Whats hiding under the factory rim paint????

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:39 am

Hey guys, maybe this has been covered before, maybe it hasnt, but to those of you who are fans of the painted spokes, polished lips rims, it is a very easy deal to do and can be done fairly cheap, all it takes is a little time, elbow grease and the desire to set your bike off from stockers. This only cost me $25 to do and took me about 8 hours.

WARNING!!!!! ONLY DO THIS IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA, THE STRIPPER WILL MAKE YOU DIZZY IF YOU BREATH THE FUMES FOR TOO LONG AND IT ISNT GOOD FOR YOU. IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD A CHEMICAL BURN, YOU DONT WANT ONE, WHEN USING THE PAINT STRIPPER, WEAR RUBBER GLOVES, THIS STUFF WILL BURN YOU QUICKLY AND IT HURTS BAD!!!

You will need some materials to do this, but it wont break the bank, you will need:
2 cans of Aircraft Remover, 1 can of primer, 2 cans of paint and some time to get dirty with your rims....

Remove the brake discs and lay the tires on a tarp to catch the mess (yes it is going to be messy and fumes will linger around so do it outside or in a well ventilated area).
Spray the stripper on the entire area you want stripped. I stripped the whole thing, it removed all the grease and brake dust and of course the factory paint. Let the stripper work for ATLEAST 20 minutes, then with PROTECTIVE GLOVES ON use a scrubbing pad (i stole mine from the kitchen sink) to knock loose the bubbled paint. RINSE THE STRIPPER OFF WITH TONS OF WATER, YOU WANT IT ALL OFF!!!!!!!
You may need to apply an additional coat of stripper and let that work its magic, I had to to get the stubborn spots clean...

Here we see the rim stripped, taped and ready to be painted. I use one coat of fairly thick primer (not dripping but heavy), it helps fill in the sand cast of the rim and leaves a nice smooth finish...

Front rim is now primed and allowed to dry for an hour...

Now choose the color you wish to paint the rims or spokes and shoot that, I chose to go with red spokes and polished lips, you can do whatever your tastes like....

And here is our end result, no need to polish the lips at this point, they are already done (thanks Yamaha but why did you hide their beauty???), you will have to hit them from time to time with Mothers or a similar aluminum polish, but they sure look alot better...

Outlaw · Post by **Outlaw** » Mon May 15, 2006 3:27 pm

Good job! You've gone and gotten me motivated now.... Just went out and bought all of the supplies last night.

One thing though, does it have to be aircraft stripper? or will any stripper work? I couldn't find the aircraft stripper, so I just bought what I could find. It said it was for wood and metal surfaces. I don't want to take a chance on damaging the wheels.

wslonger · Post by **wslonger** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:57 pm

aircraft stripper works best I think Not sure about regular paint stripper.

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:54 am

Outlaw, I am not sure about what you bought, Aircraft Stipper is the only one I have tried......

Outlaw · Post by **Outlaw** » Tue May 16, 2006 2:43 pm

Well, the stuff I bought doesn't appear to hurt the rims. Not so sure it works all that well. I scrubbed, and scrubbed and then scrubbed some more.... Did it in my garage with the overhead door open, and still ended up getting light headed. Woke up this morning at 06:00 with a major hangover. And I still don't have ALL of the paint off both rims....

I'm going to let it go for a day or so (we finally have a little sunshine, so I'm gonna get out on the bike for awhile this afternoon), Will also give my head a chance to recover....

By the way, where did you get the Aircraft stripper?

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:12 pm

I purchased it at O'Rielly Auto Parts. I found it sitting on the shelf next to the Bondo, so maybe you could try Walmart or KMart and look in the automotive section (I boycott Target for what they did to families of U.S. military reservists that were called to active duty plus for their refusal to allow T.F.T. to collect for the needy children at Xmas). The correct name is Aircraft Remover and it is made by Klean Strip. (and on that note, it says right on the can "do not use on aircraft" LOL)

Outlaw · Post by **Outlaw** » Tue May 16, 2006 11:50 pm

Ok, I'll look at O'Reily's tommorrow. We just had a new one built, think it opened about a week ago.

