Painting Stock Rims

[clean2g]

I'm trying to save some money and paint my stock 97 GSX rims but I was wondering if anyone else has painted their stock 97-99 GSX rims. The person that had the car before me trashed one of the rims to the point that the lip, where its like polished aluminum, has been sort of scraped off/into to. Can this be fixed with some light sanding? Someone told me that it was pure aluminum with clear sprayed on it. Anyone have any ideas or advice? I'll try to get a pic up here in a day or so.