Simple way to refinish phone dials?
 

So with the spring it's time to prep the car for another fun driving season. Back in the summer of 2003, I bought the "German wheel refinishing kit" from Griot's Garage for my phone dials. They looked great for several years, but now they really need some love again. I'm set to do them myself (again) so what are some suggestions for refinishing them DIY and with a budget? The first order of business is to get rid of the flaking old paint:

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Three words for ya. . .POWDER COAT.

Oh, and if you don't like those words, I have heard that oven cleaner and elbow grease will take phonies down to the alloy, then you can hand polish them.

Oven cleaner....really? Hmm I might have to try that this weekend. Are you sure its not too harsh for the alloy itself?

The oven cleaner has a caustic component that will slowly remove the anodizing. It won't work on the paint. I would use a paint stripper on the paint. If you are going the polished route, you could try the oven cleaner or bring them to a local anodizer and have them stripped(after paint removal). If you are going to repaint them don't worry about removing the anodize and just respray them

I stripped mine with aircraft stripper until all the paint and primer was gone. I then sanded the wheels with 220 grit progressively to 600 grit until they had a sheen that I liked. They have been fine for the last few years that way. I will hit them with a little sanding when they get scratched up. This is a lot of work, but it is cheap. You can paint them at that point or powdercoat them depending on your budget.
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There is an article on the oven cleaner method here:

Wheel Refinishing

You don't have to do what this guy did by painting your wheels black but he has a pretty good step by step process...
924Board.org :: View topic - Give your wheels a professional looking refinish.

Thanks for the imput, guys. I think I'm going to take the aircraft stripper route. I was thinking of pouring this on my painted center caps as well, since they also could use a refresh. But once I do this, is there an easy way to remove all of the gunk in the little crevices?

WEARING GLOVES, some steel wool and a towel while the aircraft stripper is active.

the gloves is so important!!! i had a hole in one and my skin reacted and it burned like hell for a good 20 mins. after sanding i taped and painted mine black and then used 800 then 2000 grit on the edge to get it to a shine http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1307401455.jpg

Yeah gloves are absolutely paramount for this job. When initially wiping that foamy scum off the wheel I got a spot or two on my arm & it was similar to being stung by a yellow jacket.

My digital camera is at the house so sorry for the lack of pics, but it's REALLY slow going so far on this job. The aircraft stripper took most of the paint off, but there's still lots of primer & crap that is just ON THERE. It's taking several hours of wet sanding and I'm not even close to being done. Good fun..

I use duplicolor paint on mine (3 set phones, 2 set twist wheels) Each has been a learning process. What I found works best is sand paper the clear off down to original color, then use fine steel wool to finish sanding. For color I use hwp101 silver and the high temp engine clear.

I do the inside of wheel first after removing anything stuck there such as road tar and wheel weights. After first coat wipe down inside with cloth to knock down flakes that will leave a rough feeling (I use micro fiber )and apply second coat. When dried wipe again. Then apply clear. If paint feels smooth before clear applying will give a very good indication of how it will be on front.

For the fronts as I mentioned before I do not remove all old paint. I found that if all paint is removed and painted any chip will show more and touch up is difficult to match. If needed the rim may be sanded to metal to reduce flaws (curb rash) If rash is real bad use bondo to fill and sand, if not terrible then paint only beading area first to help fill small scratches, again wipe down when dried. When dried (if satisfied with how lip looks) then time to paint wheel.

For outer rim I spray 3 coat paint with wipe between and 2 coat clear. The main thing to do is lay paint evenly. If too heavy then paint will wrinkle and get progressivley wost with each coat. Each coat will help fill small defects on lip as well as chips that are on rim.

I found that the high temp clear lays a bit better than the wheel clear (not as likely to run) and does not yellow. The first set I did now have a patina that while looks good is defenetly not the silver color that was applied (they are 7 years old) Again the main thing is to lay even coats that have a gloss. When first coat is dry lightly wipe both front and back (as overspray will be there) and do second coat. When finished let wheels set for at least a day for paint to cure (I usually wait 3 days) and then have tires mounted. Hope this helps.

That looks sharp!