In this article: http://pantablo500.tripod.com/id42.html
The guy used AirCraft Paint remover to remove paint and polish his rims. Will that work on my GS? My GS is purple with white rims. Will that actuallty remove the white paint and have a polished finish? will polish look nicer than the white on purple? Thx
The paint remover removes the paint. It all depends on the condition of the metal underneath. If you want a mirror finish you're going to have to sand down all the imperfections with aluminum oxide sandpaper. Start as rough as necessary and work your way to 1500, removing all the scratches of the previous grade. You'll then have to polish with an aluminum polish. Mother's works well, but Rolite, an aircraft polish, will make it perfect.
This all assumes that you don't mind spending a significant portion of your riding time with a rag in hand.
Quotewill polish look nicer than the white on purple?
That depends on who's answering the question. ;)
Follow the above mentioned steps, then clear coat them. This will protect the shine....
I polished my wheel lips with aircraft paint remover. Worked like a breeze, and the wheels look great!
I maintain them with Mothers periodically.
be careful with that aerosol aircraft paint remover. Wear long sleeves, gloves, eye protection, and be mindfull of the wind when you spray it. It WILL burn your eyes or skin if it gets on you. I got some painfull chemical burns when the wind kicked up and blew it onto my forearm.
It removes paint like a dream, though. It eats plastic, so make sure you don;t get it on any other parts of your bike. Not sure if it will harm the tires, but I would err on the side of caution and mask the wheels pretty well.
There is evidently a place in charlotte that has a buffer (2 massive polishing wheels spinning around) that will take a significantly large object ... my guy seemed to indicate whole bike frame ... May want to look for such place in your city.
Cool.
Srinath.
I think you could do the buffing with a relatively cheap random orbital polisher. It's the kind of tool you can pay any amount for depending on the quality you want. You can get a decent one for less than $50. For wheels, you could probably get away with a polishing wheel for a power drill.
A 1/4" electric die grinder with some ball buffs would be ideal.