Polishing wheels with tires on?

[MarckusSB]

I'm currently working on polishing a set of style 5's for my e46 but I have a problem. They're my only set of wheels so I can't disassemble them to do so.

The clear on these are super thick so I was debating on using aircraft stripper, but I'm guessing that this will have an undesired effect if I get it on the tires, so I was going to mask them up with painter's tape and possibly index cards.

I've read through the DIY at the top of this thread but everyone breaks their wheels apart to refinish them and unfortunately I don't have that option. I'm looking for any tips, trick or advice related to doing this WITH THE WHEELS ASSEMBLED.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Randomofodication]

I don't think the masking tape or the cards would hold up very well to the stripper. Can you pop the bead on the tires at all? That would give a little distance between the tires and the lip.

[Beware]

This might sound a bit silly and like quite a bit of extra work, but what about driving around on the spare and refinishing one wheel at a time(tyre off and disassembled)?

[MarckusSB]

I don't think the masking tape or the cards would hold up very well to the stripper. Can you pop the bead on the tires at all? That would give a little distance between the tires and the lip.

Unfortunately I cannot. Then I'd have a stuck car with a flat tire. Lol

Using the spare sounds a little ghetto, but it's a good idea!

[Jamxx]

Someone else needs to chime in here, but since Style 5's are two-piece (lip/barrel and face), can't you just unbolt the face from the barrel/lip and polish that way?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC I saw this done once with Style 5's (maybe LM's).

[Randomofodication]

Someone else needs to chime in here, but since Style 5's are two-piece (lip/barrel and face), can't you just unbolt the face from the barrel/lip and polish that way?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC I saw this done once with Style 5's (maybe LM's).

Yep that could be done, still have the problem of not wrecking the tire howeverz.

[KyleAnderson]

Forget about the tires for a second. How are you going to do any half decent polishing job with the hardware still in?

Look up foil tape for masking the tires. That should be tough enough to stand up to stripper.

[willlarney]

you need to disassemble the wheels if you want to strip those lips of the clear. the hardware is also painted so they'd be toast if you tried to strip the lips. and paint stripper didn't do much to my tire on my spare when i refinished my wheels.

just get everything you need together (stripper, sandpaper, polish) before you start. it took me about 40 hours to sand down my lips before polishing, so plan ahead.

PS: I took some other guy's advice and used Jasco, and it worked wonders on the clear and took it right off in like 15 minutes (each wheel) with some scotch brite pads

[AnchorsAweigh]

Buy some beater wheels on CL, I'm sure you can find some tire rack specials for cheap.

[1badg35]

borrow a set of wheels or buy something cheap to hold you over temporarily. Taking shortcuts and not doing the job right by disassembling and taking the tires off will likely add time, headache, and final product will 100% not be as good...

[clinkoutin]

Look up foil tape for masking the tires. That should be tough enough to stand up to stripper.