Hi Troops,

I want to remove the lacquer from my 18" M parallels as its going that "milky" way and either just polish the bare alloy or paint with silver paint. Either of these will be better than the way it looks at the mo.

I don't know what to use to get the lacquer off, I'm tempted to use a Nitromors type solution but am kind of scared to.....any suggestions ??

Hi Cambell

I would use wet & dry, maybe starting off with 1200 & getting finer as you go until you leave a finish ready for polishing.

I'm having a go at one of my E36 wheels this week so will let you know how it goes

Nitromors will do the job. Don't try to do too big an area at once - keep to a smallish patch. Also, don't try & scrape too soon. Leave it to do it's work. It takes longer than you'd think.

1200 is quite fine for removing pitting. 800 or even 600 grit might be needed to get the worst out before moving up (down?) to 1200 grit. You can get 1500 or even finer but you may have to get it on the net.

Once you've got all the corrosion off you can get polishing. Haven't tried all the metal polishes out there but Brasso is quite fine & you can get it impregnated into wadding as Duraglit.

Good luck - I have a tatty set of M3 Sunflowers to do!

Andrew Rolland wrote: I thought you had just had them re-furbed?  I'm recalling the piccies you had of the E39 on 4 axle stands.

Dont go there.........They were refurbed last June or July and the finish just hasn't lasted. I'm not too fussed to be honest, I quite fancy the polished alloy look as opposed to the diamond cut "bling bling" look anyway.

Its going to be a wee project for me over the next couple of months. I recon once I get the 1st one done (and make all the mistakes) the rest wont take too long, maybe take a weekend.

So you are diy then?  Tyres on or off?

I need to get my rims re-furbed.  They had been re done at some point but it is flaking off and you can see the original surface which appears to have almost just been painted over!