I recently purchased an RX-8 from another board member, and he went with the black stock wheel look. As a matter of preference, I don't like that look so I want to take it back to the stock look. I believe he used spray paint on the wheels, and I need to know what you would think would work best for getting wheels back to a good stock look.

What would you recommend? I was told a good solution would be getting them stripped the polished, and that media blasting wouldn't work. I tried the elbow grease method, but that takes about an hour per spoke (screw that) and I didn't even touch the center part, which would all have to be done with a tooth brush.

Another possible solution, is to just re-paint the wheels, and use them for sticky tires when I get them next year, and buy a new set of wheels for now.

Do you guys have any estimates on what the strip and polish would cost me (and I'd have to unmount and remount the wheels... so just the cost past that part)?

well, it depends on how good of a job he did.

if he striped them down, sanded, primed, paint, clear coat.
you will have to completely strip them down
( I would suggest "air craft paint remover" )
or re-paint them.
if he did a shitty job on them you might have luck trying to sand them down
(w/ high grit paper as not too scratch too deeply) and then a good wet sand.
but still prolly wont be perfect.
so I guess I personally dont know what else you could try.
maybe test it out with some Gasoline, pour some onto a rag and rub it around in one area and see how much paint you can get off and inspect the orig finish of the rims.

Air craft paint remover seemed to do the trick, actually. I don't think I'll need to do any repainting or touch up after that... they look fine as-is. You can see the edge of a still-painted one on the left of the picture.

Yep, pull the wheel. A paint stripper will work.

However it's probably bad for the tire so.....

Tale it to a metal polshing shop/ Let them do the work.

Air craft paint remover seemed to do the trick, actually. I don't think I'll need to do any repainting or touch up after that... they look fine as-is. You can see the edge of a still-painted one on the left of the picture.

You should at least clearcoat them. The brake dust will start to corrode the bare aluminum in no time.

A paint remover that contains Methylene Dichloride will bubble ALL the paint right off.

They will go white with oxide within a week unless repainted or powder coated.

S