Rally Wheel Restoration
Short answer: One member’s assembly-line method for stripping Rally wheels (he’s done 30 at a time):
Wear goggles, long rubber gloves, and an apron throughout — this uses muriatic acid and active paint stripper, both of which burn skin. Drain the cans into proper containers and dispose of them properly.
- Get two plastic garbage cans with a bottom a bit larger than the wheels.
- From a pool-supply store, get industrial-strength muriatic acid; from the hardware store, spray-on paint remover (gets into cracks better than brush-on).
- Stand the wheel in a can and spray front, back, and inner rim with paint remover — the can contains the spray and concentrates the fumes to soften paint (up to 3 wheels at once).
- When the paint bubbles, pressure-wash clean.
- Move to the second “tank” of muriatic acid + water; submerge no more than 2 hours to dissolve rust (heavier rust means a bad wheel anyway).
- Pressure-wash, then mist with OSPHO (or similar etch/rust converter); remove after a few minutes before it dries.
- Blow dry with compressed air — especially the rim-to-center seam, where trapped solution creeps out during painting. Store or paint once fully dry.
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Content last modified: June 13, 2026 at 10:06 am
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