New life for old Sawblades!
 

I saw a writeup on another forum about stripping the paint from a set of sawblades so I decided to do it with my spare stockers.

I was amazed at what it did for them! I hit it with the stripper, brushed the gunk off with a nylon bristle brush and water, and this is what I got...

Stock painted left ----------------------------------------------------------------------------Raw stripped right

http://home.comcast.net/~kthaney/fil...blades-002.jpg


it seems the paint is covering up a very nice machined aluminum finish...if you are running stocker sawblades, I highly recommend this simple easy mod.

What stripper did you use? Thats a cool trick. ;)

I bought a can of spray on heavy duty paint stripper (dont remember brand). But it was WAY overkill! It stripped the wheels to bare metal in about 5 minutes. I think you could easily get away with the biodegradable citrus based stuff. or even just the regular duty stripper. and I recommend the spray kind its way easier to work with.


PS, those pictures really dont do the wheels justice...they look better in the sunlight in person.

that makes those old wheels look nice. im not a big fan of those wheels in the firstplace but stripping that paint makes em look alot better.

What about your tires? Did the stipper seem to hurt them at all?

While the can says not to get it on rubber, I didnt bother masking off the tires, but I did try not to get the stuff on the sidewalls. To get the edge of the rim you have to get some on the tires though. I sprayed my first wheel in the evening, and went to do something while it was working....and forgot about it untill the next morning. I saw no I'll effects on the rubber.

So, in short...no, doesnt seem to bother the tires at all.

dude..that is amazing. now alls we have to do is find a shiny center cap or something thatll make em shiny. but seriously good job on the wheels, im going to try it on mine soon.

Well, there are better "chrome look" paints on the market now. One of those that has a 2 or 3 step process should work. Something like a base coat, color coat, clear combination should reproduce the look of the new wheels...I would try to experiment with em but these wheels were on my parts car and Im just gonna sell em soon anyways.

2 things....


1st- could you do this to a 5 spoke supra rim and get the same results? someone should try it.

2nd- after stripping the paint off the sawblades would the aluminum act wierd with nothing protecting it..like corrode or form some stuff on it because of it being bare?
jw..

1st - yes, I can see no reason why not

2nd - no, most aluminum rims have no paint on them, its what allows you to polish them. Only the cheap aluminum rims have a clear coat on them. Its prone to peeling and cracking and yellowing too.

probably you can use a polish like "Mothers" that leave a teflon coating after you polish them, this will prevent any dullness or water marks in the near future....

nice one weezl, i read about this b4 too, but too lazy to do it, but that new look on the rims convinced me handsdown, how many cans did you have to use for all four?

One spray can was just enough. you dont need to slather it on, just get it all coated and let it work its magic.

Yeah I hit the one I pictured with Mothers using a powerball, took less than 10 minutes to polish it to a mirror shine.

thats sweet man.....

aluminum dont rust so just put on somethign to keep em shiny and clean... they look sweet man, i was thinking of having them polished or something just to clean em up but ill just try this

Yah some good car wax and an electric buffer can make aluminum look very nice, And from experience, Yes the wax does stop it from corroding. Although aluminum doesnt rust, it will def oxidize if left totally un protected. They will turn white in spotsand eventually form little white flakes. The best difference is that aluminum oxide actually protects the rest of the metal, whereas iron oxide(typical rust on steel) works like cancer and continues to rust away once it starts.