[redbird555]

Hi guys I just bought a set of c5 magnesium wheels from a 2000 corvette, they've had kind of a rough life. Someone tried to repaint them black from their original bronze color and they did a crap job. So I need to get at least the black paint off and then reshoot them the original bronze color they were painted with from the factory. Question is I have never dealt with magnesium before, is it ok to use a paint or aircraft stripper to remove the old paint from the wheels and once there can I simply apply a good primer sealer and paint them? People paint the wheels all the time but usually bead blast them then paint or powder coat however I dont have access to a bead blaster so I was wondering the best way to go about this. Here are links to what they are supposed to look like and what they actually look like. I know that when mag was used in the past it was coated with dow 7 to seal it and them painted however I cannot find any record of gm ever apply that before paint nor can i find anyone applying it now before they prime and paint them.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...s-2000-c5.html
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/100_1726.jpg

[seanross]

is the original coating in good shape under the black? if so the black might just be cheap paint maybe try acetone or gas and see if that eats the black away. it wont even phase the factory coating. if the original coating needs to come off then air craft coating remover should be fine. after all the coating is off hit is with a zinc chromate primer. then urethane primer. then paint! good luck. you can get all this stuff in spray bombs. and with todays spray cans you can do a half decent job. but spray gun is always better.

[unix]

[QUOTE=seanross]paint maybe try gas QUOTE]
You are making a joke, gas ?

And use the words bomb, gas and bomb fit so does flash and fire .

[seanross]

gas is easy to come by and is no more flamable then some reducers out there? and spray bomb you know those little rattle cans you buy at wal mart? haha kind of funny no one posts then when someone trys helping someone out the trolls come out!

[pepi]

Wow gas as a cleaner, hmm not a good idea, you can make any excuse you want. But I will bet you my next pay check and it is a big one that anyone that has messed with cars would call a foul on that bit of advise. It is certainly all good to help, but safety must be considered. Most would ignore that advise to use gas for anything other then driving your car, powering your lawnmower or weed eater. There are young guns on this board, not all age wise some mechanical wise so it is a responsible person that promotes good techniques safely executed.

That other post reads like some sarcasm mixed with word play making the point that gas is not a good paint stripper. You may see a troll I read commonsense.

[seanross]

Ok go spend fourty bucks on urethane grade reducer don't smoke while using and wear nitrile glves and a good mask with proper cartridges you will need a mask for the zn cr primer and urethane especially when sanding

[seanross]

Try gun wash its kind of universal for most paints

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Are you sure the original bronze color isn't powdercoat?
If so, it'll stay on (hopefully) after the black is washed off;
so you might get by with just buffing out the wheels.

I can't understand why anyone would deface those nice
wheels with black paint.

Try the less aggressive stuff first; gun wash, acetone,
laquer thinner, if nothing works then go to aircraft paint stripper.

Once you get the black paint off, wash the wheels thoroughly
with detergent to try to preserve the existing coating.

[seanross]

It doesn't look like they did a good job of painting thm try persure washing the black off if they weren't sanded it might just blast off