For those of you with polished parts such as engine accessories, wheels, and the like what are your techniques and tips as well as equipment and products you use (types of rags, Powerball, polishes, etc)? Pictures are always welcome too.

Just got a set of polished wheels and also plan on some under hood blingage soon, trying to see what products, equipment, and procedures work well for everyone.

 

+1 on tips FTW!!!!

 

I have a porter cable 7424 that keeps my paint pretty much swirl free, it's pretty idiot proof and easy to use, it just takes alot of time to figure out what polishes work the best combined with what pads. Pinnicle (SP?) makes a swirl remover kit that is excellent, comes with the polishing pads and two different poishes (one is coarse and the other fine).

I have polished aluminum wheels which are usually pretty high maintenance. I use metal gloss polish and sealant on them and metal gloss is an excellent product. You can use their polish or mothers polish to get them shiney, but metal gloss has a paste sealant that you rub onto the wheels and it helps prevent oxidation so it'll keep the wheels shiney for about 4 months if your car is protected from the elements.

 

I have way too much polishing crap lol ...

I dont use much of it on wheels though just a couple of items.

For wheels that are not too hazy, I use a powerball and aluminum polish... and then hand polish with simichrome (you can get it from most any knife shop or eastwood.com) then put on Wheel Wax sealer. Although if i had polished wheels on a vehicle driven in the rain much at all, I would invest in zoopseal (also from eastwood.com)

If that shine doesn't do it for me, I have a buffing kit that attaches to a drill from sears. Its a really nice kit... comes with all 4 of the most common rouges used in buffing and a three small drill attachable wheels for like 15 bucks. You do need a nice corded drill though (like a dewalt or something similiar) a cordless isn't going to cut it for long. I also have a wheel buffing kit http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...iProductID=951
from eastwood that attaches to the drill, but they aren't required and cost a little more than you might want to spend if you are just trying this crap out.

You start with a the black emory rouge on the medium sized buffing wheel and go over all of the wheel till the surface looks/feels uniform in texture. Its important to keep moving on the surface and not bare down too hard in any one particular order. AFter that I buff off any remaining compound by hand with a soft cotton cloth.

Then I swap out for the larger buffing wheel and switch to the white rouge compound and repeat the process. Here you will really start to see the shine coming out.

NOTE: Never use more than one type of buffing compound/rouge on the same buffing wheel/flail.

Next I like to hit it with the powerball and polish. This is basically a non abrasive shining polish. Then move onto the hand applied simichrome and then seal it with weal wax.

Thats sort of general overview of the process, but basically you only do as much work as you feel you need. If your wheels are basically new then you only need the powerball. If not, you dont have to do the emory... you can just do the white rouge. If they are in pretty rough looking shape go with the emory. If that doesn't get it smooth enough then look into some sanding compounds from eastwood for more 'umph' and then work your way back up to the less abrasive stuff. Bottom line is you work from most abrasive to less abrasive and only go as abrasive initially as you have to.

here is a good article from eastwood about polishing and buffing: http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...8&iSubCat=1445

 

^^^good tips. If you're starting with crappier pieces that don't shine to begin with then start with sandpaper. It depends on how rough the piece is to start but usually I will clean it up with either 220 or 400 and then 600 will get it smooth enough to bring out the polishing wheels and compounds. Just makes sure you clean off all the grit/dust after you finish sanding.

 

 

Thanks RollTide. I'm mainly concerned with keeping my wheels in decent shape right now but plan other polished items as well.

What about polishes? Mothers, Eagle One, Heavy Metal, what are you guys using?

Definitely plan to try some Zoop Seal as my car is a daily driver as well as Rejex on top of it (similar effects to Zoop Seal just not as durable so I'll have to reapply it more, hoping the combo of Zoop and Rejex makes the polished wheels bearable for daily driving duty).

 

I just sand everything 220, 400, 600, heavy cut wheel black rouge, fine cut wheel white rouge, fine cut green rouge.

left valve cover is 220 grit, right in finished.