Hey everyone.

I'm just writing this because I did not find many clear answers when searching for this topic myself.

I was wondering if Citristrip was effective on powder coat and the answer is - yes it is.

I used the gel.

I tried to strip a Deep V (their rims are powdercoated not just painted with wet paint).

I had to go through two layers of paint, spray paint and powdercoat.

The spraypaint scraped off after just a few minutes of the first application of citristrip.

The powder coat didn't seem affected at all so I was worried.

I read mixed reviews, some saying it kind of worked after a few applications and other saying it didn't work very well.

I don't think I found any on a bicycle rim (seems like most people want to do this to their car wheels).

However, when I woke up in the morning and tried to scrape off the paint, I was pleasantly surprised when it seemed to basically slide off with a little pressure from the scraper.


You have to lay it on thick (slather it on so that you see sloppy globs or a visibly thick orange layer all over the rim) and leave it overnight to let the orange terpenes penetrate.

I used about 1/8 of a quart just for one rim.

In the morning, you should be able to slough off the paint straight to the bare metal with a scraper with little effort.

Make sure you cover every little spot that looks "lightly coated" or not coated at all.

Those small spots will be difficult to take off after you strip most of the rim.


I did this with tires on and it did not damage the rubber in any way.

It's a little "oily" (Anyone that has used any orange based product will know what i'm talking about).

That film is hard to wash off so I would take your brake pads off before doing this, and wash your whole wheel with mild soapy water and allow to dry.
Everything was still dangerously slippy after I was done cleaning the rim.

Again, the trick is to lay it on rather thick and give it a lot of time.


I had a question for the forum as well.

I put some citristrip on my front rim and it didn't affect the paint on it at all.

The braking surface is well worn by this point and has worn off the paint on the braking surface (if there ever was any: I bought the bike used).

It is a generic loose ball crap wheel that comes on most low end completes (when i rebuilt the hub, the alloy cups almost looked like pot metal).

It actually made me scared to ride it seriously.


What else are rims painted with that paint stripper cannot remove (especially that kind of rim)?