jtgray10

Bought a set of AP2V1 rims with some clear coat issues. From the factory, seems that the rims are painted and then the flat surfaces are machined before clear is applied to everything.

Based on searching the forums, I think I have a couple options:

1. Use aircraft stripper and take them down to bare aluminum, spray clear. Does anyone have pictures of rims that have been stripped and then clear coated? Not sure what this will look like.
2. Sand down the areas of damaged clear (flat/machined areas only) and then re-apply. Won't be perfect, but might be good enough for who it's for.
3. Run as-is till new rubber is needed and powder coat.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

darcyw

I have done this. The rims have a diamond cut surface with painted areas between the spokes. Aircraft stripper will remove all the clear coat, but if you start sanding the diamond cut to remove corrosion, it will leave areas that appear dull. I ended up wet sanding the spokes all the way up to 2000 grit, then clear coated the whole thing. They are perfect for autocross but not pretty. I can always have them refinished properly in the future if I wanted- see below.

The ideal is to send them out for refinishing- sand blasting then have the inner spoke areas painted, then re- diamond cut, and then clear coat- this will provide a factory finish- I got a cost estimate from Detroit rim refinishing at $125/rim.

I spent less than $50 on aircraft stripper, clear coat for the 4 rims I did.
For reference, I had 4 rims powder coated for about $250/4.

good luck
darcy

zeroptzero

On my integra blade rims which are the same kind of Honda finish I sanded the worn areas of the clearcoat and reapplied clear. The damaged area does get cleaned up and the finish becomes smooth again, but you cans still see the imperfection through the clearcoat. At the end of the day they are still far from perfect. They look ok from a distance but if you are picky the fix won't suffice.