Yeah the clear needs to be removed for sure. It depends on the situaition. If the entire wheel is cleared which i am sure it is. you can just mask off the rest of the wheel and use the aircraft remover spray paint remover stuff to eat off the clear coat and rinse it away… but it might get on the rest of the wheels paint too… so it isnt easy.
The other idea i have would mask off the wheel real well and carefully sand blast the clear off… but you would have to be very accurate becasue it would cut through the masking tape too if you shot the tape for more than a few seconds. The greasless compound on a wheel would also cut the clear coat off but again you have to mask it off with some good tape or be accurate with the wheel.
Or strip/media blast the entire wheel and polish the lips and then mask off the lips and repaint the spokes… that would give you the best results.