I have a set of chrome Aspecs as the title says. I want to remove the chrome & have them powdercoated. I've searched around & can't find much about how to remove it besides acid dipping. I know of no shops around my area that offers that, and yes I've googled. Has anyone ever done this? I have a bead/sandblaster but heard that it will pit the aluminum & result in an ugly finish. I'm thinking sanding is going to be my best bet, but wanted some other input before I begin this project..

 

You're having them powder coated by someone right?

Let THEM deal with everything.

A lot of places don't like working over someone else's prep work.
It's like body shops. Lots of places don't like it if you try to do prep work yourself.

 

^^^This^^^ let a wheel shop handle all that man

 

Then that just costs me more money in the end. I'd rather do the prep work myself as I have the right tools & materials do it. I just wanted some opinions on which way sounded the best.

 

Might be worth asking the shop where you're getting them powdercoated what sort of prep they'd do then. Prep them fine for them -> pay less money down the road as you noted.

 

Might be worth asking the shop how much it costs to just powder coat them rather than powdercoat and prep them.

See if the price difference is worth your time.

Then weigh in the factor that they're slightly reluctant on working on the wheels because they wouldn't be able to guarentee the finish and wouldn't be reliable if anything went wrong.
If they don't find your prep work adequate, they'll just have to redo what you did anyway.

 

Will call tomorrow & check the difference. I'll keep this updated with the process. Thanks guys!

 

So, I called and got a quote from the powdercoating place. They source their media blasting out to a place nearby. Gave me a price of $20 a rim. The thing I'm worried the most about is the finish on the rims after blasting. Like I said, I've heard countless times that blasting aluminum alloy wheels can ruin the finish.. I guess I'm going to give a shot & hope my wheels don't look like shit after they get coated.

 

There is some good info here:

Stripping Chrome Plating from Aluminum Alloy Wheels

Looks like you're right to be concerned. This post suggest gradually sanding by hand - have you thought about that? Much more labor intensive, of course. If you sandblast, it seems like using the lightest possible strength.

http://blog.performanceplustire.com/...-alloy-wheels/

 

There is different media that is used for blasting such as plastic, walnut shells, etc. I'm sure if you drop your wheels off at a legitimate shop, and they somehow screw em up, they'd be responsible no?

 

I thought the chrome aspec wheels from Acura were actually just "chrome-like" paint or something like that. In that case the media blast would take care of the paint removal + prep. Or am I wrong somewhere?

 

Well, i have yet to drop them off to get prepped as I've been wanting to gather some more info on this. I just don't want them to look like shit after they powder coat them & then they tell me its not their problem...

 

I have a friend here in town that charges $100 per wheel for powder coating out the door