funditor

Hey guys,

I have a '99 GS300 with stock wheels. They're aluminum and have a light grey coating from the factory. The coating is starting to flake off. Especially on the wheel that had a sticky caliper that caused it to overheat.

Has anyone stripped the coating and tried to polish the aluminum underneath? If it's possible and holds up reasonably well for summer driving, that would be a pretty cheap and fun way to make the wheels look good.

Likewise, any advice on cheapest way to get the brake calipers looking decent? They're coated in pitted rust right now. So I could hit them with a wet sand blast & either coat them or give it some kind of bluing treatment or oxide. Not looking for anything fancy, just something better than pitted rust.

Thanks!

firelizard

iTrader: (1)

You can strip and polish any aluminum wheels if you want. It doesn't cost a lot it just takes a lot of time and afterwards you need to polish them regularly or they will get cloudy.

For the calipers, you can sandblast or wirewheel them and paint them. If you just clean the rust off and don't topcoat them, it'll come right back in a matter of weeks.

newgsman

iTrader: (4)

I have painted aluminium wheels on a few different occasions. I find the best glossy results occur when you apply several coats of clear. You need to make sure you sand down the wheels to really smooth out the finish before painting.

SynDragon

Well I have the stock 98 GS 400 stock 5 star rims. They were pretty chewed up along the edges from curb rubbing on bad park jobs and coated in black brake dust in these rough grooves.
What I did was - soak them in the harshest brake dust cleaner you can get till super clean (oh yeah take them off car of course lol) . Then I took sand paper and files and sanded them down till smooth again... Once completed I use automotive silver spray paint to paint them the same color and feathered the paint into the regular rims (didn't want to strip and repaint the whole wheels). This is best done in some light coats... Once done I then did the same with clearcoat. Came out looking mint and perfect except slight variations on the edge you cannot really tell unless you look super close, but look 100x better then before and perfect from 5-10 feet away. Didn't even need to take the tires off. Just Mask the tire when you paint. Not sure it's the same Mag but should be.