Anyone restore their alloy wheels?

[In The Ten Ring]

The rims on my daily driver are looking pretty rough. Flaking, some scrapes, etc. I heard a person could restore those at home.

I was thinking "once I get a media blaster" I might could blast them and then clear coat. What do you guys think?

[midniteblues]

I did.
I didn't care for the oe zr2 rims but I had a set of older s10 rims that I do like, the clear coat was failing in spots and the corrosion was getting real ugly.

So before I put new tires on I blasted and painted these for a different look.
Two years and still looking great the alum. Cleans up real easy i used a fine grit and two stage paint. I could have recleared them and had a OK alum. Color but the kid egged me into painting them.
They look good if I cleaned them.

Idk how long the paint will stand up to my boss's cats though.

[special-K]

There are businesses that only repair and restore alloy wheels. Yes, you can do all that at home, with the right equipment. I pretty much "have" my media blasting done because I have a 30 year relationship with a commercial paint shop that treats me right. After blasting them clean and all clear coat gone, if you want to clear the alloy you'll want to take it all the way back to polished. How polished is up to you. But if I was leaving them unpolished I'd leave them glass beaded. Clear coat is the culprit for ugly wheels. It is supposed to make the polish last, an attempt at maintenance-free. But it's not perfect and once anything gets past it you can't touch it. With uncleared alloy you just keep them cleaned and don't worry about shiny...or that is how you can "keep" them polished if that's the look you want

[In The Ten Ring]

So it's better not to clear coat them? Would I just clean with soap and water and go on?

[OARNGESI]

Find a area that polishes semis I found a place about 20 min from me that polished the wheels on my fan for 5 each

[Steelheader]

I've done a few sets at home , they took some time and some elbow grease but they came out pretty nice . The last set where off my 2011 gmc 2500 , up here in upstate N.Y. with the amount of salt on the roads you only get about 3-4 years out of clear coated aluminum before the oxidation realy starts showing .
I started with a can of paint remover and stripped the clear coat . Then went after them with scotch bright pads on the bad spots and then worked my way through until I was on polishes and pads . Ended up using mothers power ball and a buffer until they shined like a mirror .
Those ones I ended up not putting clear coat back on , so evertime I would wash it I would just throw a little polish on the rims and they would shine up pretty quick , but I would say if you didn't plan on keeping up on polishing and cleaning they would probably go to hell in a hurry , so if you wanted to just re-do every few years ( dependent on climate and conditions ) I would thow some rim clear coat back on . Good luck .

[In The Ten Ring]

Some great info here, thanks guys.

What about powder coating?

WV has some rough winters too and they use salt here. My wheels look rough and I have thought about getting a second set for summer time use but the OEM ones for my car's year are all gone or very hard (and expensive) to find. I am going to start calling around to see if I can find a shop that will do it but I can afford to wait till spring and have a go at this myself. I could rustle up a spare tire and wheel and run that while I reworked one rim at a time.