Most of the problem was that the rear wheel had been painted before. They used a heavy primer, that stuff is hard to get off. The front wheel just had factory paint, with no primer, it wasn't so bad.

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:27 am

When you apply the stripper, spray it on HEAVY and let it soak in for a good 20-30 minutes. You know it is working when the surface looks like it is crinkled. You can use a paint can stirring stick (wooden) to scrape the surface to check if it has soaked long enough.......

DO NOT apply the stripper in sunlight, it will dry on the rim then u are in deep doo doo!

Have you decided on a color for the spokes yet? I think if you could find a blue to match your graphics, it would be very sweet!

One more thing, dont go cheap on the tape you use for masking. I found that Duct brand "blue painters tape" in 2" width is the best, yes, it is $5 per roll, but it leaves nice crisp lines and doesnt allow paint to bleed under, plus it removes without leaving residue. When you do tape, make sure the rims are very dry, the aluminum seems to be a tad poruos and holds onto water even after you have wiped them with a towel, so wipe them, wipe them again and wipe them again. LOL Might need to let them sit in the sun for 10-15 minutes to dry really good so the tape sticks...

Outlaw · Post by **Outlaw** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:50 pm

Actually, I'm not doing the rims for the bike in my avatar. Sold it a week or two ago. I'm doing them for a future upgrade to my FJ1200. Going to put USD forks on with R1 blue spot calipers. In the back I'm putting a GSXR1000 wheel (much wider than stock). So, I'm going to leave the outer surface polished (if I can make it look good enough) and the inner spokes are going to be black. (low maintenance) I did most of the stripping at night, but put stripper on both wheels at once. Probably a mistake. I think some of it dried on the rear wheel. The outer area has some areas that are kinda milky colored. If I screwed it up, then I guess I'll have to paint the whole rim. I'd really rather not do that, tire guys usually tear up painted rim beads.

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:20 pm

Well, tyes, sometimes a guy at a shop can mess up a bead, but that is from improperly setting up the machine and not knowing what you are doing in the first place.
As far as the stripper drying on the rim, try letting it soak with a heavy coat and it might work loose. Yeah, black would be low maintenece, but dont you keep your bike clean all the time? (LOL Not me, but I shoudl start)
I am not sure the year of the rims I actually did, I still have 2 rims (1 front and 1 rear) that are white but the lip is a different contour from the ones i stripped (the contour is much narrower and wouldnt have looked as good), I am thinking they are 91 or newer (they were origionally gray).

Outlaw · Post by **Outlaw** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:57 pm

Well, found the aircraft stripper at the auto parts store today. It does work better than the stuff I had, but they are both made by Klean-Strip. I used the whole can. Wheels are about 98 - 99% done. Still have some remnants of the primer here and there on the rear rim. Will tackle it with steel wool tomorrow. They are looking good, it is tempting to leave them the way they are and polish the spokes as well. But I don't think that would look right on my bike.

Those gray rims you have would be difficult to tell when you get all the paint off of the spokes. My front rim was gray, didn't look all that different when the paint was gone. (except for the outer lip, which is polished) Rear rim used to be blue, over gray primer. So when your looking at the spokes, it is difficult to tell what is aluminum, and what is primer. Plus I'm real picky, don't want to leave ANYTHING on the rim. It would be my luck that whatever wouldn't come off with the stripper and scrubbing, would come off as soon as I paint over it

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:25 am

When I did mine, I rinsed the stripper off really good and wiped the rims down with a clean rag, then blew them off with a air hose, directly after I painted them without using any cleaner on the rim, the stripper leaves a oil free surface that the paint sticks to really well...

Stig · Post by **Stig** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:09 pm

wicked,

you didn't state whether or not you used etching primer before the undercoat

Bare alu needs this to help the paint 'key' to the metal surface and keep the paint on for many years

WickedFZR1K · Post by **WickedFZR1K** » Fri May 19, 2006 3:21 pm

Stig, no, I didnt use etching primer, I just used the spray can stuff from the hardware store. As far as not sticking to the rims, if the surface is clean, there should never be an issue as the rim surface is porous enough for a good bond (remember, the rims are sand casted and then machined on the lips).