Wheel refinishing
 

So this is more of a question on how to diy than an instructional....

So years ago I bought some 3 piece wheels. They are all black and I'm over that look.

Questions are, how do I tell of its paint or powder coated?

How do I remove the paint powder coat? I don't care about the wheel faces but I prefer the look of a polished chrome lip. The center barrels clearly are silver so I know this black was an after thought...

Any suggestions are appreciated

You may want to take a look at a thread I just posted in the DIY forum on partially refinishing (the lip only) BBS Sport Design Wheels. These are a two piece wheel that suffered from a problem endemic to this design: moisture (and more importantly wheel cleaning solution) gets trapped in the seam and dribbles out after you think you're done rinsing and eats away at the finish. I carefully sanded and masked and then refinished with Duplicolor primer, color coat, and matte clear.

When i refinished the perimeter of my wheels I only removed the finish where it showed corrosion and scuffed up the rest of the area to be painted. Not sure if you need to remove the existing finish if its in good shape. As I said in my post, I was truly amazed at how well the Duplicolor spray cans worked.

Turned out far, far better than I had expected.

There are a few ways to strip paint or PC. Most 'effective' being using a chemical stripper (Youtube style lol) however this may seriously compromise the integrity of the wheel/material. Dbl-check with your favorite chemist (not the wheel-shop dude) before dipping your AL wheels in anything ;)

The proper way would be to gently sand blast them to remove the top layer and then using a vibrating tumbler to finish/polish the material. Look for Machine Shops in your area, they normally also specialize in metal surface finishing and should be able to point you in the right direction - if not already geared up to do them for you.

Hope this helps