chrome wheels peeling, and painting advice
 

my car came w/ chrome stock rims, but i'm pretty sure it's not the dark chrome from the factory; the dealer must've chromed it themselves. anyhow, all four wheels are now bubbling and peeling, and here and there i can peel off small sheets, revealing a primer-ish-looking surface underneath. i want to spray paint my rims black, was wondering if i can just peel/brush/sand off the chrome surfaces that's coming off by itself already, sand, and then primer/paint?

or, do i need to take it somewhere to get it *professionally dechromed*?

thanks

You should just get them powder coated, the shop should also sand blast them so you will end up with good result.

i considered that, but spray painting is just so damn cheap. a shop quoted me $100 to sandblast and $300 to powdercoat. i also heard that sandblasting weakens the wheel? spraypainting would be so much cheaper and it'd be a nice and easy winter project when the car is parked most of the time...

But you also run the risk of fugly wheels, depending upon your ability, quality of paint, number of coats, etc. I've seen some botched wheel painting jobs. Then again, I've seen some pretty good ones. If you do go that route, make sure to post pics when you're done.

On the other hand, all of the powdercoated rims I've seen have been very nice. I might choose that option someday, but I'm not sure how much they can do with wheels that have some curb rash/damage.

For 400 bucks buy some cheap wheels.

Sandblast them, sand, primer, then paint..I just did mine but my buddy has a sandblaster and saved me some good money

/\ Pics or it didn't happen. Do you have any yet?

Sandblasting will weaken the wheel if it heats the wheel enough to remove the heat treatment. All aluminum wheels are heat treated and quenched in a variety of processes in order to strengthen them. If the wheel is heated (through sandblasting, welding, etc.) and not quenched the exact same way the manufacturer did, then they will lose the properties the heat treatment gave them.

In layman's terms: An aluminum wheel that has been sandblasted or repaired by welding is most likely weakened and is dangerous to use.

That's why you dip the wheels to remove the chrome.

I

dip?

don't have any pics i def should have now that i think about it...I just put a set of g35 wheels on about a week ago and painted them black, but they were chrome to start off with

dip in acid?

my questions is really just this, since the chrome is bubbling and peeling off on its own, can i just peel all of it to remove the chrome? or is there other coating underneath that's only removable by dipping?

Peel off all the chrome and sand it down with sand paper...primer it, then paint...if its your first time you might want to use sandable primer to get any spots you might have missed

cool thanks! will post pix when done...probably sometime in the middle of/after the winter