Hey everyone,

When I bought my '03 G coupe, the previous owner had done a DIY and painted the OEM 18s a gunmetal color. Sweet! Unfortunately, the paint is flaking now. I was wondering if using a paint thinner would damage the aluminum? How would I go about removing the paint and revealing a (hopefully) shiny OEM wheel underneath?

I can upload pics, but everyone probably knows what nasty flaking wheels look like.

 

Anyone have any suggestions? Here's some pics of what I'm talking about.

 

Oh man thats brutal!

I don't know what will help that besides sanding and repainting metallic silver?

 

It looks like they didn't prep/sand the wheel properly before painting.

You would need to resand the entire wheel...then spray with a sandable primer....sanding in between coats....and then try to get a similar color to the original wheels.....
That color is too dark. I know it is virtually impossible to match the OEM color on the 18" wheels.

I had pretty good success with a diamond dust silver paint, and cleared it with a clear made for rims..... I only did some minor touch ups, I never touched the entire face of the wheel. I painted the flat surface in between the spokes and lip only....

I will see if I can attach a couple shots.

 

These are very clean man.

 

I would just sand it all down and repaint it, or get them powdercoated. Previous owner did a lazy job painting those...

 

I use this product called Aircraft paint stripper. Spray it on and let it sun in the sun til it bubbles then start scrapping it off with a plastic scrapper tool.