Amg wheel polishing question

[karl87]

I just acquired a set of amg wheels off of a 2001 CLK amg, they are silver in color and I believe its silver paint. Would I be able to sand off the paint and give the wheel a high shine polish? Any one know what ill need to mount the wheels? I've not received them yet. Vehicle is a 2007 GTI.

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[phil]

Strip the paint, clean it, sand it, polish it.

Lots of work, but it'll come out looking good :thumbsup:

Should mount on the car, maybe Extended Lugs, but I don't think you do for these wheels.

 

[karl87]

Thank you for responding, the center caps have some paint peeling also and the Chrome Mercedes emblem on them is what would prevent me from repainting them, do you know if the center caps are a universal size for Mercedes? Also the wheels are 17x7.5 et.30 front and 17x8.5 et 36 rear, any foreseen issues?

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[cskm]

since they are merc wheels, more than likely the wheel center bore is 66.6. ecs has them for 20 bucks i think? you'd want to get those because you may get vibrations after mounting. (our center bore is 57.1).

 

[VMRWheels]

The actual polishing process will be a time consuming one but in the end you'll like it. You'll need to do lots of sanding, using higher and higher grit sandpaper throughout the polishing process. Depending on the center bore size on the wheels, you may or may not need hubcentric rings. I believe the bolt pattern is the same.

 

[karl87]

How about stripping do I need to use a chemical stripper? I guess the real question is should I? And if so which one? I know the bolt pattern is a 5X112. Another thing is that the wheels have some curb rash on the outer edges of the lips, any tips on fixing that?

 

[VMRWheels]

Definitely use a chemical stripper. You can buy a variety of different strippers at Home Depot or Lowes. I would recommend one simply known as aircraft stripper. The aerosol ones are nice because they're a little bit easier to work with but from my experience they're not quite as effective as the kind you 'paint' on the wheels. One thing to note, wear gloves and be careful. If any of that stuff gets on your skin you will get a chemical burn.

You can fix the curb rash by sanding it down a little and adding a bit of bondo to smooth it out and level out the lip with the rest of the wheel.

 

[karl87]

But if I use bondo I will not be able to polish the lip correct? Is there no way to remove the rash and still be able to polish the wheel? And any tips on how to use the stripper? Ive never used a chemical stripper.

 

[VMRWheels]

I forgot about the fact that you'll be polishing them. You'll just need to sand the lips smooth then.

The aerosol strippers just come out of a spray can, so just wear gloves, aim, and spray. Leave the wheels in the sun and they will start to peel themselves. After a while they'll be ready to just wash down with water and clean. After that you can proceed to sand them smooth. If you buy the kind that you would paint on, you have to get a paint brush and apply it that way, and then just let it sit in the sun again.

 

[karl87]

Awesome, you've been a ton of help. I cant wait to get this project going.