Need Help on Refinishing SE 17" Wheels

[Omer]

I recently bought some SE wheels on the cheap on Craigslist. The only issue is that the clear coat is peeling/cracked on some of the rims, as can be seen below.



I was wondering if someone could guide me to the best way to restore these wheels?

I was thinking about just removing the topmost clear coat layer that is peeling off as you can see in the photo and then just spray painting some new clear coat on. What is the best way to accomplish this? How can I remove the clear coat layer without damaging the paint underneath it?

Alternatively, I could just sand the wheels down to the bare metal and fully repaint them with primer, paint, and then clear coat. I would rather not do this, however, since it's much more time consuming.

[gdanaher]

This is a job for powder coating. Paint is a last resort. Call your local and trusted body shop for pricing. You will soon discover that your Craigs List deal wasn't.

[11LE]

Perhaps you can use this situation to your advantage and powder-coat them something other than stock color. Not many people would have a set of black SE 17" wheels on their Camry!

[El Loco VG]

I'd say go Gunmetal. I'm looking to have a set of wheels that like you I also got cheap powder coated and I've been quoted $75 per wheel to blast and powder per wheel so its not to bad as long as you didn't pay over $300ish for them $6-700 isn't bad for a set of mint coated wheels.

[scamry]

Originally Posted by gdanaher

This is a job for powder coating. Paint is a last resort. Call your local and trusted body shop for pricing. You will soon discover that your Craigs List deal wasn't.

i'd say it's still a good deal.....but just sand it down and paint it...or sell them if you don't want to put any time into them....

[Omer]

Originally Posted by El Loco VG

I'd say go Gunmetal. I'm looking to have a set of wheels that like you I also got cheap powder coated and I've been quoted $75 per wheel to blast and powder per wheel so its not to bad as long as you didn't pay over $300ish for them $6-700 isn't bad for a set of mint coated wheels.

I actually got them for $100 so it was a pretty good deal
I was thinking about going the gunmetal route for a while, but wanted to see if it would be a good idea. I read a lot of DIY guides on how to paint wheels yourself and decided to go ahead and try that since I have some time to spare before college starts back up next week.

Right now I'm trying it with one wheel first to make sure everything goes as planned, will then do the rest. The hardest part is definitely the sanding, takes forever to remove the coats of paint. Probably took an hour just to sand one wheel by hand. I'm not sure but maybe if I used paint thinner first it would have been easier? Currently I have sanded and primed one wheel with Duplicolor etching primer and am letting it dry as I post this before I put filler primer.

I'm taking pictures of the process so I might post a DIY when I'm done.