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[mifesto]

i bought the style 37 m-parallel's from e38. finish is pretty poor.

my plan is

1.aircraft stripper to remove clear
2.then wetsand the hell out of aluminum, 600/1500/2000 grit
3.polish it with metal compound (then clear)

are these painted from factory or just clear coat over aluminum??

[Emilime75]

I think they came in 2 different finishes, clear over raw aluminum and painted centers with polished/clear coated lips.

Stripping/sanding/polishing the whole wheel will be labor intensive.

[Wolf 335]

Originally Posted by mifesto

i bought the style 37 m-parallel's from e38. finish is pretty poor.

my plan is

1.aircraft stripper to remove clear
2.then wetsand the hell out of aluminum, 600/1500/2000 grit
3.polish it with metal compound (then clear)

are these painted from factory or just clear coat over aluminum??

The originals I seen were painted and clear coated. Best way to confirm is to look at online bmw wheel style catalogue.

Your method will be very very time consuming. If you can, have them sandblasted. This will cut a lot of that manual labor out.

[Emilime75]

Sand blasting leaves a rough finish and makes it more difficult/time consuming to sand and polish. A different media, like soda perhaps, might be better. I'm sure the answer is online, somewhere.

[mifesto]

yeah absolutely no way im sand blasting it lol. i already got my own answers, i stripped the lip portion only and yes e38 m-parallels are not painted (just clear coat). i am not finished but almost done, most of the old beatup clear coat is peeled off.

underneath the clearcoat, the aluminum is in good condition.

(edited: I stand corrected, underneath is powder coated silver from factory. aircraft remover easily broke down the clear coat but powder coat shrugged it off easily.)