WS6wanted

Hey guys, I picked up a set of used 17" ws6 5 spoke and the previous owner painted them silver. Is there a way of removing the silver paint and getting them back to their original color without damaging the wheels? And then polishing them to look new again? There is no scratches/damage to the wheels, they are in great shape, they don't look so bad in silver but I love the more chromed look of polished aluminum.

WS6wanted

I found the old post of people stripping and polishing ws6 wheels so that they look like new. Do you guys think the stripper will remove the clear and the coat of silver altogether. Then all I would have to do is maybe sand off any oxidation with 1500 grit sand paper and then polish?

WBO_COTTO

Post up some pics. I might trade you for my mine which is what your looking for.

WS6wanted

The shipping would be a hell of a lot, I'm north of the boarder

MasterTomos

iTrader: (15)

You sure they aren't from a '96 car? some came painted silver from the factory.

WS6wanted

Damn, I hope not

WS6wanted

Damn, I hope not, the lip of the rim is polished

WS6wanted

sh_t! I think I do have 96 wheels. I got them at such a cheap price so it doesn't pain me that much but really not what I was going for. I wish you were closer wb0, we could of traded wheels and hood too, ha.

Does anyone know how much the tools would cost me if I were to strip and polish the silver off. I know it requires more work from previous posts, has anyone ever stripped silver painted wheels to the bear aluminum before?

TechCam97

iTrader: (5)

Nope, no one ever has. You will be the first to venture into that territory. Make sure to take a lot of pictures and document your findings on here, on other forums, on wiki, and maybe even make it available through a Google search. If you're really feeling up to it you could even make a video


or two

Seriously though, you can and there are a lot of resources out there for you to use to get it done.

WS6wanted

I was also looking at plasti dipping the wheels in a gunmetal Metallica. I will probably give that a shot to see how it looks. I like the pics I see of navy blue cars with the gun metal rims. Thanks for the vids Techcam, if the plasti dipping doesn't look good, I may try the polishing route.

TechCam97

iTrader: (5)

Plasti Dip can look good, I helped my friend do his WS6 wheels over the summer and they came out looking pretty good:







We used glossifier and while it made the black pop more, it made the polished aluminum look hazy and milky. We ended up just using the black and no glossifier.

WS6wanted

Did you guys tape the lip? What do you use to get the lip so round and unpainted.

TechCam97

iTrader: (5)

We used two kinds of tape, the regular kind of painters tape to do the bulk of the lip and then we used a thin pin stripe tape to do the sharp lines around the spokes. We did about three coats on the wheels themselves and then did a very heavy coat around the edge of the spokes where they meet the lip and pulled the pin stripe tape to give them a crisp line before the plasti dip dried.

unioncarpenter84

iTrader: (22)

first i stripped the wheels with air craft stripper.

then painted the inside gloss black.

sanded with 1500 grit sand paper

then polished with a polisher on a drill with multiple polishes