These are stock 17 inch wheels and all four are like this. If I remove the center section can I put the wheels in a bead blaster to clean off that mess from the lip? Then what? They have a machine finish but I can't duplicate that. Should I just paint them a bright silver?

 

Why not use a wheel repair shop to fix them? They usually are pretty reasonable and would save you the hassle of dealing with it. Plus, the lip would keep the machine finish over a painted one.

Anyway, just a thought to check out.

 

One place I called quoted me $150 each. I ain't paying $600 for someone to paint the 1 inch lip on the wheels. I'll deal with the hassle and spray it myself to save nearly $600. I doubt most wheel repair shops can redo a machine finish anyway since the wheel has to be machined on a lathe.

 

As long as a shop had a lathe big enough to chuck those wheels, it would be a very quick job to run some scotchbrite by hand along the bad surface to remove the paint and leave the aluminum with a nice machined-like finish.

 

Yes, separating the wheel face from the barrel will allow you to easily clean / media blast the barrel to remove the oxidation.

What finish do you want? Are you wanting the OEM 'brushed' look?
Polishing them would be the simplest, brushed isn't difficult if you obtain the right tools.

That's completely up to you.
A bare metal polish is the easiest to keep clean and touch-up if there's small scratches after the wheel has been reassembled.

- Erik