careful. If you get it on you, you'll want to be by a water hose, etc, because it will burn like crazy after a few seconds. You'll know if you get just a little bit on ya. Anyway, use a paint brush or something to spread it, and wait. After a few minutes, the clear and paint started to bubble and you can take whatever you are using to spread it and just kind of wipe it right off. I'd recommend sitting the rim over a trash can, or bucket to scrape it off into. It may not all come off the first time, but the majority will. I also found out on the last rim I was doing that you can reuse this stuff to an extent. Just take the crap you just scraped off and smear it back on the spots that are a little more stubborn, and it will keep working. Then just spray them off with a hose when they're clean of all paint or clear. Hope this helps.
Andrew

 

I rarely look at this section of the board and wouldn't you know there's something here I can answer

I have done exactly that. Let me say that it is extremely time consuming. Stripping the silver paint and clearcoat is very easy (I used Aircraft stripper as well) but the polishing is lots of work! There's a VERY course sand-cast finish underneath that paint and you have to remove lots of material before even starting to polish. Make sure you have lots of time on your hands, an electric drill with many assorted discs and flap-wheels, a Dremel for the nooks and cranny's, and plenty of time and elbow grease. I love the finished product but it was painstaking work to get them to their current state.

 

I apreciate the help guys...i'm gonna start the project tommarow