polishing wheels?
03-04-2011, 09:43 AM
#1
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polishing wheels? I have some silver SS wheels I would like to polish. I searched but didnt really find anything. Any good write ups? I would really like the shiney polished look over the silver painted look.
Thanks for the help in advance!
Thanks for the help in advance!
03-04-2011, 11:02 AM
#2
Are they painted or aluminum? Clearcoat?
If they are bare aluminum get some good polish and prepare to work. I use a SOS pad to clean them, then start polishing with Blingmaster or other watery liquid polish on fine grit scotchbrite pads. Save the worn out feeling pads for final passes as they get more fine as they use them.
Finish with a terry cloth polish or mothers power ball.
Before/after, this was a light polish job. Another 30 min each for a mirror shine:
These are my daily driver wheels, polished on regular basis (aprox 6 months) after nothing but a power ball hit 15 min a wheel:
If they are bare aluminum get some good polish and prepare to work. I use a SOS pad to clean them, then start polishing with Blingmaster or other watery liquid polish on fine grit scotchbrite pads. Save the worn out feeling pads for final passes as they get more fine as they use them.
Finish with a terry cloth polish or mothers power ball.
Before/after, this was a light polish job. Another 30 min each for a mirror shine:
These are my daily driver wheels, polished on regular basis (aprox 6 months) after nothing but a power ball hit 15 min a wheel:
03-05-2011, 01:27 PM
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First you are gonna have to strip the paint off the wheels. You can use airplane stripper found at walmart or autozone. then you will most likely have to wet sand them. start with around 800 to 1000 grit and work your way up to 1500 to 2000 grit. Once you have reached this point grab some type of metal polish like mothers, and some terry cloth rags and start working on the shine. It isn't complicated to polish aluminum it just takes a lot of elbow grease.
03-05-2011, 04:29 PM
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First you are gonna have to strip the paint off the wheels. You can use airplane stripper found at walmart or autozone. then you will most likely have to wet sand them. start with around 800 to 1000 grit and work your way up to 1500 to 2000 grit. Once you have reached this point grab some type of metal polish like mothers, and some terry cloth rags and start working on the shine. It isn't complicated to polish aluminum it just takes a lot of elbow grease.
03-05-2011, 06:02 PM
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It would take a while without a good buffing wheel on a big bench grinder. Ive heard rumors that the 10 spokes have a machined finish under the paint, so to get a true polished finish you would have to sand that smooth. But I will give an ROUGH estimate of 6 - 12 hours per wheel to polish them up without a machine buffer.
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03-07-2011, 12:55 PM
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It would take a while without a good buffing wheel on a big bench grinder. Ive heard rumors that the 10 spokes have a machined finish under the paint, so to get a true polished finish you would have to sand that smooth. But I will give an ROUGH estimate of 6 - 12 hours per wheel to polish them up without a machine buffer.
What steps would I need if I wanted to keep the machined look? Just get all the color off with the stripper and then polish with out sanding?
