A protective clear coating covers the surface of original equipment cast aluminum wheels. A surface degradation develops if frequent automatic car wash cleaning wears off the factory applied protective clear coating. This can happen at some automatic car wash facilities that use aggressive silicon carbide-tipped air brushes to clean whitewalls and tires. Once you damage the protective clear coating, exposure to caustic cleaners and road salt can cause further surface deterioration. The following procedure details how to strip, clean, and re-coat aluminum wheels affected by these conditions:

Important: You do not need to remove the tire from the wheel in order to perform this procedure. If you remove the tire, mark the tire position to the wheel. Use the valve stem as an index. When remounting, return the tire to the original position on the wheel.

1. Mark the wheel and the tire for position on the vehicle. Remove the tire and the wheel.
2. Mark the position of the wheel weights. Remove the wheel weights.
3. Wash the wheel inside and out with a water base, all-purpose cleaner. Remove the grease and oil with a solvent cleaner.

Sand the painted areas that will not require recoloring with 400 grit, wet or dry, in order to promote adhesion of the clear coat.

Mount the wheel on a brake lathe and spin slowly. Sand the wheel with a backing block or a pad. Hold the abrasive flat against the surface of the wheel. Move slowly back and forth from the center to the outer edge of the wheel in order to remove imperfections.

Important: Do not use abrasives coarser than 80 grit.

1. Sand with 80 grit.
2. Sand with 150 grit.
3. Sand with 240 grit.

Do the following clear coat damage repair procedure:

1. Remove the original clear coating.

1.1.	Apply a chemical stripper to the wheel surface. Allow the chemical to penetrate the coating.

1.2.	Remove the stripper. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations.

1.3.	Thoroughly rinse the wheel surface with clean water.

Caution: Use of eye goggles is necessary to prevent personal injury.

2. Remove the surface oxidation.

Caution: Do not use vehicle power to rotate the wheel while sanding to avoid personal injury.

3. Sand the wheel with 240 grit, wet or dry, while rotating the wheel on a slow spinning brake lathe. Or mount the wheel on the vehicle and spin the wheel by hand. This should restore the machined appearance and promote adhesion.
4. Re-coat the wheels.

4.1.	Clean the surface of any contaminants by washing with soap and water.

4.2.	Spray the wheel with Amchem #33, or equivalent. Let this soak 1-3 minutes.

4.3.	Rinse with water and blow dry.

4.4.	Mask the tire off.

4.5.	Finish with Ditzler Delclear™ acrylic urethane and Ditzler Ultra™ urethane additive, or equivalent. Use the following three coats:

•	1st coat -- Light mist coat, let flash

•	2nd coat -- Light, let flash

•	3rd coat -- Heavy, double wet coat

4.6.	Let dry for 24 hours or, if necessary, flash for 30 minutes. Force dry at 140° F for 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before mounting.

4.7.	Rebalance the tire and wheel assembly. Replace the original balance weights with nylon coated weights. Refer to Tire and Wheel Balancing .

4.8.	Mount the weights in the marked positions. Remove the masking from the tire.