I figure this is the best place to post this, just picked up a used set of wheels for my 2003 SS. I prefer the Diamond cut 16" wheels, as these were the ones on my 2002 SS Pace Car before it was totaled. These ones were $50 each at a local salvage yard, they even took the old tires off for me. They need to have the clear coat removed, then I will polish them and clear coat them.
Here's what I'm starting with:



Here is a picture of these wheels from my 2002 Monte Carlo SS Dealer Brochure:


And here is a card from the place I got these wheels, highly recommended if you are in the area.

 

Looks like you have some nice wheels to work with..

 

Looks like a good project. I would use stripper to remove the clear coat, sand the damage area and feather it out then polish using Klasse AIO and lastly apply clear coat.

 

Hi rexdews, I used Aircraft stripper to remove my clearcoat. Then I cleaned it off with some POR-15 marine clean. I started polishing my wheels with a buffing wheel on my drill using 80 grit, 240 grit and 320 grit. After the 320 grit I tried some McGuire polish and their wheel buffing foam polisher. Unfortunately I still see some kind of streaks, looks like some chemical stain almost even though it is buffed to bare metal and polished very smooth. I'm interested in your idea of using the Klasse AIO and saw some reviews of this where it says to use steel woll to apply it. I'm wondering if this would clean out the various streaks, sounds like it might, and worth a try! Also can you paint wheel clearcoat directly over the Klasse AOI or does it need to be cleaned off before painting?

 

Wow! God bless that you are a survivor.
I also have some of these wheels. I used Acetone to remove the clear coat and then I polished the wheels down. I only used 3M pads on mine they weren't that bad. then recleared them and I was good to go.
The Most difficult thing to restore is the center caps. I let them soak for a bit in mineral spirits and that seemed to soften the barnacles that were on them but I didn't let it get into the Plastic on the reverse. then I polished them up and repainted the Red bowties and cleared them. They were a pain.

 

Thanks. Glad you could clean off your center caps. Unfortunately for me mine were too far gone, I soaked them in Wesley's tire cleaner overnight and used a scotchbrite pad to take the barnacles off but they left pits in the metal that were black, So I dont think they are fixable. I bought some ones on ebay that were in much better shape, 3 are good the other one has a bunch of pits but I will try polishing those out, looks like little dents in the cap.

 

Another thing that you could do with the Caps is use a buffer on them.
I got a new one at Harbor Freight a few years ago and it works wonderful. It is bench mounted style.
Caution on the Wesley's Tire cleaner.
(They were bought out by Black Magic) and the stuff no longer works they way it used to.
I quit using it and I grew up with my father using the stuff and it cleaned white walls and black walls and did a great job. The new stuff won't work any more. I found some old stuff on a Garage sale once and it still works.
I am not the only one who noticed this because there is a youtube video on it as well.
Got to find a replacement product for it.

 

Mothers Mag wheel polish works good on my '03 pace car wheels!
once you get them nice!!

 

I have the attached style rims on my 2003 Monte SS. As you can see in the pictures, there is corrosion under the clear coat. The clear coat is peeling off where it is corroded.

Can these style rims be refinished the same way as described in this thread? If not, any suggestions on how to fix these? I would like to try to save them.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

I have same wheels but they are peeling in the back ...wish they were better,I would have used them